Moniteau County Community Plan

Prioritizing the Need

In Spring 2023, Moniteau 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 childcare as a primary need within Moniteau 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 Moniteau 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 Moniteau County have access to 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 Moniteau County include:

• Lack of workers

• Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) regulations and changes

• Difficult to compete in the job market

• Closure of centers and providers

• Increased costs

• Lack of assistance for licensing procedures

• Lack of interest from young people entering the workforce

• Lack of incentives

• Lack of support

Community partners explored existing efforts within Moniteau 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 Moniteau County. These strategies will help the community achieve the result:

All people in Moniteau County have access to quality childcare.

Strategy #1 - Create a program for before and after school care within California Public Schools. Create a new location for before and after school and other childcare in the future.

This strategy will utilize existing staff and locations to provide additional care for students with working parents. It will also set the stage to open a separate location for more childcare in the future.

Strategy #2 - Assist Latino mothers in opening their own childcare businesses.

This strategy will assess the interest among Latino women in having a childcare business and support them through the process of getting licensed and opening with interpreters and other services.

Strategy #3 - Host workshop to provide 12 clock hours in training for new childcare providers.

This strategy will assist those interested in becoming childcare providers receive necessary training and clock hours for pursuing a childcare business.

Strategy #4 - Start the Safe Sitter program for middle school students.

This strategy will train young people to care for children and explore if they may have an interest in childcare as a career.

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 Moniteau County.

More information about this plan and its progress can be found on the Show Me Strong Communities website at ShowMeStrongCommunities.com.

Representative Willard Haley, Missouri House of Representatives