Making Space for Children: A Toolkit for Starting a Child Care Facilities Fund. Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children.

To address the growing demand for high-quality child care, many communities are seeking to develop specialized child care facilities funds to build new, and improve the quality of existing, child care programs. This toolkit is designed for policymakers, nonprofit leaders, child care providers, and others interested in increasing access to high-quality child care through the development of a child care facilities fund. The kit is organized around six sections. Following an introductory section, Section 2, "Why Start a Child Care Facilities Fund?" presents basic information about how child care facilities funds can help meet the growing demand for high-quality child care. Section 3, "Getting Started," describes some of the initial steps needed, including convening a committee of stakeholders, understanding the facility needs in the community, establishing goals and priorities, and identifying potential partners. Section 4, "Designing Your Facilities Fund: Structure, Funding, Products, and Services," lays out some of the design considerations for starting a child care facilities fund and includes a list of funding sources, information regarding fund administration, eligibility considerations, and what types of expenses should be funded. Section 5, "What Can You Do?" describes some options that stakeholders can use to support, promote, or lead efforts to start up, design, and operate a child care facilities fund, including specific suggestions and examples for government agencies, elected officials, banks, philanthropies, parents, providers, and others. Section 6 provides a list of publications and organizations that may be helpful in starting a facilities fund, including a brief description of facilities funds from around the country. A glossary of child care and facilities financing terms is included. (KB)