On May 9, the National Association of Counties (NACo) launched a new Childcare Supply Network, with a focus on strengthening childcare systems to support workforce and county economic development needs. 

While NACo has previously advocated for federal childcare priorities and supported counties efforts to build childcare supply, this effort is especially geared to the important role that childcare plays for parents’ jobs and business needs. 

“You can’t have a healthy workforce if your workforce doesn’t have care for their children,” says Ashleigh Holand, chief program officer at NACo. “The Childcare Supply Network is focused on helping counties center childcare services as part of their countywide economic development and workforce development strategies.”

The initiative is supported through the Investing in America’s Childcare Partnership, a joint project of eight national philanthropic organizations. It will be taking the lessons learned from four manufacturing centers that were selected for the project based on business commitments to supply childcare as part of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The four participating jurisdictions are:

• Columbus-Muscogee Consolidated City-County, Georgia

• Cuyahoga County, Ohio

• Pima County, Arizona

• Wayne County, Michigan

From each of these areas, multidisciplinary teams will come together to discuss issues, problems and successes that they’ve experienced based on manufacturer’s commitments to help supply childcare. Each of those teams will include a representative from county government, industry, the county’s economic development center and the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).  

Lessons learned on the way in each jurisdiction will provide guidance to other counties that will be shared through a NACo showcase next February and the development of a national toolkit. Likely strategies include ways to mix public and private funding streams and deal with common childcare obstacles.

“Our role is to tell the story about how they are able to achieve the outcomes they wanted to achieve,” says Holand.

As she sees it now, at the beginning of the project, the three biggest issues that need solving are how to increase childcare slots, expand existing programs, repair aging childcare facilities and increase training for the childcare workforce.

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