It’s going to take everybody to make care affordable
We often say that the fight for affordability takes everybody. We mean that. And when it comes to the fight for affordable child care in New London County, it will take people from across communities to make it happen.
Through the Southeastern Connecticut Childcare Collective (SECT), The Connecticut Project grantee United Way of Southeastern Connecticut is bringing together more than 40 organizations for a collective impact project that hopes to add 500 child care seats to the area in five years.
“It’s going to take organizations from around every sector to come together and address it,” said Kathleen Hollister, the facilitator for the SECT Childcare Collective.
The collective is taking a holistic look at the problem of creating enough affordable, accessible, quality child care for southeastern Connecticut. Finding solutions to the problem starts with having accurate information about where there isn’t affordable child care and why parents who want to use it aren’t.
Hollister pointed to data showing families who aren’t considered to be in poverty, but don’t make enough for a “survival budget,” are spending almost 30% of their pay on child care. That takes away from money for rent or a mortgage, utilities, and food.
“There’s not enough child care and it’s too expensive, and there’s not enough slots and not enough subsidies, and a long wait for Care 4 Kids,” she said.
Put simply, she said the child care system is broken. It’s not going to fix itself unless we come together for solutions. Hollister said it’s a problem every sector needs to get involved in because if parents who want to work can’t afford to because child care is too expensive, businesses then can’t find employees and might relocate to somewhere with more options. Children also miss out on early childhood education.
“So it’s important for the parents, it’s important for the community, it’s important for the wellbeing of the child,” she said.
The New London County project, combined with the state’s child care endowment, and other efforts throughout the state will move affordability forward. The project is filling in other gaps, from using funding to help 20 licensed providers get technology to run their businesses, to guiding educators through the system to find existing resources, and changing the narrative to show that working in early childhood education is a professional field.
Progress takes everybody – whether that’s our neighbors, the businesses in our towns, and nonprofits dedicated to tackling the issues. With the new collective, not only will New London County benefit, but the entire state might have a new blueprint for success to follow.