January 3, 2006 — Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation (WNDC) of Rhode Island’s innovative in-home child-care business initiative was featured in a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston publication, Communities and Banking [Read the story, PDF, 166 KB]. WNDC is a member of the NeighborWorks® network of more than 240 community development organizations around the country.

With the help of NeighborWorks and other partners, WNDC created four day-care centers as part of a larger initiative to revitalize a declining Woonsocket neighborhood. This Blackstone River town suffered numerous setbacks in the early 1990s, including a recession and the departure of mill business and a major credit union, resulting in massive housing abandonment. Using grants and loans, WNDC bought and kept a close eye on unwanted neighborhood property.

In 2002, WNDC decided to add in-home child-care units to an affordable housing project that was already in progress. WNDC executive director Joe Garlick said he believes child-care units had never been added to an affordable housing project before. By providing a way for renters to start their own in-home child-care businesses, the city’s shortage of child-care facilities would be alleviated and more opportunities would be created for very low-income people to earn income and obtain health insurance. NeighborWorks and the Rhode Island Housing Resources Commission, through its Building Better Communities program, provided the funding to complete the child-care units.