How often do you enter a room knowing you can help nearly everyone in that room who is looking for a solution to a very big problem? That’s how we felt at this year’s annual conference for the National Association of Counties (NACo) that just wrapped up in Austin, Tx.
Dozens of attendees stopped by our booth, and while their counties are diverse in size, demographics, economic drivers and community infrastructure needs, the commonalities among them are notable.
Nearly every county leader we spoke with expressed a critical need for child care solutions – not in the distant future, but right now. Many attendees noted the infrastructure has long been insufficient to meet the needs of families, both urban and rural. They recognize an adequate child care network is critical to families and employers. They also recognize lack of it could be hindering the economic growth of their communities.
Whether urban or rural, county leaders told us their needs boil down to three primary goals:
- How can they better support existing child care providers?
- How can they begin to understand their true needs as a community, and create solutions to build new capacity?
- How do they even get started?
This is why we created Business of Child Care. The work we do centers on the individual needs of the region – from accessing the reality of a community’s current child care resources and projecting future needs, to gathering the right stakeholders to identify the desired goals and outcomes for that community, as well as intentional steps to build new child care capacity, and support current child care business owners so they can be successful and realize their dreams. It is our Whole Community Approach, a proprietary step-by-step process to put communities on a path to sustainable child care solutions.
No worries if you missed us at NACo. We’re ready to talk whenever you are. Reach us anytime at Business of Child Care. We’re here to help.
