Our consultation with child care centers, school-age programs and community organizations include the following types of services:

• Child care market research and community feasibility studies
• Management consultation
• Program evaluation
• Budget and subsidy consultation
• Design consultation for new and renovated facilities
• Training programs and workshops
• Equipment selection
• Executive search services

Exemplary Projects:

Child Care Council of Orange County New York
The Child Care Council of Orange County Inc. hired Mills Consulting Group to complete a research study to examine the utilization of child care services within the County. The overarching question in the study was why families were choosing not to enroll their child in regulated child care programs located in the County. The reasoning behind researching this question was that Child Care Council had found that there were many open slots in these regulated care programs, while recently the population of families with young children in the County had grown. We designed a parent survey, which was distributed to a 29% sample of approximately 24,000 families in Orange County with children age 12 and under. Results from the survey were analyzed and a report including key findings was presented to the Council.

Poppins Corporation
The Poppins Corporation, located in Japan, is an early care and learning organization with multiple child care centers sites in Tokyo. Our work with them has centered around the development of an annual child care seminar called a Day of Learning for directors and staff, who travel to the United States to take part in this seminar. We have secured the location, prepared materials and hired guest speakers to provide presentations for two successful years, and are currently in our third year. Presenters have included well-known experts in the early care and child development field, and have presented on topics such as early brain development, the theory of multiple intelligence, and early learning practices.

The Dimock Center
Our work with the Dimock Center, a multi-service center in Roxbury MA began by consulting with them regarding the organizational structure of their Head Start programming services. We helped them to envision a new structure to implement, focusing on linking the children’s and family services components of the program. We then went on to conduct three placement searches to fill newly designed management positions, including a VP of Head Start Programming, Child Services Director and Family Services Director. In addition we provided them with consultation regarding job descriptions for these positions.

Child Care Capital Investment Fund
Mills Consulting Group has enjoyed a long-term relationship with the CCCIF, an organization that helps child care providers in Massachusetts to improve or expand their physical space. Our work together has encompassed a variety of projects. Most recently we completed a feasibility study for the creation of a child care center in a housing development located in Western Massachusetts. This involved exploring the level of need for child care in the area, communicating with several child care programs to investigate their interest in operating a child care program at the site, and working with the housing developer to evaluate the findings.

On a previous project for the CCCIF, Mills Consulting Group was instrumental in assisting with the development of their program titled Building Stronger Centers. This is an intensive training and leadership program for center-based early care and education programs, designed to build capacity through the implementation of facility improvement or expansion projects. The program begins with a week-long, residential training institute in the areas of facilities project development, organizational management, and leadership development, and is followed up with a year of individualized technical support and access to both seed money and project financing.

Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston
We have had a long-term relationship with the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston for over a decade, providing them with consulting and research services in a variety of early care and education areas. This has included consultation services on policies, vision, quality enhancement and the development of strategic goals for their early care and education programs. We have recently worked with them on expansion efforts, and have assisted in the research on space options, budget development, and staffing for new program.