The chamber plays a critical role in awareness building, convening leaders and facilitating conversations within the business community, especially when it comes to engaging in the child care conversation. Have your members indicated that child care availability is impacting employee recruitment and retention?
What can we do to help?
Facilitate Local Conversations
Bring together local business owners, HR directors, city officials, decisionmakers, child care providers, parents, etc. to talk about what is going right, what needs improvement and where additional assistance is needed for child care in your community. Every community’s needs are different, and by bringing people together you’ll begin to uncover what will work best locally.
Educate: Child Care is Economic Development
The decision to find care for young children and work outside the home doesn’t just affect families. It also impacts businesses and communities. Once people realize the economic impact it may have on them, their community or business, they can better understand the child care shortage and be part of the solution.
Connect to Resources
Connect providers with resources to help them begin the process of opening, sustaining or expanding their child care business. Other stakeholders such as community organizations, faith-based organizations, employers or community members may also have interests in learning about their role in the conversation; offer to help connect all types of requests to the appropriate resource.
Public Awareness
Storytelling is a great way to share information and help people understand this critical issue. Child care providers, parents, employers and many others all have their own unique stories to tell about their experiences with child care. Collect stories and share them throughout your community and with your local decision leaders and lawmakers.
Provider Appreciation
The saying “a little goes a long way” is especially true for child care providers. This career is often an isolated venture with few opportunities to feel appreciated. Child care provider appreciation can be an event with door prizes, a meal, training, networking, or it can be as simple as sending a note in the mail – or anything in between! Acts of appreciation can also lead to better retention of providers.
Provide Free Training Space
In addition to fees to attend trainings, it has become increasingly difficult to find spaces to accommodate trainings for providers during evenings and weekends. Providing access to meeting, conference or board rooms (free of charge) increases the probability providers can attend trainings locally, or within reasonable distances. Visit the training spaces page to view the list of available free training spaces in southwest Minnesota. You can also add your training space to the list using this submission form.
Resources:
- Southwest Initiative Foundation: Child Care in Action (PDF) This fact sheet explores the five areas of focus for the foundation’s work supporting quality, affordable child care — a critical part of our economy and communities in southwest Minnesota.
- Bright Beginnings This fact sheet explores the five areas of focus for the foundation’s work supporting quality, affordable child care — a critical part of our economy and communities in southwest Minnesota.
- The Business Case for Investing in High-Quality Child Care (PDF) This fact sheet highlights the child care industry’s economic and job impact in Minnesota.
- Child Care Aware of Minnesota West/Central District Child Care Aware provides families, child care programs, and the community with information and support for quality child care that is affordable and accessible.
- First Children’s Finance First Children’s Finance provides loans and business-development assistance to high-quality child care businesses serving low- and moderate-income families.
