Communities across the U.S. are facing an undeniable childcare crisis, with as many as 70% of parents with young children missing work at least once in the past three months to cover childcare needs. And nearly nine percent of parents voluntarily leaving a job due to childcare issues. The childcare team at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation conducted reports across America and estimates that states lost billions of dollars in economic activity due to breakdowns in childcare. This has harmful effects for families, businesses, and local communities—prompting many leaders to prioritize this issue. That’s why we convened a group of business and community leaders to discuss this important issue and collaborate on solutions.
This May, we hosted our first-ever childcare-focused Business Leads Fellowship Program (Business Leads) Master Class in Boise, Idaho. Master Classes are an opportunity for graduates of the Business Leads Fellowship Program to dive deep on an education and workforce topic with committed leaders across our 400-member network. This intensive two-day program brought together 33 business leaders from 20 states to address community childcare challenges through solutions, connections, and shared strategies.
The Master Class examined the scope of America’s childcare landscape, showcased four case studies of innovative childcare solutions, and built a community of practice for chamber leaders engaging on childcare. The case studies demonstrated the breadth of this issue: building capacity in Kalamazoo, Michigan; childcare scholarships in Summit County, Utah; building state and local partnerships in Cabarrus County, North Carolina; and building new infrastructure with the Boise, Idaho, Treasure Valley YMCA.
Participants left the Master Class with an action plan detailing their next steps in their communities. This includes shared resources to help other communities get started on their solution for childcare, including funding models, legislative language, and needs assessment methodology.
Building Partnerships in Topeka
One leader from the Master Class is Trina Goss, director of business and talent initiatives with the Greater Topeka Partnership in Kansas. Trina, a graduate of Cohort 8, has stayed active in her connections with others from her cohort and the network at large. The program gave her many new partners to reach out to and a framework for communicating about the education and workforce pipeline. Trina learned how to effectively make the case for expanding the Greater Topeka Partnership’s workforce portfolio to include related issues like childcare, housing, and transportation. The workforce portfolio primarily ensures the local workforce is staffed and participated in with appropriate community support, while the education portfolio ensures the local workforce is properly skilled.
In her day-to-day, supporting industry and community involves a lot of intentionality in relationships. Trina meets with businesses and educators to foster collaboration between the two sides of her portfolio. As she puts it,
“Being in my unique position allows me to be a convener and connector. In meetings, I get to help find partnerships and help people make connections. Connections with one another and connections between the good work they are doing.”
One of the partnerships that highlight this collaboration in Topeka is the local Fame USA chapter, which supports the manufacturing industry across different sectors to build a younger pipeline of talent. Many businesses are working together to invest in the local talent coming up to work in manufacturing with a variety of Topeka-based factories.
Tackling the Childcare Crisis
This partnerships-based approach proves especially crucial for addressing the city’s childcare crisis. Topeka’s childcare needs are high, a priority since the issue was made apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 70 of the childcare centers that closed temporarily per CDC recommendations never re-opened their doors. Topeka became a childcare desert with only 46% of the community’s childcare needs met.
With this collapse in the market, the Greater Topeka Partnership worked with Childcare Aware of Eastern Kansas to collect data to rectify this need. Childcare Aware of Eastern Kansas represents 33 counties and aims to provide a link between programs and families seeking childcare. Now, childcare is a major initiative for the Greater Topeka Partnership, and Trina leads those efforts.
Creating Momentum
Momentum 2027 is the five-year plan the Greater Topeka Partnership announced in 2022, and the “Child Care Task Force” is one of the 21 stated initiatives. The goals were set by a 50-person steering committee with representation from the nonprofit sector, business leaders, high school and university students, childcare providers, and community members. Equipped with survey data from the community and their individual experience, this steering committee put forth recommendations on how Topeka could build from the previous Momentum 2022 launched in 2017. For childcare, the Greater Topeka Partnership received a $3 million grant from “All in for Kansas Kids,” a partnership effort between the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and the Department for Children and Families. With this grant, the childcare taskforce set goals to expand quality childcare capacity, create strong public/private partnerships in childcare, and build the talent pipeline of childcare workers. The progress is strong so far:
- 481 additional slots have opened
- The State of Kansas and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas partnered to create a new childcare center
- A parent scholarship fund has been created through the Topeka Community Foundation to support parents with the cost of childcare
- The “Champions for Child Care” designation was created for businesses who make policy, flexibility or benefit changes that support the childcare needs of employees
- Registered apprenticeships have been piloted to grow the talent pipeline
With Trina’s leadership on community-based childcare initiatives in Topeka, the Master Class allowed her to interact with folks from other regions and take a few ideas back to her community.
More from Commerce Meets Classroom
About the author
Caitlyn Aversman
Caitlyn Aversman is associate manager of K-12 education programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
