Communities for Kids

Jamie Bright Author

11/06/2024 Added

10 Plays

Description

Rachel Sissel speaks about the Communities for Kids program and how they can provide technical assistance to communities to build capacity and quality in childcare.

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[00:00:00.000]Thank you.
[00:00:29.980]Good morning, Rachel.
[00:00:54.660]Good morning. How are you today?
[00:00:59.500]It's cold and kind of snow flurries here, so.
[00:01:03.360]I saw this. Someone, one of my friends had posted in Garden County. It looked like it was snowing.
[00:01:10.620]I think it's worse, like Cheyenne, Garden, Duel, over that direction. We're just getting a little bit here in Kimball, but.
[00:01:19.260]How about you?
[00:01:24.840]It's cold here, too. I don't want to rub it in.
[00:01:29.020]Rub it in. The sun is still shining because I would prefer a little bit of flurry activity.
[00:01:33.220]But yeah, it's it's been interesting weather this week for sure. It's been raining here a lot.
[00:01:39.300]Yeah, that's good.
[00:01:43.000]Unless it's too much rain.
[00:01:45.680]No, it's just the right amount.
[00:01:58.540]It is snowing in Sydney. Who's on the iPad?
[00:02:14.840]Brandy. Hi, Brandy. Hi.
[00:02:21.840]Yeah, I don't know how Kimball's not getting anything. If Cheyenne and Sydney are getting it, that's not fair.
[00:02:28.060]It's just little tiny flurries here right now. Yeah, it's like sideways snowing
[00:02:32.160]here right now. It's not fun.
[00:02:35.660]I'm glad I didn't have to go to Sydney
[00:02:40.120]today. I have to go to Kearney on Friday,
[00:02:44.240]so hopefully everything's cleared up by then.
[00:02:46.400]Hopefully. A guy from Scott's Bluff came down and he said that
[00:02:51.700]it's doing nothing in Scott's Bluff, so he just hit a storm whenever he came
[00:02:56.100]to Sydney.
[00:02:57.580]That's what Marlo just said in the chat, too.
[00:02:59.800]I think down in the Imperial area, maybe they were supposed to get
[00:03:07.600]even more than the map I saw earlier.
[00:03:27.100]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:03:56.620]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:26.600]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:04:56.580]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:05:26.560]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:05:56.540]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:06:26.520]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
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[00:07:26.480]We'll give it a few more minutes to see if anyone shows up at the last minute.
[00:07:56.460]Rachel Morgan, I am a program specialist with the Nebraska Arts Council, and I oversee the creative district process.
[00:08:02.360]And Rob.
[00:08:05.320]Rob Irick, University of Nebraska Extension Engaging Zone Coordinator for the Panhandle.
[00:08:12.720]Thank you.
[00:08:14.440]And then I'll introduce our speaker today.
[00:08:17.680]Rachel Sissel is with the Communities for Kids program.
[00:08:21.360]She used to live here in the Panhandle, but has since moved.
[00:08:26.440]And I know her through her work with the Kimball C4K program, as well as a few others in the area.
[00:08:34.400]And she's going to give us an overview of what C4K does and how your community can join, reply to join the next cohorts.
[00:08:44.160]Thank you, Jamie.
[00:08:46.760]I do want to disclaim that I always tell people that I live in the East, but my heart is still in the West because the Panhandle is where I write.
[00:08:56.420]I was raised in my family, I lived in Oshkosh, Garden County, still make trips out to the Panhandle, to the family farm.
[00:09:02.980]I just happened to move back to my hometown where my two teenage sons are like still excited that we can have pizza delivered directly to our door.
[00:09:15.260]So that kind of baffles them because they had never experienced that before.
[00:09:20.020]But as Jamie said, I work for Nebraska Children and Families Foundation.
[00:09:25.900]And I'm also a pastor.
[00:09:26.400]I'm on the Communities for Kids team.
[00:09:28.020]My position is to do our research and evaluation for Communities for Kids and participate in statewide conversations.
[00:09:36.060]And then also provide technical assistance directly to communities.
[00:09:39.980]So the communities that I work with are actually in the Panhandle.
[00:09:43.820]And then I also have the pleasure of working with Cherry County, Keith County, North Platte, Gothenburg, and York.
[00:09:51.520]So I wasn't really quite sure how to format this because I'm not.
[00:09:56.180]I recognize some of the organizations and names.
[00:09:59.000]And so I didn't know if we wanted to make this more discussion based or I can run through a really quick PowerPoint touching on some of the overview of what Communities for Kids is and how to engage.
[00:10:11.300]And then also just in general, because Jamie said that you guys are a very data driven group, I did pull some sites that I think are very insightful into a kind of a picture of early childhood.
[00:10:25.960]Some of them are from a national perspective, and some of them are resources that are very helpful for more localized information.
[00:10:32.340]So does anyone want to ask a question or start off the conversation or would you guys all just all prefer I go into a very robotic, very caffeinated, and I have to tell you, I promise I am breathing overview of Communities for Kids.
[00:10:47.440]Anyone is familiar with TAPS facilitation?
[00:10:55.740]It tells me I'm supposed to wait 10 seconds.
[00:10:59.520]I never do that.
[00:11:00.960]So I'm going to go ahead and share screen and let me get my slideshow pulled up and
[00:11:06.300]then we'll just go ahead and start and if at any point you guys have questions or just
[00:11:11.800]want to shout out, hey, can you pause there, please feel free to do so.
[00:11:20.800]Can everyone see that?
[00:11:25.520]Yes.
[00:11:27.280]Can you see my screen?
[00:11:29.280]There it goes.
[00:11:31.280]Okay.
[00:11:32.280]Perfect.
[00:11:33.280]This, we always start off our slides with this, it is something that's cool, it came
[00:11:36.720]from a graphic artist who was capturing our 2023 C4K convening, so what she was essentially
[00:11:45.240]doing was using visual representation of discussion.
[00:11:49.140]So this is created by Nebraskans through that graphic artist and I think it's something
[00:11:54.500]that's kind of cool.
[00:11:55.300]Oh, can you guys still see my screen?
[00:11:58.860]Yes.
[00:11:59.860]Okay, perfect, thank you.
[00:12:05.260]So this is the representation of the communities that we work with.
[00:12:09.800]When I say communities in the C4K --
[00:12:12.340]It did not switch slides.
[00:12:13.980]Oh, there it goes.
[00:12:14.980]It's just slow.
[00:12:15.980]It might be just a little bit of a delay.
[00:12:20.320]So when I say communities, when we work with communities, we allow them to define their
[00:12:25.080]community.
[00:12:26.080]We are not beholden to school district lines or county lines or anything like that.
[00:12:36.340]So for instance, we work with Wisner-Pilger, which straddles two counties.
[00:12:40.660]We work with the community of Bertrand, which is designated as the Bertrand area.
[00:12:45.600]When we originally engaged in Keith County, it was Ogallala, but it expanded to Keith
[00:12:49.980]County.
[00:12:50.980]So we really follow the local definition of what a community is.
