Childcare survey impacts entire community

Communities regularly face many issues, from providing adequate housing to finding enough skilled labor to supporting quality of life projects.

Another issue that regularly tops the list is quality child care. For many communities, it is a never-ending problem that also affects everyone - whether they think so or not.

If an employee with young children can’t find child care, they can’t work. If they can’t work, the employer doesn’t have enough workers. If there aren’t enough workers, the products don’t get made or the store hours get cut or the quality of the service diminishes.

Just because you don’t need child care at this stage of your life doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you. Quality child care is a community-wide issue that has a broad impact beyond just the family with young children.

Realizing the problem, McCook - led by the McCook Economic Development Corp. - has been proactive when it comes to not only having enough child care but also providing quality child care. And those ideas and solutions have been to think outside the box.

Led by a local team of child care professionals in 2018, McCook embarked on a review of what was currently available for child care in the community and what was needed. Out of those studies, several programs were developed, including the MEDC’s Childcare Provider Jump Start program.

The program had several different facets including financial incentives to increase the number of childcare slots available in the community.

Additionally, the program decided not to take the traditional route of building a new community-wide child care facility. Instead, the focus is on the existing child care facilities in McCook and the potential for additional stand-alone facilities.

Soon after the program began, one existing childcare facility was purchased and expanded, and another, home-based childcare business was expanded into a dedicated facility, both in former churches.

The MEDC also received state-wide grants to focus on child care, with those funds used to provide resources for the providers, ranging from extra cleaning wipes during the height of the pandemic to classes to meet licensing requirements.

These activities have not gone unnoticed.

In 2021, McCook’s efforts to improve child care were featured in a PBS NewsHour series, “Raising the Future: America’s Child Care Dilemma.”

PBS visited two Nebraska communities including McCook, which is addressing child care shortages that impact local economies. According to the series, “The struggle to find affordable, quality child care has always been one of the biggest issues for American families.”

But the child care issue is never-ending so the public is again being asked for their input.

In partnership with the Nebraska Children’s and Families Foundation’s Community for Kids Initiative, the MEDC is conducting a follow-up questionnaire to evaluate the child care situation in McCook and Southwest Nebraska with a “Quality Matters Survey.”

With the last survey conducted in 2019, residents of the area have through Thursday, Aug. 18th to complete a survey about childcare needs in our community. The survey will be used to better understand if there is still a gap for those children and families needing childcare in McCook.

And as an added incentive and to show how important the issue is, survey participants will be eligible to win gift certificates from local businesses.

McCook has made great strides when it comes to providing both enough and quality child care in the community. But here is your chance to have a say in how the programs move forward, what is needed for child care, and how to provide educational opportunities to our youngest residents.

The survey data and resulting programs will hopefully make a positive impact not only on our young families but also on our community for generations to come.