Funding Opportunities

First Steps works to increase parents’ ability to stimulate their child’s intellectual, social and physical development through evidence-based home visitation and parenting programs such as: Parents and Teachers, Parent-Child Home-Program, Early Steps to School Success, and early and family literacy programs.

First Steps assists child care providers to improve program quality by funding targeted upgrades to meet DSS licensing or ABC-enhanced requirements, and to further enhance learning environments for young children.

First Steps provides scholarships to high quality child care programs for eligible families and their children and increases the number of child care slots in South Carolina.

First Steps provides staff development and mentoring to assist providers in meeting DSS training requirements, increasing the knowledge of child care workers and improving the quality of programs offered in participating child care facilities.