Child Care Webinar Series

Building on insights from the recent report, Solving Missouri's Child Care Puzzle, this webinar series will advance the discussion and explore actionable shared service solutions for child care in Missouri.

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Hosted by by New Growth Women’s Business Center and University of Missouri Extension, they take place over the first three Mondays in December 2024 at Noon. Recordings available to those who register.

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Each webinar takes place 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. CST 

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Dec 2 - The Business of Child Care - To increase the number and quality of child care options, we must understand what it takes to operate a child care business. This webinar provides an up-close look at the daily reality of the mostly small and home-based businesses that make up the unique and highly regulated child care sector. Presenters will highlight the types of business support that childhood education providers need to survive and thrive.

Speakers -

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· Paula Drew, Director of Early Care and Education Policy and Research, Wisconsin Early Child Association

Paula Drew led development and growth of the Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network, which serves more than 2,000 early childhood education provider members. She recently published the child care business development guidebook Build it Strong!

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· Johanna Borden, Business Management Consultant at Opportunities Exchange (OppEx)

Johanna Borden leads the work at early childhood education shared services leader Opportunities Exchange to combine business coaching with the automation support of Child Care Management Systems (CCMS) to streamline business management, data collection and regulatory compliance.  

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· Lynette Watson, St. Louis Regional Director and Missouri Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Missouri Small Business Development Center

Lynette Watson brings more than 20 years of experience in the fields of human resources, management, and business development. She is part of the child care business coaching team with the program Missouri Supporting Early Childhood Administrators (MO-SECA).

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Dec 9 - Central Office Shared Services - Across the country, child care agencies and organizations are joining forces to build a shared services approach to increasing the number and quality of child care providers. Common in business, shared services amount to central office support that reduces administrative burden and frees up time and money.

Learn from national leaders what a shared services alliance is and what they can do to address the need for more stable, sustainable, and high-quality child care options.

Speakers -

· Louise Stoney, Consultant, Opportunities Exchange, (OppEx)

Focused on innovation in child care finance and business management, Louise Stoney is Co-Founder of national shared services leader Opportunities Exchange and the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance. She devised the Iron Triangle of ECE Finance as a framework to guide practitioners and policy, encouraged and guided efforts to maximize the power of technology, and helped model early childhood education program costs to deepen understanding of both administrative and direct services.

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· Monique Reynolds, Vice President of Business Support Services, Quality Care for Children

Monique Reynolds and team work with more than 1,000 early childhood education providers who are members of a Georgia shared services alliance operated by Atlanta-based Quality Care for Children. The approach has produced significant results; on average members have increased enrollment 24 percent and revenues 34 percent while eliminating bad debt (clients’ nonpayment).  

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· Tosha Gourley, Director of Shared Services, AVANCE

Tosha Gourley leads development of a shared services alliance in Texas focused on in-home family child care educators, which is operated by the statewide community development organization AVANCE. She brings expertise in managing multi-site operations and assistance to family child care homes.

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Dec 16 - Missouri Assets and Opportunities - Missouri is struggling with a chronic crisis in child care.Many more providers went out of business in 2024. This webinar will review the many assets and opportunities the state has in place that it could further align and advance to benefit child care providers with the central office support of shared services.

Speakers -

· Brian Schmidt, Executive Director, Kids Win Missouri

‍Brian is responsible for executing Kids Win Missouri’s strategic plan and overseeing the organization’s development. He started his career in public policy as the Executive Director of the Missouri General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Tax Policy where he assisted legislators in analyzing and crafting tax and economic development policies

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· Misty O’Keefe, Chief Business Officer, and Chiala Watkins-Reed, Chief of Workforce Development, Child Care Aware of Missouri

Child Care Aware of Missouri works statewide to build the early childhood education field in Missouri through training, coaching, business support, and policy work. It operates the shared services resources platform Show Me Child Care Resources and Child Care Keeps Missouri Working, an initiative to connect families, providers, and employers.  

Misty O’Keefe provides technical assistance (TA) to child care business owners and works to continue building Show Me Child Care Resources. The entry level shared services platform provides tools, resources, and discounts to child care educators and businesses.

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· Megan Irwin, Consultant, Opportunities Exchange, (OppEx)

Megan Irwin helps organizations and early childhood education providers build frameworks for developing their own shared services alliances. She brings an extensive background to this work as a consultant with shared services leader Opportunities Exchange, including oversight of Oregon’s work bringing all early care and education programs together under the same agency for the first time.

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About the Child Care Report

A new business-oriented approach to addressing Missouri’s chronic child care crisis is the focus of a report just published by west central Missouri’s New Growth Women’s Business Center with University of Missouri Extension. The report’s findings contribute to local and state efforts to address the significant economic, community, and family challenges that now exist for Missouri with too few early child care and education options.

The report, Solving Missouri’s Child Care Puzzle, advocates for a shared services approach to helping the state’s mostly small and home-based child care businesses survive and thrive in a highly regulated and under-resourced industry. Shared services, or central office support to small and independent businesses, is the missing piece in the state’s multi-faceted work to stabilize and increase the number of early child care and education providers in Missouri.

Economic imperative.

Solving Missouri’s Child Care Puzzle offers insights and examples from a growing national shared services movement in early child care and education. It also provides the context of Missouri initiatives and investments that local and state leaders could align and advance for development of shared service support to small and home-based child care providers.

Shared services is a critical approach for local and state leaders to consider as families struggle to find and access child care.

Read more at: newgrowthmo.org/post/mo-child-care

Register for the webinar series