CONCLUSION

Findings

The Wilkes Childcare Study revealed some considerable childcare needs in Wilkes County. The number of licensed childcare providers and spots for young children have decreased dramatically since 2007. Afterschool and summer care programs in the county are also severely limited. The demand for childcare is significant and is not projected to lessen in the coming years. Both workers and employers are feeling these pressures particularly in a tight labor market in which labor force participation is declining. Childcare providers are not immune to the current challenging workforce dynamics and finding suitable, well-trained workers is difficult for them as well.

Addressing the critical shortage of childcare options in Wilkes County will positively impact all members of the community not just parents and caregivers. Childcare solutions are needed immediately to meet the current demand for working parents in the county. Short-term actions can also expand the availability of childcare for caregivers wanting to work and re-enter the labor force. A mix of long-term strategies aimed at developing high-quality childcare programs can enhance the early-childhood development of future Wilkes County workers and create a childcare ecosystem that will help build the workforce and community of generations to come.

How Wilkes County Can Improve Childcare

Recommendations

The Wilkes County Childcare Study Taskforce developed recommendations on short and long-term strategies the county may explore to improve the childcare ecosystem in the county. These recommendations reflect the Taskforce’s goal of enhancing the childcare environment by increasing workforce participation, supporting and expanding existing childcare providers, building and attracting new care providers, addressing childcare worker needs, helping families navigate Wilkes County childcare, and prioritizing the importance of early childhood care and education throughout the community.

Increase Workforce Participation of Parents through Family-Friendly Practices

Increase employee retention and encourage non-working parents to participate in Wilkes County’s labor force by adopting family-friendly employment policies and benefits.

Seventy-five percent of U.S. mothers and 50% of U.S. fathers say they have passed up work opportunities, switched jobs, or quit to care for their children.59 Employers that offer family-friendly policies and benefits are known to have a competitive advantage in retention and recruitment, employee satisfaction, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism.

1. Encourage all sizes of employers to explore and engage with Family Forward NC for assistance in forming family-friendly culture, policies and benefits. A few ideas for employers to consider adopting include parental paid leave, family-sustaining wages, flexible work and scheduling, childcare assistance and accommodations for pregnant or breastfeeding mothers. Family Forward NC offers assistance in planning, as well as a program certifying that an employer’s meets certain standards that support children and families’ well-being. Community organizations should look for ways to acknowledge publicly employers that have achieved family-forward certification.

2. Employers may consider participating in a community fund or consortium to support childcare. In exchange for contributing collective financial support to centers, participating employers could ensure that their employees are prioritized for available childcare slots as an employee benefit. Employers could also offer an employee benefit that helps pay for childcare costs.

Attract, Develop, and Retain Childcare Workforce

Build a quality childcare workforce to ensure a supply of licensed centers and homes sufficient to meet the demand for childcare.

Local childcare providers shared in a survey that staff shortages and lack of qualified teachers are the top challenges operators face. With childcare staff in Wilkes County decreasing by 48% since 2007 and national estimates suggesting that 17% of childcare workers will leave their jobs on an annual basis, attracting, developing, and retaining childcare workers is imperative.

1. Increase childcare staffing within centers by encouraging early education career pathways, internship/apprenticeship opportunities in Wilkes County high schools and Wilkes Community College. The Career & College Promise (CCP) program could also be encouraged as a potential pathway to an early education career. Other fields of study and career paths that are experiencing talent shortages have adopted work-based learning approaches to help bridge the experience gap and to promote interest while supporting training. This model has proved successful in a variety of settings.

2. Encourage the use of scholarships such as T.E.A.C.H. Scholarships through local advertising and increased public awareness of such programs. This statewide scholarship offers a debt-free college education to current members of the early education workforce. This effort will help more employers and workers learn about the possibility to receive much-needed training to advance their careers in early childhood education

59 Craighill, Peyton and Danielle Paquette. “The surprising number of parents scaling back at work to care for kids.” The Washington Post. August 6, 2015. Retrieved from washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-surprising-number-of-moms-and-dads-scaling-back-at-work-to-care-for-theirkids/2015/08/06/c7134c50-3ab7-11e5-b3ac-8a79bc44e5e2_story.html?utm_term=.bd7035932210

3. Utilize On-The-Job-Training programs to supplement wages. Some employers may be able to participate in this federally-funded program that offers businesses a wage reimbursement incentive to help offset the cost of training new employees with limited skills. Wage reimbursement may range from 50% to 75%, depending on the size of the business and other factors. This could help childcare providers in hiring new workers.