[00:12:54.860]We're an initiative, like I said, of Nebraska Children and Families.
[00:12:59.120]We are a planning initiative.
[00:13:00.880]We started in 2016, so we do want to say that we're still fairly young.
[00:13:05.800]But it started with kind of a concept paper because there are two very committed funders
[00:13:12.160]in Nebraska that are committed to the development of early childhood.
[00:13:16.100]What they were recognizing was there was a lot of requests around being able to develop
[00:13:21.340]early childhood efforts in local communities.
[00:13:24.640]So they got a bunch of brains together and put a concept that would provide technical
[00:13:30.580]assistance directly to rural areas across the state.
[00:13:35.000]Our mission is to partner with communities to prioritize the expansion and enhancement
[00:13:40.880]of quality early child care and education by identifying and addressing each community's
[00:13:46.300]unique strengths and needs.
[00:13:48.720]And what I really want to highlight within our mission is that we do not recruit communities.
[00:13:54.420]Seven years in, we don't go to communities and say, "This is what you need to do."
[00:14:00.920]Communities arrive at C4K to learn more about how they can apply, and we're very intentional
[00:14:05.840]in saying that we partner with communities.
[00:14:09.460]The other thing about our mission is that it talks about expansion and enhancement of
[00:14:15.120]quality care and education.
[00:14:17.640]So the two objectives that we really focus on are expanding capacity.
[00:14:24.200]Educating more childcare spots and enhancing quality.
[00:14:28.880]How we get there is described in the last part of our mission, which is by identifying
[00:14:35.300]and addressing each community's unique strengths and needs.
[00:14:39.480]So we are not a prescriptive model, so one of the things that we like to say within our
[00:14:44.380]initiative is that if you've seen one C4K community, you've seen one C4K community.
[00:14:50.520]We do have stories across our network of communities focusing
[00:14:53.980]on different things and arriving at those two metrics, the expansion of capacity and
[00:14:57.980]enhancement of quality in very, very different ways based on what they have available in
[00:15:04.420]their community and what can be sustained.
[00:15:07.660]So it's really driven by local priorities.
[00:15:10.560]We do have eight C4K team members.
[00:15:12.440]We have always been set up as a team that works remotely.
[00:15:17.400]So when I joined this team five years ago, I was based out of Oshkosh.
[00:15:22.400]We have a team member that lives
[00:15:23.760]south of Johnson Lake.
[00:15:26.640]We have one based in Atkinson, Blair, Taylor.
[00:15:30.280]We have, I think, two in Lincoln.
[00:15:34.140]But other than that, we're pretty spread out across the state.
[00:15:37.440]Currently, we work with 71 communities across the state and one region.
[00:15:43.280]And the region is actually the Panhandle Partnership.
[00:15:46.140]So that local collaborative in the Panhandle represents all 11 counties.
[00:15:52.140]We do work with them.
[00:15:53.540]We have the ability to disperse over $14 million to Nebraska communities through 360 contracts.
[00:16:01.560]That $14 million is both a blending and braiding of public funds, so federal dollars that came
[00:16:08.500]through in some investments in early childhood, and then also the committed private dollars
[00:16:13.560]that we have.
[00:16:16.440]That $8.3 million in leverage funds, one of the things that we track is how much communities
[00:16:22.060]are able to leverage.
[00:16:23.320]Local dollars, and we feel like that is such a highlight because it goes to show that rural
[00:16:27.860]communities, Nebraska communities are committed and they tap into resources.
[00:16:32.100]So through all of those 64, 72 partners that we have, $8.3 million was able to be raised
[00:16:40.960]at the local level, and I think that that is amazing.
[00:16:48.460]Did the slide change?
[00:16:51.100]Yes.
[00:16:53.100]I'm going to be very anxious because I feel like I'm going to have to slow down.
[00:16:57.620]So a really quick look at what C4K is.
[00:17:00.780]First, one of the things that we do is, and the Panhandle is so extremely good at this,
[00:17:05.180]I like to tell people that I professionally grew up in the Panhandle, but we employ the
[00:17:09.840]use of collective impact.
[00:17:12.480]And that is something that I think far and away the Panhandle does better than any other
[00:17:19.160]area in the state.
[00:17:20.960]And I love the state of Nebraska in all areas.
[00:17:22.880]And recognize strengths across our wonderful state.
[00:17:26.160]But I'm very thankful personally to have been exposed to collective impact through the Panhandle
[00:17:31.480]partnership and the way the 11 counties work together.
[00:17:34.420]So one of the things that we do when we talk to communities is really encourage them to
[00:17:38.940]look at this in a collective way.
[00:17:40.560]If families, if providers, if businesses could figure out how to expand capacity and strengthen
[00:17:47.540]early childhood care and education in their communities, they would have.
[00:17:51.720]It really does.
[00:17:52.660]It's a really good way to take an approach where everybody has to be under one umbrella, and working towards that common agenda through a collective impact approach. It is one of the most efficient ways to work and it ensures that there is not a duplication or replication of efforts. It's just a really great way to work. So we sort of lay the groundwork to say, as we have these conversations, we want you to think about these five different components and make sure that we're working collectively. As we all know, it's a lot easier to say, come build with us.
[00:18:22.440]than it is to say, see what we've built. If we want to really take on a community approach to addressing different needs, we need to do that with a lot of different sectors involved in the conversation because they all have different strengths, which takes us to the three pillars of C4K.
[00:18:39.380]So the first pillar is exactly that, engagement. Some of those, like core team, various sectors, those are the things that we employ within the framework to encourage communities to start putting together a way to engage.
[00:18:52.380]And so we want to engage across the community. Child care and education is not just a parent issue. It is not just a child issue. It's not just a child care provider issue. This is really a community issue.
[00:19:03.460]And so to make sure that there is a well-developed conversation, it's about engaging various sectors. So when a community applies for C4K, we do have suggested areas to try to find members of that core team that can really move efforts forward.
[00:19:21.040]And that ranges everywhere.
[00:19:22.360]So we want to hear from parents to the faith community that has connection to families in their community, to the schools, to nonprofit organizations, economic development, chamber of commerce, to really have a well-rounded conversation.
[00:19:37.420]We also encourage communities to utilize data. So one of the things, like I said, we don't recruit communities, but oftentimes when we have initial conversations, people will tell us the hardships that they face.
[00:19:50.720]They will talk about family.
[00:19:52.320]Planning they'll talk about 2 year wait lists. And those are that's real. Those are really good anecdotal stories. It's really great to have personal stories where you can name people that are experiencing hardship.
[00:20:05.320]But we also have to have those hard and fast facts.
[00:20:08.320]So one of the things as an initiative that we do with communities as an overall landscape analysis, and part of that is the early childhood quality and capacity survey.
[00:20:18.320]We help communities design the ecqca.
[00:20:22.320]And once we do that, we create a product called a data snapshot for communities, and that data snapshot really helps engage and start conversations.
