Ieasha Benjamin opened Mini Miracles Childcare and Learning Academy in High Point in 2022 after her young daughter got sick at daycare. “I wanted to bring a sense of security to my families, for them to know once your child is enrolled with me, you know they’re safe.”
Benjamin’s background as a nurse helps bring that sense of safety. As a testament to that, the facility has had full enrollment along with a waiting list since it opened.
Offering Services for Different Family Needs
Mini Miracles offers care services for kids from birth to 12 years old from 7:30 a.m. until 11 p.m. to accommodate parents who work second-shift jobs. Along with offering care during the day, it also offers after-school care, summer care, and emergency drop-in care for when parents have somewhere they need to be unexpectedly.
Benjamin also makes sure to have a male staff member so the kids can see what a positive male figure looks like. “We have families that are really, really struggling with single parent homes, you know, so we also have a male staff member that’s there just to allow those young men — because we have a lot of boys — to see a positive male role model, because at home it’s just mom,” she says.
“It’s exciting to know we’ll be able to help a lot more families.”
Mini Miracles owner Ieasha Benjamin
Expanding Care for More Children
Benjamin’s in-home daycare can care for eight children at one time. However, Mini Miracles is soon expanding from a 937-square-foot room in a home-based facility to a new center that’s just under 4,000 square feet. The new location in Greensboro will be able to accommodate up to 93 children. To continue serving children from High Point, a 12-passenger van will transport kids to and from Greensboro. The new location is projected to open in the new year and Benjamin says, “it’s exciting to know we’ll be able to help a lot more families.”
The new facility will have five classrooms, including space for infants, and also offer music therapy and speech therapy. Benjamin says that they wanted to expand, but not too much, so that Mini Miracles can retain a home-based feel for kids who may feel anxious in a big space.
Creating New Jobs
A loan from Bank of Oak Ridge and the Rural Center’s Loan Participation Plan, a State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) program, allowed Benjamin to move her business to its new location. And with more space to fill, Benjamin now also has the opportunity to hire additional staff.
Two new staff members at the center will be parents of children currently attending Mini Miracles who have bachelor’s degrees in education. She says the loan has also given her the ability to build her staff and give people employment opportunities.
“We currently have two staff members now, they were cleaners, and they’ve now gotten some classes to become educators.”
To bring her vision of a new location to life, Benjamin worked with Bank of Oak Ridge Vice President Fred Smith on the loan. Smith says the bank has worked with the Rural Center on several SSCBCI loans, and that doing so “helps us offer more flexible options and get funding where it’s needed — supporting small business owners in our community.” He adds that supporting neighbors is at the heart of everything the bank does, as “helping small businesses is how we strengthen the Triad.”
In Benjamin’s small business, there’s a lot of moving parts, but she tries to think ahead and keep everybody happy — “the kiddos, the mom, the dad, the staff.”
And with a new center on the way, Mini Miracles is ready to keep a whole lot more people happy thanks to Benjamin’s care and attention to what kids need to learn and thrive.