4. Establish a community fund or consortium that helps supplement childcare employees’ pay. Low pay for childcare workers was identified as a challenge in this study. During this effort, a stabilization grant was still available through federal funds to help boost pay for workers in a severe talent crunch. However, the risk of the funding going away in 2023 was a concern for many childcare providers. This recommendation suggests that an evergreen fund to supplement wages be considered for being able to attract and retain more workers in childcare, and therefore allowing more providers to thrive and provide essential services.

5. Encourage childcare providers to join a shared benefits policy. Another challenge identified in the study was that childcare workers often lacked employee-sponsored insurance. A shared benefits policy would include employee benefits such as medical and disability insurance, along with other programs such as retirement to participating providers. Employee benefit packages are often not affordable for small businesses alone, however, if a group bands together to participate, costs per employee will likely be lower and, hopefully, more affordable.

6. Create a centrally organized childcare teacher substitute pool that all childcare providers may access to address day-to-day staffing challenges. Many public and private school systems have a list of qualified people who can fill in when an educator must miss work due to illness or other urgent situations. This practice can be organized for a variety of childcare providers to aid in situations that could otherwise make childcare unavailable for enrolled children. This could be manned by retired childcare workers and teachers who are not necessarily interested in full-time work but could work in a temporary capacity. A central organization could manage this pool taking the stress off local providers.

Support the Childcare Business Model of Existing Providers

Strengthen childcare centers through training programs, shared services, and cooperative buying programs to improve financial stability.

Childcare providers are key in providing important early education services, however, they are also small businesses with multiple administrative tasks to manage. This goal aims to support these vital small businesses through existing resources available in Wilkes County, to possibly bring in successful models from other areas, and to form new ventures that could make the running of childcare services easier to manage.

1. Utilize existing training program infrastructures at Wilkes Community College (WCC), the Small Business Center (SBC), and Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC) to strengthen childcare operators’ business skills and management practices. The Wilkes Partnership for Children offers classes and technical assistance to small business operators. WCC can also develop training classes specifically for childcare operators, and SBC and SBTDC could be encouraged and incentivized to provide confidential consulting services that support childcare operators’ use of best business practices.

2. Provide support for growth and expansion to existing centers that funds exploration of potential growth opportunities, and review of eligibility to local grant programs, including the Small Business Development Incentive Grant and the Entrepreneur Grant Program, for funding to support capital improvements, equipment purchases, and job creation activities.

3. Consider creating a shared back-office program among local providers to improve efficiencies and reduce administrative costs. Services could include accounting and billing, vendor selection, IT support, and HR.

4. Establish a cooperative buying program among local providers to leverage buying power for supplies and food.

Encourage New Childcare Providers

Encourage new childcare options to proliferate using innovative co-location models in addition to traditional growth strategies.

The suggested approaches for supporting existing childcare providers may encourage their growth and expansion as well as help attract and launch new businesses offering childcare services. Other strategies focused on growth should be explored to increase the number or childcare providers in Wilkes County to a level that can meet existing and future needs.

1. Encourage innovative alternative childcare centers by facilitating appropriate co-location of childcare services with other care providers. Intergenerational care operations exemplify an innovative co-location model that helps address both care needs for children and aging adults. Colocated child and adult service operations using shared spaces and services (for example, kitchen and dining facilities and food, maintenance, and transportation services) and combining purchasing power may realize significant financial efficiencies as well as positive cross-generational benefits. Socially, studies have shown that activities that include children and older adults can increase selfesteem and promote friendships. Examples of care operations providing cross-generational include:

• Messiah Lifeways and U-Gro are both located in Messiah Village, a residential community for older adults in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

• ONEgeneration in Van Nuys, California has both adult daycare and childcare supporting intergenerational activities.

2. Facilitate the expansion of home-based licensed providers. Supporting family or friend homebased childcare situations to become licensed childcare operators could help expand licensed childcare availability, particularly in the more rural parts of Wilkes County. Prospective resources for supporting such transitions include:

• A new Home Based Child Care Initiative recently launched by MDC focused on creating a system of networks and leadership to support home-based child care in North Carolina.

