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Campaign boosts child care efforts
McCOOK, Neb. -- McCook Community 4 Kids, in partnership with First Five Nebraska, has launched My Nebraska Story, a new campaign to engage business leaders, economic development officials and others in strengthening the availability of quality child care in their communities. The campaign is a collaboration between First Five Nebraska and Communities for Kids, an initiative of Nebraska Children and Families Foundation. It was made possible through the federal Preschool Development Grant administered by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
Access to quality child care is becoming more widely understood as a key driver of our statewide and local economies. My Nebraska Story uses public awareness efforts and materials to encourage Nebraskans to share their own stories about how this issue affects their children, families, careers, businesses, and communities. More than 30 employers, economic developers, child care professionals, working parents and other stakeholders from 11 Nebraska communities are featured in the campaign. These stakeholders represent McCook, as well as Broken Bow, Gothenburg, Lincoln, Norfolk, North Platte, Ogallala, Oshkosh, Schuyler, Stuart, and York.
“We’ve had a committee working for about two years to improve access to early childhood education,” said Andy Long, Director of McCook Economic Development Corp. “We heard from multiple employers that they were losing employees when they had a child as they couldn’t find childcare. We knew it was a problem for not just parents of kids, but our local economy.”
The launch of My Nebraska Story coincides with statewide efforts to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Nebraska’s child care industry was among the hardest hit by the public health emergency. Earlier this month, the Nebraska Department of Labor indicated that child care providers ranked among the top 5 occupations
filing initial unemployment claims between March 21 and June 13.
When looking at the local situation with early childhood care providers, Long said, “It is amazing to see how are local providers are rising up to meet the challenges we’ve faced during the pandemic. Not only did they continue to go strong, but we also had a successful business transition at Kingdom Kids and another provider looking to expand from an in-home center to a childcare center. Our efforts have saved close to 40 childcare spots and could potentially create around 30 new spots in the next year. It has been a team effort from providers, business, and parents.”
“Nebraska businesses, chambers of commerce and others have a powerful reason to rally in support of quality child care as an economic asset to their communities,” said Mike Feeken, business engagement associate for First Five Nebraska. “Those efforts can be as simple as coaching child care providers on effective business practices or as ambitious as sponsoring child care slots in local programs for their own company’s employees. The first step is to help them take an active role in the public conversation about the child care needs of working parents.”
More information about My Nebraska Story can be found at MyNEStory.org or FirstFiveNebraska.org.
About McCook Community 4 Kids
McCook Community 4 Kids is a group of local people who have been working to identify challenges in early childhood education and find solutions to improve access, quality, and affordability of early childhood education in the area. If you are interested in being involved, please contact Andy Long at andy@mccookne.org.
About First Five Nebraska
First Five Nebraska is a team of public policy, data analysis and communications professionals focused on advancing high-quality early care and learning opportunities for Nebraska’s youngest children. The organization promotes farsighted, fiscally responsible policies, the efficient use of public and private resources, and high standards of accountability for Nebraska’s investments in children’s early learning and development.
A video about the local effort is available here.