Callaway County: Early Education Coalition Community Plan
Prioritizing the Need
In Spring 2023, Callaway County community partners kicked off a collaborative community needs assessment process with a data walk. At the data walk, CMCA shared county-specific data related to education, housing, health, income, education, employment, and other social characteristics as well as the results from a jointly designed and distributed community survey. Data walk participants included social service organizations, local school districts, higher education institutions, economic development organizations, local employers, civic organizations, and representatives from state and federal government offices. CMCA facilitated a guided discussion about the data, resulting in the prioritization of employment and work supports such as childcare as one of the top needs within Callaway County.
Community Conversations
With funding from the Missouri Foundation for Health, CMCA staff guided local stakeholders through a series of community conversations from Summer 2023 through Spring 2024 using a process called Results Based Accountability™ (RBA). These meetings resulted in the joint development of a community plan to address childcare in Callaway County.
RBA is a data-driven, decision-making process developed by Mark Friedman. RBA uses a structured, step-bystep process called “Turn the Curve Thinking” to help communities move from talk to action and to harness the power of collective impact to make sustainable change.
Developing the Plan
First, the community developed a shared result statement that defined the outcome the community intends to achieve through the plan.
All people in Callaway County have access to affordable and quality childcare.
Next, the community identified specific data indicators that will be used to measure the community’s progress toward achieving the result. Stakeholders reviewed baseline data that included forecasted data trends. In RBA, success is defined as “turning the curve,” or moving the data point away from that forecasted baseline, indicating that the community’s efforts are working and that positive change is taking place.
Community partners explored “the story behind the curve,” or the various factors that either positively or negatively affect the data. This discussion provided an opportunity to explore root causes and systemic issues that must be addressed in order for the community to truly make an impact.
Root Causes
Root causes related to childcare in Callaway County include:
• Many childcare programs in Callaway County do not accept state childcare subsidies.
• The number of families receiving state subsidies has decreased since 2018 — federal poverty level is not state poverty level.
• High level of unmet needs
• Average weekly childcare cost
• Parents are not working because they cannot find affordable childcare.
• Lack of qualified employees available and willing to accept childcare rate of pay.
Community partners explored existing efforts within Callaway County and collaborated to identify new strategies that would directly address the above root causes and lead to sustainable change within the community. The group ranked each potential strategy against four criteria:
1. How much difference will it make?
2. Is the idea specific enough to be implemented?
3. Do we have the capacity to implement the idea now or in the future?
4. Does the idea reflect our community values?
Strategies that ranked the highest on all four criteria were selected for inclusion in the community plan.
Key Strategies
The community has chosen to pursue the following strategies to address childcare in Callaway County. These strategies will help the community achieve the result:
All people in Callaway County have access to affordable and quality childcare.
Strategy #1 - Campaign to address income guidelines, utility state and not federal poverty guidelines.
This strategy focuses on organized advocacy efforts designed to raise awareness about how income guidelines have impacted the number of families receiving childcare subsidies and to ensure more families receive the assistance they need.
Strategy #2 - Create collaborative partnerships between employers and childcare providers.
This strategy will increase the number of childcare slots available in Callaway County and make childcare more affordable for the workforce by working with employers to help cover the cost of childcare.
Strategy #3 - Create a childcare training apprenticeship program with public schools.
This strategy will encourage high school students to explore careers in childcare and will provide the necessary training for them to become childcare providers.
Strategy #4 - Explore a training program to assist in-home childcare providers obtain licensure.
This strategy will support unlicensed or license-exempt in-home childcare providers in obtaining state licensure, a first step in creating additional child care slots and expanding acceptance of childcare subsidy.
Strategy #5 - Promote childcare subsidy information and resources through marketing materials.
This strategy will work to increase the awareness of childcare providers on the resources available to them through the Department of Education and Secondary Education (DESE).
Strategy #6 - Establish an incentive for all child care providers that accept childcare subsidies.
This strategy seeks to increase the number of childcare providers willing to accept childcare subsidies.
Strategy #7 - Create an in-person tech assistance position in Callaway County for providers and families to better access with applying/maintaining childcare subsidies alone with Free & Reduced Lunch programs.
This strategy will offer support to families who are eligible for childcare subsidies and/ or Free & Reduced Lunch programs, but do not know how to apply for them.
As the community plan moves into the implementation stage, community partners will continue to meet on a regular basis to share progress and solve challenges. The community is encouraged to participate in meetings, aid in implementation, and share the community plan with individuals and organizations that might also be interested in childcare in Callaway County.
More information about this plan and its progress can be found on the Show Me Strong Communities website at ShowMeStrongCommunities.com.
