Child Care Partnership Grants (CCPG) support local communities to expand access to affordable, high-quality child care, especially for underserved and historically marginalized communities. Through strategic planning and innovative solutions, these efforts have led to the development of plans for of over 2,000 slots, enhancing child care access for families across Washington State and ensuring sustainable community-driven solutions.
CCPG funding
Learn more about what opportunities are current available to support expanding access to child care.
CCPG partnerships
CCPG projects span the state and support activities such as:
- Developing community engagement and outreach materials.
- Coordinating community coalitions to gather input for a strategic plan to address the shortage of providers or available slots in a community.
- Assessing the local conditions contributing to the lack of affordable child care and barriers to reaching historically marginalized and underserved families.
- Developing strategies to address early learning workforce development in rural communities.
- Conducting funding and feasibility assessments.
- Curriculum development to ensure an inclusive and safe space for children with disabilities.
- Designing and launching innovative and sustainable solutions that prepare for capital projects or increase the capacity of providers.
- 27 unique community projects, representing 30+ counties
- Over 2,000 licensed child care slots are planned or open for enrollment with current CCPG contracts.
- 11 languages presented in outreach and technical assistance efforts
- Somali, Amharic, Dari, Spanish, Mixteco (Mixteco Bajo and Mixteco Alto), French, Russian, Punjabi, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and Arabic.
- 3 in-language technical assistance programs created.
For a full list of current and historic CCPG funding partnerships, please view the CCPG grantees (PDF) document.
“Our CCPG grant project is advancing equity in the community by providing tailored support and resources for aspiring childcare providers, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds. Through outreach, technical assistance, and structured training cohorts, we’re addressing barriers like language, access to capital, and educational opportunities that often limit economic growth within these groups. By offering financial resources, connections to local institutions like Big Bend Community College, and partnerships with organizations such as DCYF, we’re empowering participants to establish sustainable childcare businesses. This initiative is creating pathways to economic stability and expanding childcare access, both of which strengthen community resilience and inclusivity.”
Manuel Bonilla of Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship, on providing no-cost Spanish-language startup business training and ongoing one-on-one technical assistance to help people start and operate new homebased childcare businesses in Othello, Washington.
“Through this work, we were able to secure $850,000 in funding for the renovation of our site. The needs assessment conducted has provided a critical foundation for this, highlighting key areas of focus for our community. This assessment served as the catalyst for the decision to undertake significant renovations of our site to better meet community needs.”
Yusuf Amend of Kwanza Preparatory School on the success of their CCPG funded needs assessment for South King County.
“Everything we do to increase the accessibility of child care will help to advance equity in our community. Our workforce development efforts will be focused on expanding representation of historically marginalized populations in the child care workforce that will also increase the availability of culturally specific/relevant care.”
Wendy Bart of Olympic Peninsula YMCA, on the development of a workforce development plan for Clallam and Jefferson Counties.
“The [CCPG] grant allowed me to create the outline of the program with engagement of the community to secure their input on the Black American-centered curriculum. When the project is complete, we will provide 170 new childcare spots with 40 of those being extended hours spots.”
Kerra Bower of Raze Development Inc., on designing a new 170 slot non-profit child care center in Spokane, Washington.
“CCPG played a critical role in leverage the work we were able to do… including the feasibility study and interviewing residents in south Seattle – asking them ‘What do you want? What do you need? … Funders want to know how the voices of the people have been centered in the project – CCPG allowed us the time to do just that.”
Ashleigh Shoecraft of Empowering Youth and Families Outreach (EYFO) on designing a new child care center creating 110 new slots in south Seattle, Washington.
“The CCPG program funding allowed our small rural hospital the staff time to develop partnerships and hire experts to help us develop a plan for child care for our community and workforce. We would not have been successful with further funding requests without that baseline data we gathered with the CCPG funding. Thank you!”
Dr. Molly Parker of Jefferson Healthcare on designing a new 42 slot child care facility on the Olympic Peninsula, Jefferson County.
Resources
When is the next Child Care Partnership Grant funding cycle?
The next CCPG funding cycle is anticipated to open in late February.
What other Commerce resources are available for child care providers?
The Commerce Early Learning Facilities (ELF) Program is anticipated to open for applications in 2025. There are loans available through the Washington Early Learning Loan (WELL) Fund.
If you are seeking additional resource navigation support, please click here to find the Commerce Community Engagement Specialist serving your region.