[00:20:32.320]It can be a complement to funding that a community is pursuing through grants donor conversations, so that everyone sort of has the same access to a blending and you know kind of breeding of quantitative and qualitative data later on and I
[00:20:49.320]promise i'll pick this up.
[00:20:51.320]I will actually.
[00:20:52.320]Show you an example of what a data snapshot looks like and i'm using box views because it has one of the most powerful quotes on that snapshot.
[00:21:04.320]So engage and data utilization are 2 of the pillars, and then the final pillar is connection.
[00:21:09.320]So one of the things that I have said before is that we're not a prescriptive initiative.
[00:21:13.320]We do not tell communities what they need to know because we're not the experts.
[00:21:16.320]Community members are the experts in their community, and what we do is just help provide that assistance.
[00:21:21.320]To get connected to an overall statewide system of early childhood resources.
[00:21:28.320]It can be very overwhelming, but if a community is in need of something more than likely in our state, there's an organization that's already working on it.
[00:21:36.320]So that's one of the things that we try to do is help communities navigate early childhood systems, but also connect them to other communities that are working in the same area.
[00:21:47.320]We know that communities learn best from other communities.
[00:21:50.320]So that's what we really try to encourage.
[00:21:53.320]We refer to this kind of peer learning as the C4K network.
[00:21:58.320]And what I would say is within the culture of the C4K network, sharing is something that's absolutely ever present.
[00:22:06.320]We have communities share capital campaign materials, you know, 501 filings, flyers, workshops, ideas.
[00:22:17.320]It's a very it's a very connected.
[00:22:19.320]Network. Not going to wait 10 seconds.
[00:22:26.320]OK, here is a really quick my box, Marty Beard.
[00:22:32.320]She's a very dual person. Why? I tend to be a talker and like to have conversations.
[00:22:37.320]So she really encouraged us to design an overall model that would be helpful for people to see how we work.
[00:22:44.320]So really, when a community engages with us, it's that we sort of have conversations about readiness.
[00:22:48.320]What is currently happening? Ask for a strong commitment to.
[00:22:53.320]We do work with communities for three years to explore the process of what could a solution look like.
[00:22:59.320]And then one of the things that we bring are that collective impact approach, technical assistance, and then also a process guide through the three pillars.
[00:23:07.320]These are really the outcomes, the quality, capacity, scaling and economic impact are the outcomes that we're looking for.
[00:23:16.320]So before I start,
[00:23:17.320]before I get in, I did throw some of our data into some of the next slides.
[00:23:24.320]I've kind of I kind of pieced this PowerPoint together.
[00:23:27.320]So I do have some disclaimers about the data. But this is actually like I said, this is Box Butte's data snapshot.
[00:23:35.320]And so really what it focuses on is some community demographic information.
[00:23:39.320]What is currently available for child care, for early childhood resources?
[00:23:45.320]And that includes everything from.
[00:23:46.320]You know, public preschools, rule 11 preschools to community based DHS licensed capacity.
[00:23:59.320]We put all that together and compare that to the number of children under six years old that have all available caregivers in the workforce.
[00:24:10.320]And then from that, establish a gap number. And a lot of times people kind of.
[00:24:15.320]Kind of think, oh, my gosh, that means we have 255 kids that don't have anything.
[00:24:20.320]It's a nuanced number. It's kind of a starting point. And that's the conversation we like to have with communities, because as we know, families may be using family care.
[00:24:29.320]Not all children under six might need that that care because of other arrangements or, you know, opposite work schedules of parents.
[00:24:38.320]So it's really about a conversation that we have of what can we do to expand capacity and make sure that we're working towards.
[00:24:44.320]Creating enough space and meeting family needs.
[00:24:48.320]We also use the Nebraska education profile to look at district information to kind of identify some indicators that may help us understand more about what families and children are facing.
[00:25:01.320]Then on the back, this is actually from their early childhood quality and capacity survey.
[00:25:07.320]So these are some of the responses from Box Butte County residents.
[00:25:13.320]But and so we put that together. This is just a snapshot.
[00:25:17.320]Again, most surveys that communities put together are a lot more questions.
[00:25:24.320]We only have space to highlight six to nine of them.
[00:25:28.320]So as you can see, there's questions that are related to children and families.
[00:25:32.320]But then they also have questions that are related to community and impact on businesses or employers.
[00:25:38.320]Those questions are always very, very interesting. And I will talk a little bit more about that.
[00:25:42.320]I'll talk a little bit more about some of that information in a minute.
[00:25:46.320]I had mentioned a quote. So one of the things that always strikes me is this quote here that says finding childcare was the most stressful part of becoming a new mom.
[00:25:58.320]That, I think, is a pretty powerful quote. I think that maybe staying up all night was my most stressful part, but.
[00:26:08.320]OK, so as as I said, we move towards the outcomes of.
[00:26:11.320]Quality and capacity scaling and economic outcomes.
[00:26:15.320]So for capacity from June of 2023 to June of 2024, communities that partner with C4K were able to increase across the board capacity by over eighteen hundred new childcare slots.
[00:26:34.320]The participation in Step Up to Quality for a one year period.
[00:26:38.320]And we when we gathered this information.
[00:26:40.320]It was straight across the board from community to community.
[00:26:45.320]So I think total it was 64 communities that we were looking at because those were C4 communities that had a full year's contract.
[00:26:55.320]So it's a very even comparison, but Step Up to Quality increased by four percent.
[00:27:00.320]So the participation increased. That doesn't mean that that means four percent more of providers were participating in Step Up to Quality.
[00:27:09.320]But we did have providers that were currently participating move between the different steps and Step Up to Quality.
[00:27:19.320]I feel like I'm just rambling. So if anyone doesn't understand something, please let me know.
[00:27:24.320]But Step Up to Quality is the quality rating indicator system in Nebraska.
[00:27:28.320]Most states have one. But basically what it is, is there's five different steps that rate programs once quality indicators have been identified.
[00:27:37.320]So it's their voluntary participation.
[00:27:38.320]And it is incentivized and a great benefit to providers to participate in this program.
[00:27:45.320]So overall, again, 4% increase and then 68% of the programs were accepting subsidy.
[00:27:53.320]If you've been around early childhood providers or programs at all, childcare subsidy can be a very, it's a very unique issue.
[00:28:01.320]And there's a lot of barriers and challenges that face that overall system.
[00:28:07.320]But Nebraska is committed to making sure that families have access through financial assistance in subsidy.
[00:28:14.320]I think sometimes we just have to figure out that we're reflecting the cost of quality care.
[00:28:20.320]But 68% of providers in C4K communities do participate in that.
[00:28:26.320]This is my lame joke. How do we track all this?
[00:28:30.320]As you can see right here, all of this, that really was a joke. I don't expect anyone to see it.
[00:28:36.320]But all of this actually comes through a partnership with DHHS.
[00:28:39.320]So biweekly, they send us an entire statewide view of what capacity looks like across the entire state.
[00:28:46.320]And then, of course, we isolate it to look at the communities that we work with.
[00:28:51.320]And so that's where these numbers come from.
[00:28:56.320]This is also kind of a fun one. So, again, I noted that communities for kids are remote staff.
