Technical Assistance
Lack of experience or technical expertise can be as big a barrier as lack of funding. You may have little or no experience with construction or renovation projects. Your expertise is education, not real estate development.
CIF provides free technical assistance to its borrowers and grantees and will help connect you to experienced architects, engineers and project managers to:
- Assess and select a site
- Define a project scope
- Assemble a development team
- Draft capital and operating budgets
- Finance the project
- Manage construction
CIF offers non-profit ECE and OST providers the skills and resources they need to plan, initiate, and complete successful capital improvement projects to increase program capacity and program quality. Over 25 years, CIF has developed a facilities development model that works for ECE and OST providers. It includes:
1) Training and technical assistance to providers;
2) Planning grants, predevelopment and acquisition financing; and
3) Sustainable public capital financing to help finance renovations and construction of high quality facilities across the state.
For up to 10 hours a day at a center, five days a week, and 50 weeks each year, children may remain within the confines of an early childhood facility. Before the age of five, a child often spends up to 12,500 hours in an early learning center – more time than most adults will have spent in elementary school and high school combined. Here they gain skills, forge relationships and develop attitudes towards learning. These centers must be designed to nurture and develop children in a healthy, stimulating environment.