CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A regional economic development organization, Advantage Valley, continues to address the child care deficit head-on.
The organization is currently in the process of holding a total of twelve free child care start-up business workshops across the nine-county region it serves– Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam and Wayne counties.
The workshops provide those looking to start-up a child care business the resources they need to successfully do so through Advantage Valley’s FASTER WV program.
Terrell Ellis
The first of these workshops was held in Jackson County in early March. The next upcoming workshop will be held in Putnam County on April 10.
Advantage Valley President and CEO Terrell Ellis came back on 580 Live Monday morning to talk more about the workshops and the ongoing need of child care in the region after an earlier study the organization launched found a deficit of over 5,000 child care slots.
As several new and major economic development endeavors make their way into the region and the workforce grows, Ellis said there is a need for the community infrastructure to keep up with that growth, with child care being one of the major arenas falling under the umbrella of that community infrastructure.
Ellis said they have identified child care as being one of three main barriers, along with housing and transportation, that prevents workforce development, and she said this needs to be addressed now as they are also projecting that there will be about 5,300 new manufacturing jobs coming into the region over the next 6 to 7 years.
“For every manufacturing job, there is a spinoff of indirect jobs, so really we’re looking at thousands of new jobs coming in and thousands of new households, and we’ve got a child care problem, because right now today, without all of those new jobs coming in, we lack about 5,300 child care slots in our region,” Ellis said.
She said this lack of child care is an issue that’s being dealt with across the state and across the nation right now.
Ellis said there’s about 41% of children under the age of 6 who don’t have access to child care in West Virginia.
“And, in our region, it ranges anywhere from about 30-percent of the kids in certain counties like Kanawha and Cabell, all the way up to 90-percent in Clay County,” she said.
She said in Lincoln and Boone counties, the number is around 75% to 79% of missing child care provider slots.
Ellis said lately is has been all hands on deck in trying to tackle this child care deficit issue.
“It’s sort of like there’s not really one silver bullet, we all realize that we have to be tackling this on all different levels,” she said. “So, I know the legislature has considered some things in the past and they’re considering some bills currently that will help.”
She said there are currently two bills in the legislature that will help address the issue.
Ellis said in their region, they wanted to understand some of the key factors that are keeping child care providers from coming in or having to close down.
Recently, Ellis said they completed a series of focus groups with about 24 child care provider participants to get their stance on how Advantage Valley can help those who already have a child care facility in the region, and how they can help those thinking about starting one up.
She said by speaking with these regional child care providers, they discovered one of the biggest challenges is staff retention.
“They’re competing with Target and Sheetz and all of these other places that are now offering $15 to $17 dollars an hour and so they’ve had to really increase their wages, and they’re losing workforce to those businesses, because child care is not always easy,” she said.
Another issue child care providers face is an increase in behavioral concerns among children ever since Covid, Ellis said, which was recently addressed and a school discipline bill passed in the legislature on this exact issue in public schools.
Ellis said they are hopeful these workshops will help to effectively address this deficit.
She said they have partnered with a new organization in the state called Wonderschool, who will coach and provide resources to existing and up-and-coming child care providers through anything from financial management to marketing solutions.
Ellis said there are a lot of resources out there to help child care providers, and they want to make those locally aware of them.
She said they are encouraging anyone interested to attend one of these workshops.
“We want people to come even if they have a mild interest and learn about how to start up a child care facility, because you can even open something in your home and serve six kids in your home, and that would be great,” Ellis said.
Advantage Valley will hold 12 workshops across its 9 counties it serves.
The next workshop will held on Thursday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Putnam County at Area 34, a co-working space with the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce. They will then hold one in Kanawha County on May 6.
You can visit Advantage Valley’s website to learn more about the workshops and register to attend one.