Getting Started - Identifying Your Project
What is the scope of the Project?
At the beginning of your project, you will likely have an idea of its scope. For example:
- You may already know the need for a particular type of child care, or ages to be served
- You may have secured a building, which determines the maximum number of children to be served, based on regulatory requirements
- You may be involved in developing a new facility where the need is unknown
- You may have been invited to participate in the development of a new facility by a local school principal.
What construction or renovation will be required?
- Minor modifications to a school classroom for before and after-school care
- Expanding or renovating an existing child care program
- Renovating an existing building for use as an ELCC program
- New construction for ELCC in a multi-use building
- A modular building in a residential community
Which programs will be included?
- A stand-alone centre-based full-day child care facility
- A stand-alone child care facility that offers full- and part-day programs and other services, such as parent-child drop-in programs, family child care and parenting programs
- A child care centre that is housed with other child-serving programs which operate separately such as recreation, school and programs
- A seamless, integrated program, that combines a number of programs into one, such as kindergarten, child care and parenting supports
Who will operate the program?
- A new board of directors
- An existing non-profit group
- A new partnership between a number of organizations
- A school board or local municipality
How will you determine the philosophy, the pedagogy and the curriculum?
- Consult experts
- Get everyone to read and review other program philosophies and models
- Depend on your licensing official
- Depend on your highly-trained Executive Director
Your project may be already well defined, or you may be setting out to determine unmet demand before deciding what your program will look like, who it will serve and the type of building in which it will be housed. The more you can define your project at the beginning, the easier it will be to gather the appropriate information and requirements before you start the planning process.