In the News

Helping Working Families with Flexible Childcare in Kingfield, Maine

CEI’s Child Care Business Lab brings together people passionate about children’s growth and development and supports them in starting licensed childcare businesses. Like Jackie Lobdell’s day care center which provides specific support for children in foster care and offers part-time, flexible child care with early morning hours to support local workers.

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Bilingual Childcare Center Supports Rural Community in Ellsworth, Maine

Through participation in CEI’s Child Care Business Lab, Thania Hernandez hired six staff members at her bilingual, nature-based child care center, Mis Primeros Pasos (My First Steps) in Ellsworth, Maine; providing a safe learning environment for local children and helping parents get back to work.

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Americans need help with child care. One solution is catching on in Maine.

From the outside, the light peeking through a window of the modest one-story home provides the only clue the day has begun at Kingfield Kinder Care. Inside, Jackie Lobdell dotes on the children already in her care.

A Primer for Incubating Child Care Businesses

The need for childcare is well known. So too are the costs of not having childcare. Without access to quality childcare, many parents cannot work full time and become trapped in a cycle of poverty. Shortages in childcare not only limit family income but in some cases, keep parents out of the workforce altogether.

We know what works to help student parents afford childcare – Communities can learn from this Maine program

New, innovative programs succeed because they do two things: listen closely to students’ voices and needs, and partner with broad coalitions. That’s the formula used in Maine as desperately needed childcare centers were added in rural and low-income parts of the state.

Investing in Child Care Entrepreneurs

Helping child care entrepreneurs build businesses to meet market demand is a powerful strategy for revitalizing communities.

Reimagine Rural Podcast: Innovation is part of rural America’s DNA

Thania was immediately faced with a situation that too many workers in rural communities are grappling with: who will provide care for their kids as they work?

Addressing the broken child care system with impact investments

CEI has financed or advised more than 175 child care businesses, which have complex regulatory and licensing requirements and tight profit margins. The organization’s Child Care Business Lab provides child care enterprises with the training, resources and peer support needed to be successful.

Child Care Business Lab offers education and financial assistance

Finding childcare is a continuous problem for parents across the country, including in Maine. It can even be challenging for someone who wants to start their own childcare business.

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Baby steps: Surging need for child care sparks Maine startup boom

“Making sure everything aligns is a little nerve-racking, but you figure it out as you go,” says Wardwell, a recent graduate of a business incubator launched in 2020 by Brunswick-based Coastal Enterprises Inc. known as the Child Care Business Lab.

A day care put this Maine mom on a 3-year waitlist so she started her own

Like many expecting parents, Thania Hernandez was put on a three-year waitlist by a day care. But she wasn’t willing to wait. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, she decided to open her own day care in Ellsworth last October.