[00:29:05.320]But we do we believe in windshield time. We believe being directly in communities.
[00:29:10.320]And so in the twenty three, twenty four year, we traveled over fifty seven thousand miles.
[00:29:15.320]We are not one of the statewide organizations that say we represent the entire state, but don't actually travel to communities.
[00:29:20.320]We feel like that's one of our greatest strengths is actually being there and seeing our partners across the table.
[00:29:26.320]Personally, it's also the reason why I can tell you where the best cheeseburger is in the state of Nebraska and where you can find the best cup of ice cream.
[00:29:34.320]So those are some of the side benefits for me.
[00:29:39.320]Nobody's interested. It's Stewart. Yes. What are your favorites?
[00:29:43.320]So Stewart, Nebraska, which is a tiny village in northeast Nebraska, has the best cheeseburger at the Cast Iron Grill.
[00:29:51.320]I will tell you that Cappuccino and Company has the best boba tea.
[00:29:55.320]So I always encourage people to go there. And the mixing bowl in Goering I went to for the very first time.
[00:30:03.320]I absolutely loved it. So there's I could go on and tell you more, but then I'm just going to get hungry and have to excuse myself.
[00:30:12.320]OK, so here's the one thing I do want to tell you is, is that this particular slide is was from a presentation that we did in Kentucky in April of this year.
[00:30:24.320]So it's going to be a little bit different than the numbers that I just talked about, because that was a look from June 23 to June 24.
[00:30:32.320]And I wanted to share this one with you because it gives an overall look at what we had done up to the past seven years so it was actually current as of December 31.
[00:30:45.320]So overall, in, in working with all of our communities we've been able to increase capacity by over 3000 slots.
[00:30:53.320]83% of the program so again when we say there's a 4% increase. We're still in the majority, because 83% of the programs that are located.
[00:31:01.320]In partnering C4K communities do participate in C4K. And then also at that time 69% of communities programs were accepting childcare subsidy.
[00:31:14.320]And again, that childcare subsidy is very difficult for early childhood providers to navigate, but it is such a benefit to Nebraska families. So it's, it's, it is yet another.
[00:31:28.320]It's yet another thing to recognize about our early childhood programs.
[00:31:30.320]It's yet another thing to recognize about our early childhood providers, that they really are doing everything they can to support families it is it is a service based industry.
[00:31:39.320]At that time we were working with 67 communities, so we started in 2017 with nine communities, and by 2000 by 2023. We were working with 67 and like I said, we're up to 71 communities and one region.
[00:31:59.320]So, we're representing the majority of Nebraska counties.
[00:32:03.320]We've also had over 15 national organizations and eight additional statewide organizations reach out to learn more about communities for kids.
[00:32:13.320]We have been able to have conversations, so this is just a really nice thing that other states are taking notice of what's happening.
[00:32:19.480]in Nebraska. And again, I don't say taking notice of what's happening with C4K because this is
[00:32:25.490]community work, but we've been able to meet with Montana, Louisiana. We met with Ohio last week,
[00:32:31.830]and tomorrow I think we're meeting with Idaho. People are interested in what's happening. And
[00:32:37.270]the greatest thing that we can say is, is that these are really grassroots efforts. It is truly
[00:32:42.430]a model that learns what's happening at local levels so that it can be elevated up as potential
[00:32:48.010]solutions. So I think that that's something personally that's very promising. The other
[00:32:53.470]thing is, is that we host every year a C4K convening, which means that we bring all of
[00:32:58.190]our communities together. It's like the most fun family reunion I've ever been to. It's really fun.
[00:33:05.970]I don't even know why we try to host sessions because most people are just connecting and
[00:33:10.550]talking on their own. But from 2018 to 2023, we've jumped from 29 communities to 84.
[00:33:17.650]We had seven states registered last year. We just had our debrief because every year this
[00:33:23.070]is hosted in September. We had 15 states registered this year for C4K convening.
[00:33:29.550]And then the economic impact. The economic impact is something that we really want to take
[00:33:36.330]a deeper dive into. We have a lot of conversations, especially about workforce. And because
[00:33:46.410]childcare supports our current workforce, how does that translate? And so that's one of the
[00:33:52.170]things that we want to look deeper into. And I'm actually going to show you a resource that does do
[00:33:57.130]that, that we're learning more about. But the economic impact that we're measuring right now
[00:34:02.530]is really focused within childcare. So we've been able to distribute over $570,000 in early
[00:34:09.290]learning scholarships. And those scholarships, you know, Kimball has an early scholar, early learning
[00:34:15.170]scholarship effort embedded into their C4K work. Box Butte County is looking at that. Gearing does
[00:34:23.470]this. I know Garden County had done this at one point. And I also believe Baird uses some of the
[00:34:31.450]funds that we're able to provide them for early learning scholarships. And they've also tapped
[00:34:35.650]into some public local dollars like Keno Funds to support those scholarships. Through that $570,000,
[00:34:43.190]we were able to partner with
[00:34:44.690]130 programs. We asked early childhood providers, so the programs, how this worked for them,
[00:34:53.810]and 88% of them said that it had a positive impact on their business. So that's one of the
[00:34:59.770]things that I think sometimes is lost. We talk a lot about the importance of early childhood
[00:35:04.250]as it relates to brain development. That's absolutely important. We talk about how it
[00:35:09.730]impacts local communities and workforce. Absolutely important.
[00:35:14.210]But we also have to recognize that early childhood providers and programs are not just
[00:35:20.430]teachers, but they're also businesses. And so the fact that people are saying, yes, when we
[00:35:26.590]subsidize and when we help stabilize those businesses, there's a positive impact. Because
[00:35:32.090]right now, the two public investments that we have in child care are child care subsidy and
[00:35:36.530]the food program, which most child care programs participate in. The other thing that we were able
[00:35:43.730]was that 57% of the families that were receiving a scholarship had a parent report their ability
[00:35:49.570]to increase hours at work. So I think that that's really interesting. And it's important to note
[00:35:54.570]that when we offer and partner with the community to develop a scholarship program,
[00:36:00.410]one of the requirements is that families have to first access child care subsidy.
[00:36:07.170]So if they have to prove that they have taken advantage of the availability
[00:36:13.250]of already allocated dollars. So if a family applies for child care subsidy to receive
[00:36:19.530]financial assistance through the state and they are denied, they then become eligible
[00:36:24.970]for that local scholarship. If they are approved, then amazing. They're able to
[00:36:31.350]access those dollars and use that system. So those are some of the things that we look at.
[00:36:39.170]And... Rachel, I can give
[00:36:42.770]examples of the scholarships. It's pretty new in Kimball, but the two scholarships we've done so
[00:36:51.430]far were for a family where one of the parents had been laid off. So they just needed some
[00:36:57.290]temporary assistance. And the other was honestly more to help the child care provider. It was a
[00:37:06.410]monthly bills and the provider was still taking care of their children and hadn't told
[00:37:12.290]them they wouldn't be eligible for their program anymore. So we paid a few months of their back
[00:37:20.910]fees just to make sure that the provider is financially stable.
