YWCA Childcare Business Incubator Sees Early Success » CBIA

When New Britain resident Johnika Webster arrives at her childcare center each morning, she’s not the only one walking into the building. 

Webster walks down a hallway, past three other doors, with three other women operating their own childcare businesses. 

Her business, Kinder Care, is part of the YWCA of New Britain’s childcare business incubator. 

“At 6:30 am I can see that community happening,” program coordinator Nicole Villanueva said.

“When they come here, we all meet in the hallway or meet in the lobby, talk about concerns, about strategies and all of those types of things.”

The new business model that supports working families in New Britain and entrepreneurs is the result of years of advocacy work and collaboration.

Housing, Affordability

“We’ve always had a shortage of infant toddler care in New Britain, and we just have not been able to get on top of it and resolve the issue, YWCA CEO Tracey Madden-Hennessey said.

Housing and access to capital have been the greatest barriers for people looking to open daycare centers. 

If the YWCA could provide the space for daycares to operate, Madden-Hennessey and her team thought that could solve some of the problems. 

But as of 2018, Connecticut’s licensing didn’t allow that model. 

That changed in 2021, when lawmakers passed a bill for a pilot program allowing seven communities to open childcare business incubator centers to train, educate, and certify aspiring educators, who could then staff existing centers and open new facilities.

In 2024 lawmakers expanded the scope of the bill to allow licensing for childcare business incubator centers in 20 additional towns throughout the state.

The YWCA opened its first childcare business incubator in the fall.

Program Model 

Over a five-month period, the YWCA organized training for 10 women for approximately eight hours a week. 

“We developed a curriculum that covered the business and financial literacy and early childhood topics, and licensing aspects,” Villanueva said. 

The Women’s Business Development Council helped run financial literacy courses to teach entrepreneurs about operating a business. 

“I’ve always wanted to open a daycare, and I wasn’t really sure which way to go,” Webster said. 

“What a lot of us found really beneficial was the financial piece of it, because we don’t get a direct paycheck anymore. Now, our business success is based on our ability to be successful.”

The YWCA interviewed the women who completed the courses, offering four the opportunity to open their business inside the New Britain Housing Authority’s Center for Excellence building.

“Owning a daycare, everything is left up to you to kind of figure out curriculum, funding, and the incubator program just provided an opportunity, a path,” Webster said.

Independent Businesses 

Madden-Hennessey said the incubator is at the core of the YWCA’s mission to give New Britain women and families economic empowerment and opportunities.

The classrooms inside the Center for Excellence are outfitted completely as independent childcare businesses with their own LLCs. 

“They’re all operating independently with a goal that in three years time, they’ll be able to spin off into a community space that will be theirs and operate independently outside of this space so we can do this all over again,” Madden-Hennessey said. 

During the first year, the YWCA is covering their rent for the space. 

With profit margins so small in the first year, Madden-Hennessey said they wanted to give the women the chance to get on their feet. 

After the first year, incubator leaders will look at annual income and a percentage of gross annual income will go to the YWCA. 

Half of that will go into a forced savings account to help the business owners accumulate the capital they need to go independent when they are ready.

Partnerships

Getting the program up and running stemmed from the success of many collaborations. 

The YWCA leveraged its resources and relationships with the city of New Britain for funding and its housing authority to get the space, the Women’s Business Development Council for educational support and grants, and multiple other private funders.

“Whether it’s a very large geographical area or a small town, you can do it. It just needs partnerships, and I think businesses are also a critical partner to that,” Madden-Hennessey said. 

Thanks to the partnerships and success of the program thus far, more than one dozen children are being served, and the women who are operating the businesses can work on their long-term plans. 

“I actually want to open up a center, that’s my goal. And I want to open up a couple,” Webster said.

“The incubator program gave us the fundamentals to start, and they’re going to continue to support us. So I feel like it’s doable.”