'The Nurturing Center's goal is to ensure that children are treated with respect and live in safety with secure, healthy relationships.'

Early Childhood Professional Development

The foundation of child care and education is professional development.  The amount of training an early care educator has directly impacts the quality of child care they can provide.

The Nurturing Center offers a variety of opportunties for professional development to child care providers in our region. Click on the Professional Development link below to see current offerings. All classes that we offer meet the Montana Early Childhood Project guidelines as approved training.  Montana requires a minimum of 8 training hours per year in order to  maintain a child care provider registration or license.

Along with child care provider classes, we offer the Bringing Early Success Training (B.E.S.T.) program for ‘new to the business’ child care providers. B.E.S.T. is a mentoring program that offers new child care providers the support  they need to thrive while experiencing the overwhelming demands of their new business. Training & Technical Assistance is available for child care providers who need one-on-one support for specific needs.

We have a lending library of books, videos, and curriculum for child care providers to borrow. We also have a fabulous collection of themed activity boxes available for providers to borrow to enhance specific units they may be doing with children. Click here to see available boxes.

The Nurturing Center’s Child Care Provider Services is here to help interested people in becoming registered or licensed early care educators and help the achieve the highest level of quality care for the children they care for. Contact Sherrie Smith at 756-1414 or sherrie@nurturingcenter.org for more information about the process and benefits of becoming an in-home child care provider.

To learn more about training requirements for Montana early care educators and upcoming approved trainings for all regions, visit the Montana Early Childhood Project (ECP) website at www.mtecp.org. Montana Early Childhood Project is housed at the University of Montana and partners with Montana's Early Childhood Services Bureau, Montana Resource & Referral Network and all others who are committed to bringing the highest quality, consistent early care and education to all of Montana's children.

Professional Development

Click here for information about our professional development offerings.

Child and Adult Care Food Program

Nutrition education and reimbursement program that supports registered Early Care Educators serve nutritionally appropriate meals and snacks to the children in their care.

Mini Grant Applications

Mini Grants are complete for this year. Look for information after

October 1, 2010 for the upcoming year.

Newsletter

The Nurturing Center publishes a quarterly Early Care & Education Newsletter. Click here to view the most recent newsletter.

Provider Rates

Provider Rates September 1, 2009