MOLINE, ILLINOIS (June 28, 2023) — When Eve Minor had her first child, she faced a challenge familiar to parents all across the Quad Cities region and beyond: How could she juggle working full-time and raising her young family, especially in an area with limited options for affordable child-care? She decided to offer child-care services out of her home, allowing her to stay with her own child while earning an income and supporting other parents up against the same dilemma.
“It’s a struggle out there for parents — I hear it all the time,” said Minor, who has kept her home child-care business in Silvis, Illinois, steady for nearly two decades now. For the last twelve of those years, she has been a member of SAL Community Services’ Home Child Care Network (HCCN), which supports the success of home-based early-care and education providers and helps parents find options for child-care in licensed home settings. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for them,” Minor said.
SAL’s program opens up new opportunities for entrepreneurship in what is sometimes described as a “day-care desert.” Completely free of charge, the program provides everything from curriculum resources, child-care supplies, and ongoing trainings to individualized consultation, administrative support, and grant-writing assistance, helping home providers like Minor offer early care and education to children and families as well as grow their businesses.
“Licensed family child-care offers a great alternative to child-care for providers and for families,” said Malia Owens, the program’s director. With approximately seventy homes currently in the network, the program has served the Quad Cities for 25 years and Peoria for thirteen years. “We work hands-on, face-to-face, to provide everything home child-care business-owners need to get started, grow, and succeed — and to help meet the needs of our region’s families so they can raise children who will thrive.”
While only licensed home providers in good standing with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services can participate in the program, SAL also assists unlicensed providers with licensing paperwork. While a degree in early child-care and education is not required to become a licensed family child-care provider, ExceleRate, the Illinois quality rating system for licensed early-childhood programs, does require advanced training and education to move up in quality rating. SAL can work with and help get providers in the network connected to resources to advance their education if the provider wishes to move up in the quality rating system.
For Minor, taking that step and joining SAL’s HCCN program has been invaluable for her sustainability and growth in the profession. She explained that one of the most important advantages of the network is the chance to be part of a bigger team. “You never feel alone, and there are always people at SAL or in the network you can go to with any questions,” she said. “Some might worry that if you join a program like this, they’re going to be watching over your shoulder, but they’re not there to be nit-picky — they’re truly there to help you.”
As a participating provider in the HCCN, SAL processes the Child Care Assistance Program funding for income-eligible families in Illinois. This guarantees payment to the child care provider on the Fifteenth of each month. Additional incentive reimbursement rates are available for providers offering second- and third-shift care, weekend care, and caring for children with special needs. Because membership in the network and all the benefits that come with it are free, providers can focus on their goals without financial risk.
Families also enjoy special advantages of working with providers in the network. They also get the flexibility of a smaller and more personal setting, non-traditional hours, locations closer to work or home, and the option of keeping siblings together. In addition, parents have the opportunity to use any of the other providers in the network for back-up care at no extra cost if their primary provider closes for vacation or due to illness.
At the same time, they can tap into SAL’s comprehensive services and resources. For example, Minor once received a phone call after midnight from a family who had just experienced a house fire. She put them in touch with SAL staff, who connected them to the Red Cross and helped set them up in a hotel while they regained stability.
“They’re always available and accessible,” Minor said. “Just the other day, I called SAL and asked if they could get me some toys for a one-year-old, and within thirty minutes, I had a coordinator here with a bunch of stuff. That’s how they do things — they come over, talk with us, talk to the kids. They’ll do story time with you. They’re just awesome.”
About SAL Community Services
At SAL Community Services, we provide Support, Advocacy, and Learning in our communities — from childhood to adulthood. Our mission is to strengthen children, families, and individuals to build and enhance thriving communities. Founded in 1970, we have a history of listening to the needs of our community and responding. We have grown from an organization focused on providing quality child-care to low-income working families to one that meets a wide variety of needs from early-care and education to crisis-assistance and stabilization services. Today, SAL has a bi-state seventeen-county regional footprint from the Quad Cities to the Peoria area. We advocate with and for the people we support, the communities we serve, and the solutions we champion, and we offer an inclusive, welcoming community for the people we serve — and our employees.
