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FAIRMONT - After attending the First Children's Finance Foundations of the Future Conference on Oct. 20-21, CEDA Specialist Danielle Hayter-Johnson presented what the information means for Martin County at the Economic Development Authority (EDA) meeting on Monday.
Key takeaways include reinforcing childcare's role in workforce participation and economic growth, the importance of sustaining existing providers and opportunities for employer and community partnerships.
"Reliable childcare supports workforce participation, employer stability and long-term community vitality," Hayter-Johnson said. "The challenge is not simply creating more spaces. Communities must also preserve existing providers and develop operating models that can last."
On the workforce piece, Hayter-Johnson said without childcare, it is often the case people cannot work.
"Most families, both parents are working so childcare can affect employers very quickly, really fast," she said. "The ripple effect, if someone calls in, someone else [has issues], it goes quickly."
Provider viability, limited tuition flexibility and local capacity were also touched on.
Hayter-Johnson said there are high staffing costs, especially in centers like Building Blocks.
"They have to have those certain regulated ratios from children to teachers," she said
On tuition flexibility, Hayter-Johnson said there needs to be availability across all levels of what parents can pay for childcare.
"So we’re not pricing out families but still meeting all those regulations and training requirements and staffing ratios that are regulated by the state," she said. "They don’t have a say on who they can staff or need or anything like that."
Towards local capacity, Hayter-Johnson said they have to preserve the childcare they have as much as possible while also attracting new providers.
"Maybe the model of in-home is something that isn’t moving forward," she said. "Is homeownership harder for younger people, or maybe the younger workforce likes that separation from being home, carrying the key, walking away at night, that sort of situation."
Across all of this, Hayter-Johnson said shared responsibility is the big takeaway.
"Not one entity, not one industry can solve this alone," she said. "Employers, public entities, providers, families and philanthropy can contribute in different ways. Childcare does not automatically create a sustainable business, so operating challenges. Childcare is labor intensive. We talked about those ratios. Programs must meet staffing and licensing requirements. We’ve talked about licensing requirements a lot this year too, and those barriers that can come with it, while balancing enrollment, tuition affordability, facilities, equipment."
In any community, including Martin County, Hayter-Johnson said the issues faced are not one size fits all, and examples were provided at the conference of how different communities have worked on childcare.
"In Fergus Falls, they have a residential style childcare and housing partnership, including provider housing concepts," she said. "Luverne Kids Rock, they actually created a nonprofit group and were able to use that to raise funds to create a childcare officially. It’s going so well they are now working on a community center, tennis and all sorts of different things."
As for what has been done locally recently, Hayter-Johnson highlighted the Childcare Open House held on Oct. 8.
"We had 40 providers register to come, plus our partners that were there presenting," she said. "First Children’s Finance was there. Department of Youth Family Services was there. We had Parent Aware there."
Board members Billeye Rabbe and Richard Koons expressed that they had heard good things of the event, with Koons stating he had heard from some of the providers that it was very impressive.
In other news:
-- The Martin County EDA toured the former Seasons Healthcare building in Trimont. The facility closed back in February, and the EDA met with the building's current owner to find the right fit for usage of the building
-- A Profile of Martin County was presented to the board. It had been worked on by CEDA and received feedback and constructive criticism from the board. The plan is for it to go onto social media and the MCEDA website.