Interested in opening your own child care business? Come to the last free information session on Thursday, Feb. 15 to learn how to set yourself up for success! The event begins at 11 a.m. at Sweet Aroma Café, 2870 NYS Rte. 49, Central Square.

A partnership of Central New York business, education and support agencies is offering a free program to help people become certified in-home child care providers. Participants will receive training in business and education to prepare and enable them to provide high quality child care. They will also get support with state registration and licensing processes.

The home-based child care business program is provided by Oswego County, Integrated Community Planning of Oswego County, Inc. (IPOC), Small Business Development Center, Jefferson Community College and Oswego County Workforce New York (OCWNY).

Jefferson Community College provides virtual workshops to help participants evaluate their ideas and make decisions about how to best plan their programs and daily routines. They will also review behavior management and discipline policies. All of these components will help participants personalize the Family Policy Handbook to meet the needs of their individual business.

In addition, the Small Business Development Center offers five virtual workshops covering business basics, marketing, liability and insurance, accounting and entrepreneurship.

The Child Care & Development Council of Oswego County, part of ICPOC, will help with the New York State Child Care registration process as well as provide assistance with regulations and licensing.

For more information or to register for an information session, contact Erica DeLong at 315-343-2344 ext. 110 or edelong@icpoc.org or complete a registration on Google docs at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScI93la3HPIPIX_n8ousWYD2_V3bnChAelNWQ0ATnIAU3bqdg/viewform?usp=sf_link.