The Learning Lamp initiating mini-grant programs

CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa (WTAJ)—The Learning Lamp is taking the lead in trying to resolve the childcare industry through its three-year plan.

One part of that program is its mini-grants system. The mini-grants program is designed for home-based family child care providers. The goal is to help them start their business or expand.

This program came up from a recent survey reporting that there are over 35,500 children waitlisted for childcare. That is a nine percent increase from the same survey done ten months ago. The main reason for the increase comes from staffing shortages.

The Learning Lamp knows that in rural areas is difficult to find child care. That’s why their grant-funded initiative, “Child Care Works for the Southern Alleghenies,” aims to increase the supply.

“What we do hope is that those mini-grants may be able to provide a bridge for a home-based provider to start, to stay in business, and to expand or offer childcare to families in need,” The Learning Lamp’s Director of Community Outreach Lisa Stofko said.

The Learning Lamp is awarding $20,000 in grants to twenty family-based childcare providers. These providers have to be in Cambria, Blair, Bedford, Somerset, Fayette, and Westmoreland counties.

Each provider will receive a thousand dollars. Stofko said a thousand dollars could buy toys, learning materials, and manipulatives.

Michele Little has run her service Little Day Care in Cambria County for 26 years. She received the grant to help her expand her staff and take more children. The grant also allows her to spread out her time and accommodate her parents.

“My thousand dollars was used to help take on extra staffing with the ratios to be able to provide parents with more time here for their summer schedule with the kids being off from school,” Little said.

The Learning Lamp said childcare centers outnumber family-based services 3 to 1. In 2019, nearly 5,200,000 providers cared for children under age 13 in their homes, according to the National Survey of Early Care and Education.

The Learning Lamp said the program would also provide resources on entrepreneurship and childcare techniques. Stofko said it’s a community effort to combat the issue and make childcare available.

“It’s going to be solved by different approaches that take into consideration the needs of families,” Stofko said. “The needs of children. The needs of the community. The needs of businesses. All those things have to work together.”

Little likes family-based childcare because of the intimacy. She loves to have her one-on-one interaction with the 17 children enrolled.

Her advice to anyone looking to start their program is to start small. That means having only six children before going up over ten. She also encourages those to take advantage of the grants.

“I do have a waiting list. People call quite often, looking for spaces, and they can’t find them, especially for summer,” Little said. “That thousand dollars was great. It allowed me to keep on children and take on children that I probably wouldn’t have without the money.”

The Learning Lamp is expected to have the grants awarded by Fall 2025. For more information about how you can become involved in increasing child care supply in your community as a home-based provider, call Connie Cameron at 814-262-0732 x228 or email ccameron@thelearninglamp.org.