The Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance is working to create a region where all young children (birth to 5) and their families thrive because they can equitably access:
- High-quality, affordable, culturally responsive early care and education that justly compensates providers.
- A coordinated array of resources and supports promoting equity in wellbeing.
With this newsletter we aim to educate and inform our communities – from Greater Green Bay to Oshkosh – about the need for systems change and to spark opportunities for action, alignment and coordination.
This month you’ll find:
LOCAL NEWS
- Regional Learning and Action Events held last week in Appleton and Green Bay, explored different strategies and engagement opportunities to increase workforce wages and benefits.
OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE + LEARN:
- Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs partnered with Outagamie County and the Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance to research how child care availability is affecting area employers. We’re able to share preliminary findings and recommendations from the research team.
- Join us as the NEW Manufacturing Alliance & Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance host the “Future of Child Care Summit” May 23rd in Green Bay.
Local News
We hosted two Learning & Action Events last week in Appleton and Green Bay to build shared understanding and gauge regional will for taking action. Attendees energetically brainstormed on five suggested strategies and identified key community action steps to explore. Next steps will include development of key task force groups to pursue action and strategy. Below are the “raw” comments and feedback we gathered from the conversations:
- Organize diverse regional partners to advocate for local and state policies
- Connect with other regions, build relationships, seek statewide voter approval as it is the most efficient and fair model
- Identify stakeholders – funders, parents, grandparents, employers, ECE workers, neighbors, legislators, ECE owners
- Conduct county pilot, consider sales tax to support childcare as infrastructure, eventually for statewide consideration
- Seek braided funding opportunities
- Craft easy talking points for individuals and communities to use, data and stories, seek high level solutions, it takes a village
- Explore policy in other states for consideration
- Engage employers to invest in child care systems to recruit/train employees
- Have business lead vs. government
- Engage workforce discussion, work with New North and other economic development entities
- Educate, how well do employers understand the problem, partner and help with problem solving – need a strong business case
- Consideration of on-site child care
- Potential to leverage conversation with 4K programs – invest with schools
- Bring big business into the circle to invest
- Engage CEO’s, HR, Board level, ECE employees, bring everyone together
- Explore how we might build a model of braided interests and funding
- Create community-driven funds to increase child care workforce wages
- Needs to be sustainable
- How much needs to be invested? A community and capital campaign? Would need multiple sources of investment
- Tax levy to create ECE fund
- Educate our community and businesses so they would support a tax mechanism
- We have a strong philanthropic community in region and state
- Parents, employers, small business – tax credits or advantages
- Develop agreed requirements such as wage structures (for profit and non-profits) to access funds
- Formula models based on salary need, slots, budget for grant percentage eligibility
- Equity for self-employed or small business support
- Support child care business owners’ access to Shared Services Network
- Explore health benefits such as telehealth, free health clinics
- Identify business coaching, IT, sub pool, training opportunities
- Bring in the shared services model to NE WI to reduce provider costs and help family care providers as well as centers
- Identify relationships and organizations that can facilitate bringing shared services to region
- Increase child care workforce’s access to healthcare/benefit pools
- Explore large self-funded health care partnerships for potential inclusion of child care providers
- Large self-funded plan offers option to use providers with deductibles and co-pays (standard) vs. option to use a local free clinic offering. Insurance premiums are for either choice. No additional fees after premium payments if you choose the care provided via clinic services.
- Partner with virtual telehealth/doc programs
- Partner with businesses, umbrellas of care to tap into
- Subsidize payments for Marketplace plans, provide navigation to affordable options
Opportunities to Engage & Learn
As we work to ensure a supply of skilled, culturally responsive ECE providers to deliver essential care, we are also deepening our understanding of business and workforce needs for now and in the future. We are pleased to share the recent preliminary findings of the La Follette School of Public Affairs graduate student research team via their Workshop Policy Brief. The full report will be available soon, click here for more information.
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Please join the NEW Manufacturing Alliance’s “Future of Work” Summit on Tuesday, May 23rd at the Green Bay Botanical Gardens. NEWMA will be hosting an annual summit on a critical workforce issue. This year’s topic is on child care. The free event is from 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Agenda:
- Overview of the childcare crisis and impact on attracting and retaining talent.
- Best practices from regional and statewide manufacturers and communities.
- Discussion on how you and your community can address the childcare crisis.
An article in the Harvard Business Review stated, ‘Childcare is not a family issue, it is a business issue. It affects how we work, when we work, and for many, why we work.’ This summit will bring together thought leaders and partners in creating solutions that will impact both families and businesses.
Register by May 15th. There is a limited number of seats available, please register soon to reserve your spot.
