Forward Rabun Gap Analysis: Childcare
The Issue: Lack of Childcare
Rabun County has historically experienced a chronic shortage of childcare facilities, making it more challenging for parents to work. This gap, along with the cost of childcare, could be a contributing factor to the lower labor force participation rate, where some parents may choose to stay home with their children over work. Through interviews with local business leaders, one employer revealed that if childcare were available to his employees, he would have a waiting list of qualified workers.
Other factors contributing to this gap include the state’s strict licensing requirements, which increase the start-up and operating costs and risks for childcare facilities.
Case Studies & Inspiration
YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta
The YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta (YMCA) has a long history in the Atlanta region, offering programs and services for people of all ages at over 20 YMCA facilities and 12 early learning centers across the region—including a residential camp facility at Lake Burton. Each YMCA is different and uses the needs of the community as a foundation for the programs and services offered. In some cases, such as with the Alpharetta, Georgia community, the YMCA began offering programs and services, such as afterschool care and sports first, and later built a facility for expanded offerings. In many cases, partnerships are formed with the school systems to host afterschool programming on-site and with cities and communities to raise the funds if a YMCA facility is desired.
The YMCA seeks to serve everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status. As a nonprofit organization, funds are raised to help offset the costs of programs such as afterschool care, day camp programs, and residential programs. The YMCA accepts families that receive CAPS funding from the Federal Child Care and Development Fund as well.
The YMCA is very interested in growing its partnerships in Rabun County through the existing residential camp at Lake Burton. They would like to explore opportunities to offer expanded programming to serve the needs of the community.
Collaboration for Early Childhood Learning, Oak Park & River Forest, IL
Collaboration for Early Childhood Learning (the Collaboration) is a public/private partnership that works to improve local early childhood resources and support the healthy development of local children in Oak Park and River Forest, IL. The partnership was established as members of the two communities discovered data that showed investment in early childhood systems and care leads to decreases in crime, teen pregnancy, and high school dropout rates and can improve the chances of breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
The Collaboration works with families, community partners, health care professionals, and teachers to make sure they are building strong communities by having the tools and connections to the resources necessary to nurture children. This is accomplished through a program services model that includes:
- Family engagement work the Collaboration does to empower families to serve as effective leaders and decision-makers in their children’s education. This includes capacity building for local organizations led by parents.
- Health and development efforts that view child success as influenced by indicators such as good health and how a child is supported by the local health services community. This arm of the Collaboration works to ensure children aged from birth to five receive developmental screenings periodically and that children have access to any services or assessments they need.
- The Collaboration’s early learning program service works to influence success in preschool classrooms in areas ranging from classroom experience to teacher quality under a lens of equity. It also focuses on creating a smooth transition from preschool to kindergarten for local children.
- The Collaboration also creates opportunities for community engagement. This service includes efforts to engage the entire community in the success of its children by leveraging partnerships and other agencies to help support children and families on their journey to kindergarten through awareness building and public events.
Edgecombe and Robeson Counties, NC
The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust charged the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s (UNC) professional schools to closely look at two of the state’s rural counties where issues such as childcare, unemployment, housing, healthcare, and broadband that leave low- and moderate-income residents behind. UNC was challenged to work alongside Edgecombe and Robeson counties to create new approaches and bring “new student talent and investments” to help solve these challenges in communities impacted greatly by out-migration and deaths.
The research resulted provided numerous recommendations for Edgecombe and Robeson counties, such as:
- Encouraging family-friendly HR policies to support families having children and offering flexibility for parents to care for their children
- Aligning all levels of government, across economic sectors, and throughout the general public to strategically position childcare as a “business imperative,” investing more resources in the existing childcare infrastructure
- Lobbying the federal government to enact legislation for universal preschool
Baby Braves Program, Heard County (GA) School System
In 2016, Heard County High School (HCHS) Principal Rodney Kay was preparing to transition into the role of superintendent of Heard County School System (HCSS). While HCSS had an over 84% graduation rate, Kay knew more could be done to support students who dropped out of school—especially since many of the county’s families were economically disadvantaged and didn’t have access to books, transportation, and other families.
Kay began working with Kathy Knowles, executive director of Heard county Community Partnership (HCCP) to work on the issue and increase access to books for babies and help families support their children’s literacy skills. The result is the Baby Braves program, named in honor of the HCHS mascot and initially made possible by funding from Kaiser Permanente. The program features specially trained school staff members that visit enrolled families in their homes to help parents understand their role in their child’s academic success, which begins at birth. HCSS maintains contact with Baby Braves families, with quarterly class reunions, and a Parent University where families can find information on math and reading readiness, fine and gross motor skills and more.
In 2017, HCSS was awarded a $10,000 Tiny Grant for Baby Braves. With this grant, HCSS expanded the program to continue its effort in preparing children from birth to three years old for prekindergarten through the development of fundamental literacy skills, as well as increasing family participation in the education process.
Since the initiative of the Baby Braves program, local leaders have worked to reinstate Head Start and Early Head Start programs to address the county’s limited access to early learning programs. This effort resulted in the opening of two 3-year-old classrooms in 2020 with plans to add more to the district in the future.
Mercer County, ND
Quality, affordable childcare was hard to find in the Mercer County, North Dakota area. However, the community took a unique approach to work toward a solution. Basin Electric Power Cooperative helped lead the charge of bringing a desperately needed childcare center to the rural community. Representatives from Basin Electric reached out to other local employers to see if their employees faced the same childcare challenges and conducted a survey through Mercer County Economic Development to see whether a daycare cooperative would appeal to parents and community members.
These employers then reached out to the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives to talk about a daycare cooperative. The organization had tried before, but couldn’t get enough community buy-in before. A year after that conversation, Energy Capital Cooperative Childcare’s doors opened. The center operates from an old church building that members of the community helped renovate into a daycare center. A fence was donated so the expansive lawn could be made safe for outdoor playtime. The center offers extended hours and childcare and payment options that fit the needs of the families, whether they just need drop-in care or if parents work part-time, shift, or full-time schedules.
Calhoun City Schools Junior Jacket Academy, Calhoun, GA
Calhoun City Schools Junior Jacket Academy aims to provide students with the learning experiences they need to be successful. It launched in 2015 with one three-year-old classroom. Since that time, the program has grown to serve the needs of local children with the Junior Jacket Academy for two and three-year-olds, PreK, and Kindergarten classes.
Through the program, students have the opportunity to develop school-readiness skills in a fun and encouraging environment that helps students develop their social and pre-academic skills to set them up for success in PreK and beyond. The Junior Jacket Academy includes PreK classes funded by the Georgia Lottery for Education.
Recommended Actions
- Establish a task force to address the issue and conduct a survey to gauge demand for childcare.
- Begin more extensive research to determine the exact needs for childcare in Rabun County (e.g. Infant through 4 years, Early Learning & Education, After School Care for ages 5 and up, etc.)
- Meet with YMCA of Metro Atlanta to learn how they are currently integrating into Rabun County beyond their Lake Burton facility and how Rabun County can partner with them to expand services.
- Contact successful childcare facilities and ask how they started.
- Contact some national franchise childcare companies to see what they need to get started.
- Explore options for a public-private partnership to bring resources for funding and a childcare facility to Rabun County.
- Discuss with Rabun County Schools to explore opportunities to expand early learning services.
- Encourage local governments, the business community, and the general public to view childcare as a “business imperative” for the county and invest more resources in building out a childcare infrastructure.