Child Care Community Development Team

The Child Care Community Development team is available to help you with your child care projects through all stages of development from conception onwards and answer your questions, from what tools are available to operating models. Learn more about the team, the services they provide and how they can help with your community child care projects and equitable child care expansions.

On this page

• About the Child Care Community Development team
• Capital and project development
• Operational and workforce planning
• Operating Model Toolkit
• Workforce Development Toolkit

About the Child Care Community Development Team

The Child Care Community Development team focuses on strategic expansion and equitable access to child care in all regions of the province and is available to support public and non-profit organizations, including Indigenous organizations and First Nations governments. This includes input on project concept development, identifying potential partnerships, considering viable operational models and workforce development.

For guidance on your child care projects, please contact the Child Care Community Development team. 

Capital and project development

Design plays an important role in providing a child care centre that is welcoming, inclusive, safe, enriching and joyful for children, families, caregivers and early learning professionals. Thoughtful and quality design enables learning, play and building social, emotional, cognitive and physical skills essential to a child's healthy development. A well-designed centre can also support recruitment and retention of early childhood professionals.

The Child Care Community Development team can help you understand the Design Guidelines for Child Care Centres, an optional guide for child care space creation projects, to achieve consistent, quality and functional child care centre design that is safe, accessible and promotes the health and well-being of children, educators and families. 

School districts with questions about expanding child care on school grounds capital project support can contact their Regional Director and Planning Officer team and the Child Care Development team for help with public and non-profit operational models or workforce development. 

Funding for your project could come from a variety of sources. We can help connect you with information about operating and capital funding options available.

Operational and workforce planning

The Child Care Community Development team can help you with operational and workforce planning. Connecting with the team early on will help ensure you are on the right path to have qualified early learning professionals and staff to run your centre, as well as planning an operating model that supports the community’s needs.

Toolkits have also been developed to support both new and existing organizations in starting and running child care centres. The Workforce Development Toolkit offers practical strategies, tools and resources to help operators build strong sustainable teams. The Operating Model Toolkit provides a framework and best practices for budget and planning child care programs. 

Improving access to child care for B.C. families requires long-term, sustainable growth along with growth in the early childhood educator workforce’s capacity to provide these important services.  

Learn more about how government is taking action to recruit and retain early childhood professionals and lift up the child care sector. on

• Support for Early Childhood Professionals