[00:37:26.510]And that's, I think that, thank you, Jamie, for sharing that, because I think that that's
[00:37:31.190]something that's really important. There are times when it is kind of just this moment in
[00:37:36.390]time that there's help that's needed. The thing about that is, is that every community pays
[00:37:41.810]the early childhood provider directly. So it's not something that goes to the family. It's
[00:37:46.170]something that goes to the provider to help the family. But by doing that, it stabilizes the
[00:37:51.390]business. Because as you said, these, you know, these professionals, these early childhood
[00:37:55.550]professionals are servants at heart. And so they're not going to stop that care. But that then
[00:38:01.730]impacts their business and, you know, their ability to bring in revenue. And so the fact
[00:38:08.610]that communities work so hard to make sure that
[00:38:11.330]they're supporting providers is something that's really important.
[00:38:14.250]The reason why I included this slide is mostly because of that policy leadership piece. So we
[00:38:25.690]also partner with First Five Nebraska, which is kind of the policy arm of Nebraska Children and
[00:38:30.810]Families Foundation. And one of the things that we do is we share the opportunity for the policy
[00:38:35.870]leadership academy. And this is something that is a very unique experience. It focuses on the
[00:38:41.310]grassroots advocacy and also on learning more about how to impact early childhood policy.
[00:38:51.630]And that's something that's so incredibly helpful. I know that when they were looking at one of the
[00:39:00.050]legislative bills last year that was passed, LB 874, I reached out directly again to Angie Lupin
[00:39:08.110]in Kimball, to Bobby Stewart in Baird, to everybody. And I think that's something that
[00:39:11.290]asked questions about how one of the elements, and it was a Christmas tree bill, but how one of
[00:39:16.350]the elements that were included within that bill would impact early childhood providers. And it was
[00:39:21.010]about the ability to hold dual licensure. So a child care center could also hold a family child
[00:39:27.830]care to license, which would impact staff ratio. And so it was invaluable to have people that are
[00:39:34.250]on the ground saying, this is how we see it working right now in motion. That's so incredibly helpful.
[00:39:41.270]Absolutely. The norm that policy leadership academy participants end up testifying in front
[00:39:46.450]of the legislature on a bill. They meet with their legislators to talk about what's happening
[00:39:51.750]in their communities and how efforts around early childhood are developing. And so this is,
[00:39:56.650]and the other thing, I'm just going to say this because I already shared about the food.
[00:40:00.450]You take a really in-depth look at the unicameral, which we all know
[00:40:05.210]is unique to Nebraska. And so there's a lot of pride in learning how that system works.
[00:40:11.250]So it's a really great thing.
[00:40:13.770]So that's our tech team. That's another graphic artist photo from our meeting.
[00:40:25.570]I'm going to stop share and pull up the other resources. But is there any, are there any
[00:40:32.350]questions that anyone might have about Communities for Kids or the partnerships that we have with
[00:40:41.230]communities across our state?
[00:40:42.730]Rachel, it's Shauna in Chapel. And our school does our daycare preschool.
[00:40:55.010]Would they have to apply or could I apply for the community?
[00:41:01.110]So that's always a really interesting question. One of the things that we do,
[00:41:08.330]so thank you for asking about application.
[00:41:11.750]The process is a community that's interested can email me directly and I'll throw my contact
[00:41:17.750]information in the chat, or they can email C4Kinfo at Nebraska Children. The next step is
[00:41:24.590]what we will do is we will have an initial meeting. So oftentimes it's kind of like a
[00:41:30.030]presentation like this. It's really quick, but it really offers us an opportunity to learn about
[00:41:35.790]what's happening in your current community, in your community. And then say, you know,
[00:41:41.190]hey, this is kind of the way we work. This is what the process is. And after that initial meeting,
[00:41:46.970]we then share an application. We do have an application process. I always tell communities
[00:41:53.110]that it is not a dissertation. What we really are asking for communities is to describe their
[00:41:58.430]community, to tell us what some of their long-term and short-term goals are, to tell us about the
[00:42:03.890]need that they have, to share some of the demographics, and if they've engaged with anyone
[00:42:09.170]else having the conversation.
[00:42:11.710]Because we are a community approach, what we would encourage is to have more than just one person.
[00:42:19.630]This is not an initiative that's set up to have three or four people make the decisions.
[00:42:25.250]And it's not because three or four people can't make decisions, but it's because for it to be
[00:42:30.970]successful, we really need that collective approach.
[00:42:34.390]So we had a provider actually in Bloomfield, Nebraska,
[00:42:41.150]this past year, and we had a call and she was like, hey, we just need to do something.
[00:42:46.310]So what we did was we accepted the application, asked if we could move her into the next cycle.
[00:42:52.270]And what she's been doing this year is really trying to gather
[00:42:56.030]more people to engage in the conversation.
[00:42:58.170]And she's been very successful.
[00:42:59.610]I think that that's what we would encourage you to do.
[00:43:03.810]Again, just because the cornerstone of our work is a collective approach.
[00:43:07.690]Right.
[00:43:08.270]Okay.
[00:43:08.930]Yeah, because they, I know.
[00:43:11.130]As you know, rule 11 is kind of like a huge stickler.
[00:43:15.230]And so we've had to turn away a lot of our preschool kids who go half a day and then
[00:43:22.930]their parents are teachers and they've had to find, you know, grandparents, somebody
[00:43:29.490]else.
[00:43:29.910]And we're hoping to kind of go away from rule 11 just because it is such a pain and
[00:43:36.490]there's so many rules and regulations.
[00:43:39.690]But I just thought.
[00:43:41.110]That this would be a great opportunity to join, you know, connect for kids and kind
[00:43:47.730]of go from there, I guess.
[00:43:49.010]Yeah, I think that that's and that's one of the great things like this.
[00:43:53.430]I'm already like in work mode is that Baird has come up with a really innovative system
[00:43:59.890]of how to partner their rule 11 preschool with a community based licensed child care.
[00:44:05.610]So again, going back to that pillar of connect, that's what we do is say, hey, you should talk
[00:44:11.090]to the people in Baird.
[00:44:11.930]And then also Moral.
[00:44:13.410]Moral is making that transition from a rule 11 early learning center.
[00:44:18.210]And they've come up with a really unique kind of innovative response on how to not interrupt
[00:44:25.650]services to families, but it's cost.
[00:44:28.650]Like the cost to operate a rule 11 preschool is incredibly prohibitive.
[00:44:34.330]So those are two school districts that I would encourage you to talk to, but also can share
[00:44:40.370]an application.
[00:44:41.070]So that's the other thing is that through all of this, this is always the piece that
[00:44:47.330]I forget.
[00:44:47.810]I've talked about technical assistance.
[00:44:50.710]When a community contracts with communities for kids, what we actually do is enter into
[00:44:58.630]a three-year contract that is renewed annually.
[00:45:01.570]So every year we just do a new contract and then we make available to that community $30,000.
[00:45:08.110]And that $30,000 can be used.
