Child Care
When child care is not available to families, there are wide ranging consequences at both a household and a community level. That’s why NMF is leading and supporting collaborative efforts to find and provide innovative and sustainable solutions to unique child care needs.
Practical solutions
Better lives are built when our children are provided quality care and families can enter the workforce on their terms and not be hindered by the lack of available child care in their community.
Step Up
Offering training and development workshops for Northwest Minnesota child care professionals.
Northwest Minnesota Child Care Collaborative
Providing tools and resources for Northwest Minnesota child care providers.
When children thrive, families and communities thrive
Communities across Northwest Minnesota are experiencing a crisis. Ample quality child care options are not available and the result is impacting families, employers, and communities. Our goal is to develop a child care workforce that not only meets the needs of working parents and communities, but also the needs of developing children.
Improving access to care
We incentivize and support child care providers to improve the quality of their care by providing professional development around social-emotional learning for very young children and promoting the Parent Aware rating system. We assist child care providers and communities with financial and capital needs through flexible lending and grant products and we connect providers with business technical assistance.
Resources for providers
If you are interested in becoming a licensed family child care provider, please refer to this detailed guide, created by the Minnesota Department of Human Services. If you are a parent or a provider interested in innovative solutions to child care, please visit the Bemidji Area Rural Child Care Innovation Program site.
Need funding for your child care program?
Make a donation to our Child Care Recovery Fund
News & Ideas
See how our work to improve child care availability is impacting families.
Grants available to support child care programming in Northwest Minnesota
The Northwest Minnesota Foundation is now accepting applications from agencies and organizations in support of early childhood educational programming.
Step Up Child Care Workshops: ‘You view every tantrum differently’
Park Rapids child care provider reflects on impact of social-emotional learning experiences.
Forgivable child care loan program helps support additional licensed child care in Polk County
When Michelle Broten, a mom of three, moved to Minnesota, she set out to provide child care in her home, as she’d already proven capable and successful with her previous daycare in North Dakota.