SOUTHEAST REGION
$4.375 million FCLF loan
Financing for acquisition of community facility providing children’s education and other services
"Childcare Resources envisions a community where all children and families benefit from a high-quality learning experience. With the backing and help of Florida Community Loan Fund, we will now be able to accelerate progress toward this aspirational vision and establish an Early Childhood Center of Excellence focused on deepening and strengthening our work here in Indian River County and beyond." – Shannon McGuire Bowman, Executive Director
Over the last 29 years, Childcare Resources has strategically designed and built a model for high-quality early education that has continually evolved to ensure it is positioned as a center of excellence in Indian River County. Their mission is to deliver best practice research-based learning experiences for working, economically challenged families and their young children.
Forty-five percent of families in this area fall into the “ALICE” population – Asset Limited, Income Constrained, and Employed. Often these families do not qualify for state or federally funded childcare programs because their income is over the limit; yet they still have a hard time with day-to-day expenses, including childcare. Childcare Resources is dedicated to helping children from these economically challenged families, as well as families currently experiencing homelessness, with education, wellness screening, and on-site services.
With 168 children benefiting from early education at the Childcare Resources School and contracting centers last year, the organization helped families by subsidizing childcare cost at an average of $13,375 annually. The whole child development model also impacted an additional 3,921 children in the community thanks to outreach services and educational programming.
With financing from Florida Community Loan Fund, Childcare Resources is purchasing a 30,000 square-foot building that will allow the organization to relocate and expand services. Nestled in the heart of downtown Vero Beach, the new campus will provide a meaningful opportunity for fundamental growth through program enhancement and capabilities. The impact of this investment will create an innovative laboratory school of child development with state-of-the-art training, strengthening Childcare Resources’ impact as a model of high-quality educational practice.
Additional impact includes:
- Expansion into kindergarten, offering an extra year of one-on-one dedicated care for children by following a model by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
- Enrich the Outreach Program with more on-site training for early educators, collaboration opportunities, and additional workshop space.
- Expand the Wellness and Early Intervention Program by giving access to additional children and families within the community.
- Create an open concert dual-purpose space for parent/teacher conferences as well as community meetings, a community boardroom with the latest technology for in-person and virtual meetings, dedicated coworking space for collaborating partners.
- A centralized location with ample space to provide age-appropriate playgrounds and a learning garden.
Childcare Resources is not just building a school. They are building a campus hub that will revitalize the community by establishing a formal professional development incubator where teachers, educational leaders and strategic thought partners in the early learning sector can gather to support the development and capacity of other community-based organizations, coalitions, and networks needed to build resilience in the months and years to come.
This new building will help the organization reach its vision: “for all children and their families, from Childcare Resources to the community at large, to benefit from a high-quality learning experience.”
Pictured above and below: The buildings that will be the new campus for Childcare Resources • Students enjoying a variety of classroom activities • Local early educators attending a professional development workshop • A student receiving a hearing assessment through the Wellness and Early Intervention Program (R)
