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Building the Early Learning Workforce
We are a relationship-based professional development organization helping people start their own family home child care business.

BUILD

IMAGINE U

Washington State’s largest initiative to increase child care access for Washington families by opening 150 new Early Childhood Education (ECE) businesses annually.

SUSTAIN

SHARED SERVICES HUB

Keeps Washington’s ECE businesses open. Provides early learning entrepreneurs with critical backend business support and reduces isolation through professional learning communities

CONNECT

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Vital to each provider, especially in highly marginalized communities and regions, to be able to seek and access funding, training, and other technology support in their preferred language and in ways that meet their needs.

Over half of Washington State residents live in a child care desert. Child care has a $1.7 billion dollar impact on Washington’s economy and can be the single biggest monthly expense for some families. It exceeds the average cost of in-state college tuition in more than half of states in the U.S. 

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CHILD CARE FACILITIES

The Imagine Institute helped open 600 child care businesses throughout Washington State.

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CHILD CARE PROVIDERS

We provided high quality instruction to 3,198 child care providers throughout Washington State.

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LFCCP

Imagine has provided training to 1,896 licensed family child care providers.

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SUBSTITUTE HOURS

The Imagine Institute has distributed 389,000 hours of substitute relief time since 2017.

How we make things easier

Free services for the early learning community

TRAINING

Professional development courses for licensed family child care providers and family, friends, and neighbors, caring for children. We offer in-person and virtual classes with cash bonuses and STARS hours.

IMAGINE U

Imagine U is a 10-month relationship-based mentorship program designed to create family home child care businesses in Washington State, increasing access .

SUBSTITUTE POOL

The Early Care and Education Substitute Pool is a program designed to provide substitute relief to all licensed facilities in Washington State.

CHILD CARE PROVIDER STORY

We provide Professional Development

See how the Imagine Institute has helped increase child care capacity in the state of Washington through our 10-month relationship-based mentorship program. 

Licensed Family Child Care Providers (LFCCP) Training

We offer a range of courses tailored to family home child care providers. Our curriculum and incentives are reviewed by a team of experienced family child care and center workers to make sure they are relevant and meaningful to our colleagues.

Family, Friends, and Neighbor (FFN) Training

Family, Friends, and Neighbor providers can find exciting, useful courses that offer generous cash incentives.

Substitute Pool Training

The Early Care and Education Substitute Pool is designed to support family child care and child care center providers in their professional development. State funding is currently available for certain allowable activities.

business start up services

Thinking about opening a child care program in Washington State?

The early learning licensing process begins with an online orientation, where the information will be available in two e-learning modules. The orientation modules are available in English, Spanish, and Somali.

Our Growing Partners

Fiscal Year

Impact Report