A Brunswick nonprofit will receive a $400,000 federal grant that it will use to establish a business incubator in 2020 to help entrepreneurs establish and expand access to child care in rural Maine communities.

Coastal Enterprises Inc. got the grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Community and Economic Development program, according to a news release issued Monday by CEI.

The funds will target child care access in the state’s economically distressed counties where there are a limited number of child care providers.

CEI said the federal funds will be used as loans to support the startup and operation of new child care enterprises. In its first year, CEI’s goal is to launch up to five child care businesses while reserving 40 percent of child care slots for families with low incomes.

“More child care options will enable more parents in rural Maine to work,” CEI President Keith Bisson said in a statement. “Child care entities have long been overlooked as social enterprises, yet they fill an important societal need and they invest in their communities.”

 

 

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