[00:45:11.050]In a number of different ways, it's usually distributed at $10,000 per year.
[00:45:15.390]But because it's all private funding, if a community says, hey, we need $15,000 this
[00:45:21.390]year, then we will make that adjustment.
[00:45:23.870]It is not a use it or lose it grant.
[00:45:26.510]What our goal is, is to make sure that communities have access to that full $30,000 over the
[00:45:32.630]course of three years.
[00:45:33.630]So if we have to contract for three and a half, for four years, we absolutely do.
[00:45:38.250]And our funders support that, which is, again, just an example.
[00:45:41.030]That commitment dollars that are contracted can be used for in a number of different ways.
[00:45:46.830]So I talked about a survey.
[00:45:48.910]I'm going to pick on Kimball because I can see Jamie.
[00:45:52.450]But when Kimball did their early childhood community survey, they bought a Yeti cooler
[00:45:58.650]with the funds that were provided.
[00:46:00.790]And so anybody that responded to that survey could throw their hat in a drawing for a Yeti
[00:46:06.310]cooler in Garden County.
[00:46:08.310]We bought $10, $50.
[00:46:11.010]We bought $10, $50 gift certificates to the Super Ret.
[00:46:14.470]So anybody that responded, we just did a drawing and you could be in a drawing to win the gift
[00:46:21.590]certificate.
[00:46:21.930]We've paid for feasibility studies for the renovation of buildings.
[00:46:25.530]We've helped pay for blueprints for the design of buildings.
[00:46:29.490]We, there are communities that will employ a coordinator.
[00:46:36.770]So because this is such a complex issue and because we're,
[00:46:40.990]asking core teams to really reach outside of who they're normally having
[00:46:44.990]conversations with, it sort of becomes this period where, Hey,
[00:46:48.910]for us to implement this, we really, we can't just expect someone to do it.
[00:46:52.550]We want to compensate them for their time. So you can use funds to do that.
[00:46:56.350]We've had communities say,
[00:46:57.990]we want to go visit red cloud and look at their childcare program and talk to
[00:47:02.630]their staff.
[00:47:03.270]So we've paid mileage and travel for communities to kind of do case studies of
[00:47:09.050]peer communities. It's very,
[00:47:10.970]very flexible. We always jokingly say like nothing happens in Hawaii.
[00:47:15.990]Sorry, we can't go there and no keggers,
[00:47:18.790]but that's pretty much where the lines are drawn.
[00:47:21.930]And then also each community that we partner with receives a technical
[00:47:26.770]assistant.
[00:47:27.210]So I said earlier that I work with communities in the panhandle you know,
[00:47:32.670]Melissa who lives in Atkinson, she works with communities in the Northeast.
[00:47:36.050]Shauna works with communities in the central region.
[00:47:38.770]But what we do is kind of,
[00:47:40.950]walk alongside. We are not the decision makers. We are not the experts.
[00:47:45.150]We are not the funders.
[00:47:47.910]What we're there to do is provide assistance to make sure that a community is
[00:47:51.910]connected and accessing resources. So what we're really there is,
[00:47:56.050]we always like to say we're just a part of the team,
[00:47:58.890]but we very much respect that it is, it is your community.
[00:48:04.090]So that's kind of, that's how we work.
[00:48:10.930]I'm just going to check the chat.
[00:48:12.170]Denise just asked you to email her.
[00:48:18.170]We do have two, six regions, one Nebraska and navigators on today.
[00:48:23.070]I know that childcare has been a focus and at least those two areas.
[00:48:26.790]And I think a few others across the state as well.
[00:48:29.190]Tasha and I just had a conversation last week with panhandle partnership and
[00:48:34.250]the systems of care birth through eight group about how we can align efforts.
[00:48:40.910]And make sure we're not duplicating anything.
[00:48:42.950]And I think that that, I think that that is such a fantastic thing,
[00:48:46.430]especially in the partnership, because you guys,
[00:48:48.290]the panhandle has such a long standing systems of care.
[00:48:52.730]Like that is an example for the rest of the state,
[00:48:56.010]how there is so much collaboration that happens around early childhood.
[00:49:00.170]I know that if you talk to faith, she has said it publicly,
[00:49:02.910]but the early childhood group is probably their strongest system.
[00:49:06.910]And so I think that that's, that's one of the benefits.
[00:49:10.890]The six regions when Nebraska is a really cool process.
[00:49:14.610]And I'm sure most of you have been involved in that.
[00:49:16.990]I would say there's a lot of parallels.
[00:49:18.790]Six regions is set up to be very collaborative.
[00:49:21.970]And that's also the way we try to,
[00:49:24.810]to work and partner with communities. Oftentimes I, you know,
[00:49:30.070]I have pulled up the slide deck from the Western region because there's a lot
[00:49:35.370]of really good insight in that, that slide deck.
[00:49:40.010]And I,
[00:49:40.870]I often go to it when looking at communities,
[00:49:43.470]like one of the things that I had written down was if you look at the number
[00:49:48.210]of children with all available caregivers, they're, they're all 80 plus.
[00:49:53.410]I mean, I think garden County was the only one that I saw that I was like,
[00:49:56.150]you know, Banner County is a hundred plus.
[00:49:57.930]So that means a hundred plus parents percentage of parents are in the
[00:50:02.150]workforce. But then at the same time,
[00:50:04.070]the Western region also has some of the highest unemployment rates.
[00:50:07.970]So there's this, there's this idea,
[00:50:10.850]that if you read between the lines, those that are working are parents.
[00:50:14.570]And so I think that that just makes another case as to why having enough
[00:50:19.930]childcare is so incredibly important. We, of course,
[00:50:25.330]as we move throughout conversations in this state,
[00:50:28.490]housing and childcare are becoming extremely linked at the governor's ag and
[00:50:34.110]economic development summit in August.
[00:50:36.330]We, this was the first time that early childhood was included as one of the
[00:50:40.830]topics. And we did three different sessions with, you know,
[00:50:44.410]NYFA in one of them, in two of them.
[00:50:46.410]So the Nebraska investment finance authority focused on housing.
[00:50:50.290]And then also we did a solely focused childcare action hour.
[00:50:55.590]So the conversation across the state,
[00:50:57.710]it's interesting to see the development and the emphasis that a lot of
[00:51:04.790]different types of organizations are placing on childcare.
[00:51:10.810]Now to the fun part, I'm going to show you guys some great resources.
[00:51:17.210]And these are the ones that I really appreciate.
[00:51:21.550]If anyone, please don't ever feel like you have to remember all of this.
[00:51:28.570]I can share all of these with Jamie and then she can send it out to everyone.
[00:51:33.270]So I don't want you to feel like, what did, what did that lady say?
[00:51:37.410]Okay. I'm going to share really,
[00:51:40.790]really quick,
[00:51:41.090]but this is a really great resource for just the landscape of early childhood
[00:51:45.830]in general.
[00:51:46.490]And these are some of the things that we're going to model after,
[00:51:49.830]but there is a, can you guys see that?
