What you want to know
You have a passion for caring for those who can’t live independently. Maybe you provided care for loved ones, through in-home health, a senior care facility, a group home for disabled adults, an assisted living facility, or a residential assisted living facility.
Your experience has sparked an interest in opening up your own adult foster care community to make a difference in people’s lives and possibly do it better than others – attempting to meet the highest standards possible.
You want to start an AFC Licensed Home but you wonder, do I have the enough experience; how do I find a property to lease or buy, is it easy to navigate through the licensing process, how do I fill out the application, how do I prepare for the home inspection, how long will it take before I can generate an income, how do I create the required policies and procedures, how do I fill the open beds once the license is granted? These and many more questions may plague your mind.
If you feel excited to get started, but confused, or even overwhelmed with the process, as an adult foster care system specialist, Care Provider Solutions can help. With over 13 years of opening AFC homes in Michigan, we can help save you time to open quicker to cover the investment of opening the home.
We will walk the road alongside you as a mentor, direct you down the correct paths with a structured process, provide the templates you need to open your home, and introduce you to the right people to put all the puzzle pieces together. We help give you the confidence and problem-solving skills necessary to open as quickly as possible so you don’t have to waste time figuring it out on your own. There are many resources online for new owners, but knowing how to use them is a whole different thing. That is where we come in. Schedule a free consult with us to see if opening an AFC home is right for you and how we can help make it a reality.
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Whether you are experienced or new to owning an AFC, our support is for you if…
Meet your ‘New Home’ coach
Nadine Carlson
Co-Founder and Consultant for Care Provider Solutions.
I love to help new owners and operators reduce the stress associated with opening their first, second, or even more Specialized Licensed Adult Foster care homes. I understand it can be overwhelming, especially if you have never owned an AFC before. My combined experience of over 13 years of opening, and running award-winning homes and consulting has given me an in-depth understanding of the challenges associated with opening.
Many owners never realize their dreams because it can seem confusing or difficult. I will use my insights to guide you to open as quickly as possible o you can focus on enriching and enhancing your life, your staff lives and the lives of the residents in your new homes!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t find the answer to your question below, reach out to us and we’ll happily help you find the answer!
Care Provider Solutions “Opening a New Home’ is for those desiring to open or a current AFC Owner, Licensee, Administrator, Licensee Designee wanting to open their first home or multiple homes.
Have you ever said, “I want to run an AFC, but this startup process looks too complicated, I don’t think I have what it takes to work on this”?
Our fee does NOT include this cost. The current application fee for a small group home is $150.
If you’re like most adult foster care home owners, you started your business because you wanted to…
You might not enjoy the paperwork involved…
You might not want to go through the startup process again if you have before…
You think your time would be better spent on other things in starting your home…
You might need to get an income stream started sooner…
The “big dream” feels more like a Big Bureaucratic Burden that keeps you up at night.
How can you start enjoying the fruits of your labor – instead of learning a whole new process for opening – which you might never need again!
That’s what “Opening a new Home” is designed for.
Licensing requires rooms of certain sizes, a certain amount of common space for the residents, proper door knobs, proper smoke detectors, door handle, other safety features, and meeting other environmental requirements.
For a fee of $250, for homes within 60 miles of Grand Rapids, we can assess the property for Licensing compliance and provide recommendations of changes or improvements to pass the licensing inspection. We can also suggest whether the property is a good choice for use.
For locations outside of 60 miles, we can conduct a virtual tour with you and guide you through the steps to make sure the property is a suitable location.
The State of Michigan communicates with the Licensee and Administrator for all correspondence related to opening the home.
Care Provider Solutions provides you the templates and mentorship for you to submit to your Licensing Consultant.
Whether you are new to the adult foster care industry or are an experienced owner/operator, we can help. We know the frustration of not having enough time in a day to get everything done – especially with all the rest of the startup details.
Your time is short and precious. Let us shorten the learning curve so you experience more financial success sooner. For experienced owners/operators, let us save a valuable resource, time, to maximize your financial success. While setting up your new home, we will also find ways to make this new home compatible with the other home or homes you already have. We can then teach you to streamline your systems to save stress and lost income.
Payment #1: is due when you are ready to start working on the steps to complete the licensing application.
Payment #2: is due once the application and policies and procedures are complete and submitted to the State. This occurs approximately 3-4 weeks after the first payment. Once payment is received we will start working on Step #3, the documents required prior to the home inspection.
Payment #3: is due prior to the Licensing inspection of the property. The amount of time varies, on average it is due approximately 3-5 months after the second payment.
You will be part of a group of no more than 4 individuals that are going through the same journey of opening their AFC home. The application and home audit prior to inspection are separate meetings one on one with your organization.
There are a total of 46 community of mental health (CMH) organizations and 20 waiver organizations like Area Agency on Aging and Reliance in Michigan.
We will provide you with the timing, direction, and the no cost Specialized Licensing Application form to submit to the State so you can contract with the various agencies.
We will advise you of the right timing to contact the CMH or waiver organizations BEFORE your doors are open to fill your open beds once you are licensed.
We will provide you with the CMH and waiver agency contacts throughout the State to make the contract managers aware of your pending opening and your desire to contract with their organization.
Although required processes and procedures are similar between the organizations, we do not have a working knowledge of every CMH agency and waiver contracting requirements. In these cases we suggest working directly with the CMH or waiver contract manager to understand their expectations and requirements to contract with their organization. They are usually very helpful with this process.
We understand that generating an income stream through the people you provide care for is mandatory to stay open long term.
We will provide you with a process that includes the suggested timing to bring awareness of your home opening BEFORE your doors are open. We will instruct you on the process to follow, resources and publications to contact in order to fill your beds as quickly as possible.
Ultimately, you and only you are completely responsible for the level of your business success. This includes contracting with agencies and marketing your home to fill your open beds. We will teach you how!
Testimonials
Hear how Care Provider Solutions training impacted partnered residential assisted living homes, relieving their stress.
Looking for more?
Care Provider Solutions offers a variety of courses tailored to the most common pain points of new and experienced AFC owners. Check out these additional courses to help you succeed.
Free downloads and tips to reduce operating stress and increase profitability.
Our free resources vault contains downloads and tips to help you reduce operating stress and increase profitability.