The Family Child Care Program at Fort Bragg is looking for in-home child care providers who live on post. The FCC offers free training, certification and assistance for providers.

“The only providers that can actually be a part of the program are those that live in government owned or leased housing located on the post,” said Evelyn Eggins-Alston, Child and Youth Services program operations specialist for Fort Bragg.

The program offers extended hours — whole day, part day, extended, overnight, weekends and hourly care in a comfortable home setting.

“FCC is an integral part of our childcare system available at all Army garrisons,” said Eggins-Alston. “It provides quality home-based care for children 4 weeks to 12 years of age.”

The program began in the early 1980’s and the certifications are transferable to other installations. It allows flexibility for the parents seeking childcare while alleviating some of the strain on regular Child Developmet Centers, where waiting lists are not uncommon.

Those interested in becoming certified can go into the FCC director’s office located on the 4th floor of the Soldier Support Center on Fort Bragg or call 910-396-3823 for information.

“They’ll have an interview and then will be provided paperwork and a welcome packet,” Eggins-Alston said. “There will be a background check and then will come the training they need. We will make sure their training is maintained and includes CPR, food handling, fire and safety, and more.”

CYS oversees the program, but providers do enjoy some autonomy in how they run their service. The providers are free to choose what age group they are comfortable providing care for, and the limit for children per home depends on the ages in each house. Providers are their own entrepreneurs, but FCC does provide oversight tours and regulatory guidance and conducts four mandatory annual inspections and unannounced monthly visits, Eggins-Alston said. FCC offers subsidies along with some start-up bonuses for interested childcare providers.

After the providers' week-long training and in-home inspections, they will create a contract with the parents on the hours and pay.

In-home providers are independent of the Child Development Centers. “The way they get paid is they make a contract with the parents ... we do have policies they can look at and decide how much they want to charge the parents, then what we will do at CYS, we offer 15% cost savings compared to our school programs for the parents.”

The more qualified providers with the Child Development Associates will be eligible for a one-time $300 starting bonus and an additional monthly $50.

Parents looking for childcare don’t have to live on post to take advantage of the service, but all children in care must be registered. For more information on registering children for care on post visit https://public.militarychildcare.csd.disa.mil/mccu/ui/#/

“There shouldn’t be any children in the home that aren’t registered, because the children in the same house need to have the same immunizations as the other children," Eggins-Alston said.

In-home providers offer flexibility that Child Development Centers, which have set hours, cannot.

“Some parents are dual military or single parents, and they may need longer hours other than what our centers provide so the in-home provider can choose to go longer or more flexible hours,” Eggins-Alston said. “Maybe those that need weekend care, or during deployment, this program is there to pick up the slack where we can’t.”