[00:51:53.410]Yes. Okay. So first five years fund, it's a national organization.
[00:52:01.510]And the thing that I really appreciate about this is,
[00:52:07.250]is they have a why it matters section and even,
[00:52:10.770]even just right here for a child, the first five years last forever.
[00:52:13.330]The one thing that we haven't talked about is how important the first five
[00:52:16.930]years are. 90% of the brain is developed in the first five years.
[00:52:20.170]It's when a child's brain is the most flexible.
[00:52:22.130]And it really is that scaffolding for later learning.
[00:52:25.170]It affects everything from academic to social and emotional learning.
[00:52:29.230]So one of the things that we often say to kind of make the case for
[00:52:32.990]importance is not only does everyone depend on someone who depends on
[00:52:37.190]childcare, but the, again,
[00:52:40.750]this is the most impactful time,
[00:52:43.270]but you'll go through and you can see early childhood development,
[00:52:47.770]lifelong gains, the impact of early childhood on working families,
[00:52:51.710]care and education. We're going to pause right here at economy and business.
[00:52:55.550]So if you click on this,
[00:52:57.990]they have some really national aggregated numbers.
[00:53:02.730]So the two that I am particular,
[00:53:04.970]actually the four that I'm particularly interested in is the average that a
[00:53:10.730]lot of the conversations that we have with communities is focused on
[00:53:13.550]employers, HR directors, hiring managers.
[00:53:16.610]And they talk about how the turnover is,
[00:53:23.150]is so great of any employee, but when they can say, Oh,
[00:53:26.830]it's because of the lack of childcare, a lot of,
[00:53:28.750]a lot of businesses are thinking, how can we support this?
[00:53:31.530]Because we cannot continue to afford losing employees because they don't
[00:53:37.610]have childcare in those early childhood,
[00:53:40.710]quality and capacity surveys.
[00:53:43.070]We do have a section that we talk about with communities and they send out.
[00:53:48.510]What I can tell you is over 50% of Nebraska communities.
[00:53:53.350]So we take all of the community surveys and put them all together.
[00:53:57.050]There are six questions that we ask every community to ask.
[00:54:01.010]So we have kind of a statewide picture.
[00:54:02.710]One of those communities is does a lack of childcare impact your employees
[00:54:08.750]like a reduction in child care?
[00:54:10.690]In performance, you know, being tardy, absenteeism,
[00:54:14.650]over 50% of the responses from employers say that, yes,
[00:54:20.130]they see a lack of childcare impacting their staff in some way.
[00:54:24.110]I think that that's a pretty big number.
[00:54:26.490]We go further to ask how.
[00:54:28.750]We ask employers in those surveys,
[00:54:31.290]have you ever not been able to grow your business?
[00:54:35.650]Have you ever not been able to hire a candidate of choice?
[00:54:39.090]And so I think,
[00:54:40.670]um,
[00:54:41.190]even employers are recognizing,
[00:54:43.350]Hey,
[00:54:43.830]for us to have a great staff,
[00:54:45.470]we need to,
[00:54:46.250]to really look at some of the issues that are affecting them.
[00:54:49.730]Um,
[00:54:50.790]I could go on forever about this,
[00:54:52.770]but in Elwood,
[00:54:53.650]Nebraska,
[00:54:54.110]the other day,
[00:54:54.670]we were doing an orientation with them and they had an assisted living
[00:54:58.210]administrator.
[00:54:58.870]She said,
[00:55:00.270]they're the largest employer.
[00:55:01.350]They have 60 employees.
[00:55:02.690]She said,
[00:55:03.550]I can't grow my business because we don't have anywhere for,
[00:55:06.190]um,
[00:55:06.550]families to take their children.
[00:55:08.650]And she has the goal of,
[00:55:10.650]um,
[00:55:11.310]going from 60 to 70.
[00:55:12.830]So the reason why she's so interested in helping to develop an early
[00:55:18.430]childcare program in Elwood is because it's a mutually reinforcing
[00:55:22.050]activity.
[00:55:22.630]If they create space,
[00:55:24.190]she can start,
[00:55:25.570]um,
[00:55:26.470]hiring more staff members because she knows there's availability.
[00:55:29.750]We oftentimes have conversations with superintendents who say,
[00:55:33.750]I can't retain teachers because we don't have anywhere for their children
[00:55:37.510]to go.
[00:55:38.030]We have the same conversations about housing.
[00:55:41.630]Um,
[00:55:41.830]but I think that if we could put a number on it to say on average,
[00:55:45.030]a business in Nebraska loses this much because of turnover,
[00:55:47.850]because of a lack of childcare,
[00:55:49.230]I think that that would move the conversation farther.
[00:55:51.370]Um,
[00:55:52.550]you can see number three,
[00:55:53.530]70% of small businesses say that it's essential.
[00:55:56.830]Um,
[00:55:57.950]but then that the investment that number four and number five,
[00:56:01.750]those returns are really high.
[00:56:03.810]There is,
[00:56:04.650]um,
[00:56:05.190]an economist that puts down that number to say for every dollar invested,
[00:56:08.870]it's between seven to 13.
[00:56:10.610]And they actually go through a methodology to say,
[00:56:13.290]this is exactly where we can see it.
[00:56:15.150]And it comes from workforce,
[00:56:17.570]um,
[00:56:18.270]juvenile justice systems,
[00:56:19.730]you know,
[00:56:20.210]just health and wellbeing of individuals that have high quality early
[00:56:24.790]childhood experiences.
[00:56:25.830]So this is a great resource.
[00:56:28.010]They also do a Nebraska fact sheet.
[00:56:31.110]So that's why I also wanted to share this with you.
[00:56:33.810]And that Nebraska fact sheet gives you a snapshot of Nebraska as
[00:56:40.590]created by the first five years fund.
[00:56:42.850]So you can look through that.
[00:56:45.430]Again, I'll share these resources, but you kind of get an idea.
[00:56:49.570]One of the things that I like to look at are the different kinds of
[00:56:52.690]funds that are within our state.
[00:56:55.770]So kind of that funding map.
[00:56:57.190]So you can just go through and look at this.
[00:57:00.810]It also talks about like on average,
[00:57:04.430]what a Nebraska childcare staff member earns.
[00:57:07.690]So you can look at that.
[00:57:10.570]I can't see my screen.
[00:57:12.130]Here's another one.
[00:57:14.310]This is from the Bipartisan Policy Center
[00:57:18.110]and it's a childcare gap.
[00:57:19.970]So if you select the state of Nebraska,
[00:57:23.130]you can have, you can apply any of these different filters.
[00:57:26.050]I of course have it for county
[00:57:28.630]and have zoomed in in Panhandle area.
[00:57:31.110]The thing that I love about this
[00:57:33.110]is that you can look at the economic impact
[00:57:35.790]of a lack of childcare.
[00:57:36.930]They have a methodology so that you can understand
[00:57:40.550]how that last number that says economic impact.
[00:57:43.610]So if we look at this in Box Butte County,
[00:57:45.850]there's a loss of over $10 million
[00:57:47.290]because of a lack of childcare.
