Child Care Provider Network
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The Child Care Provider Network is a shared-service cooperative for five home-based child care providers in Osceola County, Florida. In order to meet high market demands, members purpose to increase profits for maintaining or expanding independent services by participating in a joint purchasing enterprise, thereby benefiting from economies of scale. Members merge resources and share skills to fulfill responsibilities as co-owners of the enterprise. The Child Care Provider Network will consequently implement a collaborative marketing campaign to establish a collective brand of locally accessible home-based child care.
In addition to participating in cooperative business education and planning sessions, members of the Child Care Provider Network will work with the Osceola Small Business Development Center, to obtain small business counseling and participate in defined business management workshops, increasing professional capacity. Members of the cooperative also benefit directly from alliance with the Osceola Coalition for School Readiness (OCSR) by participating in available early childhood curriculum training and incentive programs to increase service quality and meet industry requirements.The success of this program will be evaluated by determining (a) the acceptance and establishment of a cooperative business model; (b) members' complete participation in defined cooperative education and business meetings to build professional capacity; and (c) how many of the members' independent businesses experience asset building as a result of cooperative membership. (Author abstract)