CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha Valley economic development organization says something must be done now about addressing the need for childcare after finding a deficit of over 5,000 childcare slots, affecting 32% of eligible children across the area.

In response to this, Advantage Valley will host twelve childcare start-up business workshops from March to November 2025 across the nine-county region they serve. It’s part of the organization’s Fostering Advantages for Start-Ups & Entrepreneurial Resurgence in West Virginia, or FASTER WV program.

Advantage Valley President and CEO Terrell Ellis said they have been very fortunate to have several major announcements regarding economic development in the region lately, such as more dollars coming in for the ongoing development of Nucor Steel in Mason County, as well as the most recent announcement of the Fidelis and Babcock & Wilcox Bright Loop facility also coming to Mason County, an on-site AI data center.

Terrell Ellis

She said with those developments comes a lot of opportunities to improve some of the community infrastructure, which includes childcare, and this effort will help establish more of those highly in-demand childcare facilities.

“We all know that affordable and accessible childcare is a real challenge for folks, so what we’re trying to do is get people who may be interested in starting a childcare business to understand what resources are out there to help them,” Ellis said.

Ellis said as with more housing, the area needs more childcare facilities so they can better accommodate the increased numbers of workers and families these latest economic development projects are bringing in.

Supported by a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, Ellis said the workshops are free and will provide resources to up-and-coming and existing childcare providers, whether they are looking to hold an in-home facility or a larger center, or whether they plan to expand their existing operation.

Ellis said starting a childcare business can be a complex process.

“I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the easiest business in terms of licensing and things of that nature, so if you’re trying to go it alone, it might feel a little daunting,” she said.

However, she said they have been able to partner with the state Small Business Development Center and an organization called Wonderschool, who are made up of experts in childcare businesses.

Ellis said they want to help people in this endeavor every step of the way.

“They’re going to help us coach people through the process so that you don’t have to feel like you’re doing this alone and you don’t know what to do next, we will have somebody by your side the whole entire way,” she said.

She said the resources Wonderschool experts will provide to people include business coaching, website and financial management, and operational oversight, which are all designed to help childcare start-ups achieve long-term success.

Advantage Valley will host one session per month throughout the year across Boone, Clay, Cabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, and Wayne counties.

Ellis said Advantage Valley will lead the sessions, covering everything from business resources to technical assistance and mini-grant opportunities available through the FASTER WV program.

Ellis said the region currently lacks about 5,300 childcare spots, and with this major deficit, everyone from employers to employees to entire communities are feeling the pain.

She said they at Advantage Valley felt as though they needed to take a proactive approach to addressing this problem, because if they don’t do something about it now, the region will simply not have enough people to go to work, which creates a whole other problem.

“I spend a lot of time talking to companies about locating here or expanding here, and workforce is the biggest question they have behind the fact of having an available site for what they need, and that’s a whole other ball of wax we need to talk about at some point in time, but workforce is their number one concern many times,” Ellis said.

Ellis said they are aware, however, that there are currently some challenges from a policy point-of-view that they hope can get resolved at the state level or possibly at the federal level to bring more childcare resources in.

In the meantime though, the first of these childcare business workshops will kick-off in Jackson County this Thursday, March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Jackson County Development Authority Office, 167 Seneca Drive, Ripley.

The following are the dates and times for the other upcoming workshops:

. Putnam County at 6:30 p.m. | April 10th at Area 34 – 7093, 971 WV-34, Hurricane, WV 25526

. Kanawha County at 6:30 p.m. | May 6th at the Connect CCR&R Office (1 Players Club Dr, Charleston, WV 25311)

Those interested in attending the workshops can register for the free event on Eventbrite.

Additionally, remaining workshops will be held in Boone County on June 17, Lincoln County July 24, Clay County August 12, Wayne County September 18, Cabell County on October 2, and Mason County on November 1. Additional information regarding those workshops’ time and location will be provided on Advantage Valley’s website.