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Fund Supports Creation Of Child Care Centers

The Vermont Community Loan Fund, or VCLF, has loaned over $7 million to more than one hundred child care programs throughout Vermont in the last 13 years.

A recent study shows a direct coloration between V-C-L-F funding and improvements in child care quality.

Bolstered by the results of that study, V-C-L-F is launching a new initiative. The Next Generation Fund will finance projects such as the creation of new child care centers, expanding existing centers, and making program quality improvements.

 

Hope Campbell is V-C-L-F’s Director of Child Care Programs. She says the new loan fund will offer lower rates to borrowing child care providers.

 

(Bite-0704ya 33630) We’re hoping to get low interest money so we can actually lend out at lower rates to child care facilities throughout the state.

 

(Host) Campbell says the lower rates are important because child care facilities are market-driven businesses. However, she says, the market can’t really afford what it costs to provide the service.

 

She says the low-interest loans will enable a higher cash-flow, helping child care providers keep their rates down for Vermont’s working families.

 

Tracy Patnoe (PAT-no), director of Mud City Kids in Morrisville says without V-C-L-F, she wouldn’t have been able to make the leap from providing home-based care for six children to opening a child care center.

 

(Bite-0704yb 33631) The Community Loan Fund made it possible for us to open the licensed center. I was a registered home provider for 7 ½ years prior to opening the center.

 

(Host) Patnoe says her program now has 56 kids and 16 staff members. In addition to two loans, V-C-L-T also provided Patnoe with training on how to run a business.

 

So far V-C-L-F has made a $250-thousand dollar equity investment in the new fund.

 

Amy is an award winning journalist who has worked in print and radio in Vermont since 1991. Her first job in professional radio was at WVMX in Stowe, where she worked as News Director and co-host of The Morning Show. She was a VPR contributor from 2006 to 2020.
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