The childcare landscape can be challenging in New Hampshire. This agency is here to help. 

Whether you’re a parent or provider, navigating New Hampshire’s childcare landscape can be tricky. With hundreds of programs and varying resources, it’s difficult to know where to start as a parent or provider.

To help address those challenges, the state contracts with the Community Action Partnership of Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, which provides statewide child care resource and referral services through Child Care Aware of New Hampshire. Child Care Aware helps families, providers, and programs with various childcare-related issues, such as helping families find a childcare program, assisting with New Hampshire Connections, administering nationally registered early education apprenticeship programs, and more. 

Child Care Aware, which has offices in six communities across the state, also works with its parent agency, Child Care Aware of America, to oversee national surveys and collect state-based data. Every year, they serve more than 500 families and 2,700 childcare workers. 

The agency’s work is entirely federally funded, though it must be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Executive Council before it is received. Last month, the Executive Council approved $3.4 million in federal dollars to fund the agency’s operations through June 2028. 

Dee Dee Thurber, program director for the agency, said the majority of the work with families is in helping them find childcare that fits their needs and in their preferred area. The agency makes a curated list of 5 to 15 program referrals — not recommendations — when families ask for assistance in finding a program that has capacity. They will also help families apply to the state childcare scholarship assistance program. 

The agency also helps families understand New Hampshire’s childcare rules and quality indicators, as well as prepare for what to look for during a facility tour. Thurber said that the agency takes on the research and education work “a lot of families don’t have time to do.” All services are free. 

“It would take them a very long time to pinpoint the childcare centers that are within their search radius. And we actually do that work for them, because we have the ability to use the database and do that,” she said. “We are a resource for them in helping them find childcare and helping them gain more knowledge.” 

Child Care Aware of New Hampshire also aids providers, the term used for childcare directors and teachers, through two main avenues: outreach and technical assistance. 

The agency helps the Department of Health and Human Services and other partners spread the message about their initiatives. Employees conduct campaigns via phone, email, and mail to make sure information is spread to over 700 programs. Recently, the team completed a big “outreach drive,” where they tried to contact all of the state’s programs via phone, email, and mail to make sure they updated their provider profiles on the state-run New Hampshire Connections Information System website.

“We realized that some providers don’t actually know how to get into the system,” Thurber said. “This was a great way to really reach out, and then when they needed help in the system, we can help.” 

Thurber said her team also helps programs with credentialing applications and Granite Steps for Quality, the state’s childcare quality improvement program. 

The agency also provides professional development help, resources, and training, both virtual and in-person. Based on feedback from the childcare community, Child Care Aware of New Hampshire provides curated development training on topics of interest, such as infant and toddler care or family child care. If a program requests specific training, agency specialists can travel to provide it. 

The 14 employees on Thurber’s team have over 400 years of combined experience in the childcare field, a fact Thurber is very proud of. Their experience, she said, makes them properly suited to handle their responsibilities. 

“The nice thing is that we bring lived experience to our jobs, and we also can bring authenticity because what we’re sharing is what we’ve experienced and what we lived,” she said. “We love what we do.” 

Scholarship and apprenticeship programs

Child Care Aware of New Hampshire also manages one national scholarship program and two apprenticeship programs, one registered by the U.S. Department of Labor and the other available to New Hampshire high school students. 

The Teacher Education and Compensation Helps, or TEACH Scholarship, provides money to early childhood educators while they are pursuing their child development associate or associate’s degree in the field. The scholarship covers 85% to 95% of tuition, books, release time (practical work in a program), and a stipend. The scholarship is national, and Child Care Aware administers it as a part of their duties as a resource and referral agency. 

They also run New Hampshire’s Early Childhood Apprenticeship Program. The year-and-a-half-long, U.S. Department of Labor-registered program recruits educators and connects them with a mentor at a childcare program to deliver support and on-the-job learning. 

Nicola Peno, child development director at the Community Action Partnership of Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, said the apprenticeship program gives prospective educators a “guided structure” and “support” as they enter the field, making them more likely to continue once the program’s finished. 

“The apprenticeship program just really structures (students’) knowledge and those practice skills and experiences that they get,” she said. 

The new high school pre-apprenticeship program does the same but for high school students. If they decide to continue in early education upon high school graduation, the program leads into the apprenticeship program or TEACH Scholarship. 

Thurber said the most important service the agency provides is connections. 

“We’re a resource and referral agency, so I really do think that that’s the most important component,” she said.