[00:57:48.950]You could look at Kimball County,
[00:57:51.090]there's a loss of over $4 million.
[00:57:52.630]So you can do that on any county in Nebraska.
[00:57:56.950]If you scroll down,
[00:57:59.970]I'm sorry that I'm showing you how to use a website,
[00:58:02.590]but I really do like this one
[00:58:04.490]and think that there's a lot of opportunity for conversation.
[00:58:06.970]If you scroll down to the economic impact section,
[00:58:10.530]it highlights the methodology used.
[00:58:12.970]So it says that loss is rooted in household impacts,
[00:58:17.750]business impacts, and tax revenue.
[00:58:19.870]You can see over here, they show that estimate.
[00:58:23.610]If you click on the table,
[00:58:26.270]you can actually go through and get the annual low,
[00:58:30.250]annual high, and then the future low and high,
[00:58:32.890]which is 10 years out.
[00:58:34.190]So I think that that's something to really take a look at.
[00:58:40.510]And first five, Nebraska is another,
[00:58:49.230]I had already mentioned them.
[00:58:50.410]First five, Nebraska is again, the policy arm.
[00:58:52.570]It's a focused advocacy organization for early childhood.
[00:58:57.690]They have a lot of great resources.
[00:58:59.670]They're very active and they update their site a lot.
[00:59:02.590]One of the things,
[00:59:03.970]they also were the ones that host that policy leadership academy and in
[00:59:08.290]partnership with communities for kids.
[00:59:10.650]The thing that I like about this is they actually have a legislative
[00:59:13.830]tracker.
[00:59:14.370]So once session opens in January,
[00:59:16.710]if you're interested in seeing the different early childhood bills,
[00:59:20.950]they do put a legislative tracker out there and it will show,
[00:59:24.030]and they will even say, we're watching, we're supporting,
[00:59:25.910]we're against this.
[00:59:27.190]So it's something that's really helpful to look at right now.
[00:59:30.590]There are childcare tax credits available and they have an entirely
[00:59:33.850]different.
[00:59:33.910]If you click on this right here,
[00:59:36.890]it will take you to another website that really explains,
[00:59:41.310]I'm going to do it really quick.
[00:59:42.850]It explains the different tax credits that are available.
[00:59:47.730]So you can see that all right here.
[00:59:53.170]The other thing is, is again, Jamie, I know that in Kimball,
[00:59:59.110]you guys were really talking about how can the word get out to
[01:00:02.630]businesses,
[01:00:03.210]employers who are looking to make maybe a gift to the early childhood
[01:00:07.510]local system, Mike Feakin,
[01:00:09.410]who is their strategic,
[01:00:10.450]strategic partnerships advisor who's also liaison with the Nebraska
[01:00:13.550]department of economic development is absolutely available to come to
[01:00:17.810]your community and walk through and talk about it.
[01:00:19.690]We did this at the end of September with a group of childcare providers
[01:00:23.950]in Boxview County.
[01:00:25.850]So we went to the night museum and we did a provider gallery walk,
[01:00:29.770]but the first half hour was just childcare providers asking about those
[01:00:34.030]tax credits.
[01:00:34.830]And then the final is this is the community
[01:00:40.430]for kids website.
[01:00:41.550]And what I really want to highlight is under what we do,
[01:00:45.910]we have three new elements.
[01:00:50.430]The first one is C4K origin story is really cool because it talks about
[01:00:57.830]each individual community.
[01:00:58.930]So if you want to look through that, we actually have hard copy,
[01:01:02.010]but these are the electronic versions,
[01:01:04.370]but you can go through and read the stories of each community that we
[01:01:07.130]partner with.
[01:01:07.710]And if there's one that you're interested in, you can,
[01:01:09.890]we can absolutely,
[01:01:10.410]you can absolutely connect you to them.
[01:01:11.630]There's also a video that's really helpful and it has a lot of our funders
[01:01:16.410]in it talking about communities for kids, but the early years report,
[01:01:20.290]if you go to the selectronic version,
[01:01:22.070]we have two or three pages included in that that is all about our
[01:01:25.930]measurements.
[01:01:26.330]So if you're interested in learning more and seeing some of the progress
[01:01:30.470]that Nebraska communities are able to make,
[01:01:33.010]I would encourage you to go to there.
[01:01:35.210]Oh, and this was the sixth region.
[01:01:40.390]So I had that pulled up.
[01:01:42.290]I would encourage you guys to definitely look at that because there's a lot
[01:01:46.970]of information in there that I think is really helpful.
[01:01:49.590]So I've left three minutes for questions.
[01:01:53.650]What questions does everyone have?
[01:01:58.390]And I'm able to stay on longer if anyone needs to stay on past our time to
[01:02:08.370]visit with Rachel.
[01:02:10.370]What is the northeast region in your company?
[01:02:13.570]Melissa Polinosky is her name since she is based in Atkinson.
[01:02:20.210]And do you have data per county of the needs or how is that assessed?
[01:02:25.150]So when we do it,
[01:02:27.450]we do a landscape analysis and what we do is number one,
[01:02:30.770]we follow what the community is so we can do county.
[01:02:35.270]But if it's like just one community, we tend to focus on them.
[01:02:40.350]A bipartisan policy center does provide information by county about the
[01:02:45.770]need. So you can use that as a resource. Is there a specific county?
[01:02:50.010]Are you just thinking in general?
[01:02:51.630]Well, that's our housing is done by county because we couldn't do every
[01:02:56.170]community, but it could be communities in the county too. So thank you.
[01:03:01.490]Yeah.
[01:03:10.330]Any other questions for Rachel?
[01:03:14.650]Thank you all for joining us today. I just put in the chat,
[01:03:24.710]if you have any announcements for your community or your organization,
[01:03:29.130]you want to share with the group,
[01:03:30.290]just throw them in the chat and I will share them with everyone.
[01:03:33.730]Thank you all for joining us today. Next month,
[01:03:37.210]we're going to do an informal conversation about artificial
[01:03:40.310]intelligence.
[01:03:41.150]And if any of you use it in your day-to-day work,
[01:03:46.370]please join us to share so we can do some peer learning.
[01:03:49.250]Oh, Lauren has a question.
[01:03:52.910]Is the information from the childcare hour governor's August summit
[01:03:57.170]available?
[01:03:57.770]I believe it was a similar PowerPoint,
[01:04:02.310]but I can share that and all of the resources with you.
[01:04:05.130]And then that childcare action hour was really participants coming up with
[01:04:10.290]solutions. So it was sort of an interactive thing. And I'm pretty sure we have a write-up for it. So
[01:04:16.330]I can absolutely share that too. Thank you. And I'll share everything with Jamie. I will send it
[01:04:23.110]out when I send out the recording. This was recorded. It was recorded. I'm just kidding.
[01:04:29.710]Thank you all. Thank you for your interest. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you everyone for joining us.
[01:04:35.950]Have a good day.
[01:04:36.910]Thank you.
[01:04:37.010]Thank you.
[01:04:37.070]Thank you.

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