• New federal funding that the NC Department of Health and Human Services announced in 2023 that will be used this year to enhance the NC Family Child Care Home network.

3. Promote the establishment of out-of-school childcare programs. As this report describes, the need for after-school and summer childcare for Wilkes County children is severe. Since afterschool and summer care operations do not require licensing the barriers and costs for opening new programs are relatively low. Existing and new providers may be encouraged to launch new out-ofschool time care options through collaborative efforts aided by individual and collective exploration of resources designed to support out-of-school startups. Potential starting points include:

• Providing an out-of-school care start-up guide similar to one offered by the school Alliance to potential afterschool and summer childcare providers,

• Recruiting after-school or summer childcare providers, such as Western Youth Network (operating in Allegheny, Ashe, and Watauga Counties) or similar organizations, to offer camps in Wilkes County. Community organizations that operated after-school programs in the past (see Figure 1.5) should also be encouraged to once again offer programs.

• Coordinating partnerships between potential program providers and community organizations with facilities containing appropriate childcare space, such as churches or community centers.

In addition, summer camps currently provided by organizations such as the 4-H Club, arts, sports or STEM could coordinate offerings to help caregivers “mix and match” programs to achieve continuous care over broader time frames than individual providers offer.

4. Encourage sick and shift-based childcare. With licensed childcare offered only during the day from approximately 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. timeframe, health care, first responders, and other shift workers have no licensed care options for childcare in Wilkes County for alternate work schedules.

Additionally, for the protection of others, children who exhibit signs of illness are not permitted in childcare environments often resulting in their caregivers’ absence from work. To provide care for children with mild illnesses, providers could explore the possibility of contracting with existing childcare providers to house a space in their location or another central facility; for example, the Get Well Place at LeafSpring School in Richmond, Virginia provides backup care for children with common childhood illnesses such as colds, flu, or stomach bugs.

Help Families and Caregivers Navigate Childcare

Establish a central, community-wide team to help Wilkes County families and caregivers find childcare that provides young children the early education experience they need for healthy development.

Given the challenges of identifying available, accessible, and affordable childcare, Wilkes County families and caregivers need a community-based organization to support caregivers facing childcare challenges.

1. Form a “one-stop shop” for all matters related to childcare. Having one centralized organization in the community that is readily identifiable to families and caregivers can help them navigate childcare options and opportunities with more efficiency than they currently experience. Such an organization could be newly formed or incorporated into an existing entity, such as the Wilkes Partnership for Children. This would also be the organization with blended funding to pool resources and address multiple sectors of childcare.

2. Include provision of certain critical supports in the “one-stop shop” design. Among the supports that a centralized childcare support organization may provide, two are particularly important to empower families and caregivers to support their children’s well-being.

• Supports for caregivers in finding ways to improve childhood development. Resources should be developed for parents, grandparents, and all kinds of families and caregivers who care for children to assist them in identifying high-quality childcare options as well as developmental resources and opportunities for children including high-quality, cost-effective reading, book share, tutoring and play activities.

• Supports for caregivers in need. Parent support programs that enhance a family’s ability to move out of poverty and provide for themselves are needed to help them navigate the “benefits cliff” that occurs when a small increase in earnings results in a family losing or receiving significantly less of the public benefits that helped finance basic needs and quality childcare. A centralized community-wide organization, alone or in partnership with low-income agencies, could host regular parent meetings on financial literacy and coordinate community volunteers to provide financial mentorship to caregivers. The Wilkes Circles of Care, based on a nationally-proven and innovative program, provides a model for consideration: It helps individuals and families move out of poverty by providing access to a large network of resources, including dedicated volunteer teams, that help navigate employment, job skill development, education and social services.

Continue to Elevate the Importance of Childcare in the Community

Facilitate collaborative partnerships between community organizations and businesses that help ensure the advancement of childcare matters in Wilkes County.

Enhancing Wilkes County’s childcare system will require ongoing monitoring of developments in (1) early childhood legislation, (2) current research (or science) of early childhood education, (3) ideas and solutions that positively impact children, families, and the county’s economic growth, and (4) funding opportunities for childcare.

1. Develop partnerships among county and city agencies, businesses, and community organizations focused on prioritizing development of child/family-focused budgets and facilitating critical activities, including:

• Identifying various funding opportunities for childcare enhancement (e.g., federal, state, and local public grant funds; national, state, and local philanthropic grants).

