The National Economic Development & Law Center (NEDLC) is a multi-disciplinary legal and planning resource center whose mission is to contribute to the abilities of low-income persons and communities to realize their full potential. We do this by collaborating with community organizations to develop integrated community building skills, local leadership, and creative solutions aimed at building local capacities to achieve economic, social, cultural and human development. Founded in 1969, NEDLC is based in Oakland, and specializes in community economic development work throughout the United States.

The purpose of NEDLC’s Child Care Program is to increase the availability, sustainability, and quality of child care across the country. This goal is based on the belief that creating access to affordable, quality child care is a key strategy in building sustainable local economies. The organization’s Child Care Program is comprised of three main projects:

• Child Care Economic Impact Reports (CCEIRs) that measure the degree to which the child care sector is a fundamental social and economic infrastructure, critical to a state and community’s overall economic vitality and quality of life.

• Local Investment in Child Care (LINCC) Project, designed to increase the capacity of local child care leaders to take on economic development issues, to investigate and analyze the gaps in facilities and business development, and to build partnerships with the community economic development and financial fields to address those gaps.

• Building Child Care (BCC) Project, which provides a centralized clearinghouse of information and services designed to improve and increase child care providers’ access to financial resources for facilities development projects throughout California.