• Preparing grant applications for, and managing grants that support community childcare initiatives.

• A system for organizing or coordinating multiple funding sources, both private and public, for the advancement of childcare in Wilkes County. Such a system could address, for example, a funding formula for a community fund that supports childcare slots in all areas of the county.

2. Develop partnerships with neighboring counties. Partnerships with surrounding counties with common interests related to childcare may help Wilkes County monitor and address legislative issues affecting childcare issues in rural North Carolina.

Next Steps For Wilkes County

The Wilkes Childcare Study Taskforce is thankful for the opportunity to build a working team focused on examining the county’s childcare landscape and present what we learned in this final report. The taskforce will begin the work of sharing this report within the community and finding champions for childcare to further advance the county toward the goals outlined in this document. As this report describes, the taskforce’s hope and ambition is to improve the childcare ecosystem in Wilkes County and thus improve the labor force. Through an annual review, the taskforce’s sponsors intend to track and measure Wilkes County’s progress toward achieving these goals.

The taskforce thanks the childcare providers, parents, employers, and community partners who participated in surveys, focus groups, and meetings to share their experiences with the study team. Wilkes County holds great promise and many growth opportunities that the taskforce and its sponsors hope can be realized in part through investments in early childhood education and care.

APPENDIX 1: METHODOLOGY

The Taskforce determined that the scope of the study should include:

• Identifying all existing licensed public, private, and in-home care facilities for two different age ranges, birth to age 5 and age 6 to 12 years old.

• Accounting for the existing state of childcare and assess needs based on data, stakeholder feedback, the expertise of consultants, and community experience.

• Examination of the demographic, economic, and labor force dynamics in Wilkes County that inform its economic standing as well as its growth potential. The taskforce understands that there are different types of families and different needs across ages, incomes, types of professions, and childcare choices.

• Analysis of the most common challenges and strengths affecting the county

• Recommendations that will help parents, employers, and citizens of Wilkes County.

Phase 1: Discovery

• Research

• Stakeholder Engagement

Phase 2: Analysis

• Identify Strengths/Gaps

• Evaluate Trends

Phase 3: What's Next? Recommendations

• Recommendations/Actions Steps

• Identify Community Champions

Stakeholder Engagement

Recognizing the importance of stakeholder input to any community study process, the taskforce sought feedback from people living and working in Wilkes County. The perspectives that community members gave provided context to the quantitative data accumulated in the project’s Phase 1, illuminated issues critical to understanding the community, and thus helped validate our analysis of all the data collected. The taskforce sought feedback from stakeholders who were customers, providers, employers, or partners in childcare within the county. Our aim was to identify challenges, strengths, and details on their needs related to childcare that would help shape further data collection and recommendations for improving childcare in the county. In all, we made more than 575 contacts using various efforts. The online parent survey alone represented feedback affecting 833 children. Our three main methods for engaging stakeholders were:

1. In-person focus groups

• Three parent meetings across the county

• One employer meeting

• One childcare provider meeting

2. Electronic surveys

• Two parent surveys

• One employer survey

• One provider survey

3. One-on-one interviews

• Partners

• Employers

• Childcare providers

• Other experts or childcare program operators

42

448

35

In all, this effort yielded perspectives on childcare experiences and indicators of childcare challenges and needs in Wilkes County. From the varied responses and conversations, several main themes began to emerge surrounding the challenges of finding, running, and maintaining childcare operations. In summary, all audiences agreed that Wilkes County is a childcare “desert” without needed available, quality care. Key challenges stated via stakeholder engagement were:

• Cost of childcare

• Staffing of childcare operations

• Large geography to cover

• All of the above lead to a lack of available, quality childcare spots

Selected Stakeholder Results

Childcare Provider Survey Results, 2022: “Long hours, staffing challenges, but 100% about the children.”

If you are a director/owner of a childcare program, please rank the following in order of most difficult challenges, to its least difficult challenges. (1 being most difficult and 6 being least difficult)

Rank Challenges

% of responses per item. 57% of respondents (owners/directors) ranked staffing shortages as the top challenge.

work

When asked what the best thing about childcare work, respondents answered overwhelmingly that it was all about helping children. Responses included the phrases below:

"Watch the children grow"

"Experiencing milestones"

"Relationships and bonds with children & families"

"Making a difference"

"Learning from children"

"Hugs"

"It is such a great responsibility and privilege"