Cohort aims to find childcare solutions

With only two licensed child care providers in Sanders County, finding child care can be difficult for local families. A new program is looking to help provide solutions for residents needing child care. Sanders County was selected to participate in a program with Montana Child Care Business Connect. The goal of the Community Child Care Capacity-Building Cohort Program is to engage communities and help identify solutions to increase the supply of child care.

Zero to Five Montana is a statewide organization that is focused on increasing access to early care and education, as well as empowering small businesses and communities. In a study of child care in Sanders County, Zero to Five found that the licensed facilities in the county (one in Plains and one in Thompson Falls) have a total capacity of 16 children, while the number of children in the county age 0-6 with parents in the labor force is 307. That means that 5% of the capacity is being met for the demand.

According to Montana Department of Public and Human Services (DPHHS), a childcare desert is "any geographic area where child care supply meets less than a third of the potential demand." The goal for the cohort would be for Sanders County to no longer be a child care desert. A total of 104 licensed care spots would need to be provided to eliminate the child care desert criteria.

Shelby Whalen, the Community Navigator for Zero to Five Montana, said their job is to help communities do the foundational work and get to the needs of child care in their area. "Data really is the driving force for all of that," she said, adding that communities also need to have community-driven innovations, which is why community involvement is so important to the process.

Sanders County is one of eight communities currently in the six-month cohort program. Whalen said the initial program, which began in February 2023, included six communities and was very successful. "The process is designed for communities to build their team that wants to look into the needs of child care, collect existing data and then collect new data. Then we help the community in the conversation and have an open invitation for community members to come to the table, look at the data and help identify solutions," Whalen stated. Those solutions look different for each community, she said, and can include things such as opening new child care facilities or workforce training for existing facilities.

The cohort communities also attend monthly roundtable meetings where they share experiences, ideas and solutions. "One of the main benefits is that communities learn so much from each other," Whalen said.

The Sanders County cohort program is called the Clark Fork Childcare Alliance. A survey was created to identify needs of local communities. Survey participants choose one of four paths, selecting whether they are an employee, family, business manager or child care provider, and answering questions targeted at each specific group.

The cohort team currently includes representatives from businesses and organizations in Sanders County. Ray Brown with Sanders County Community Development is leading the group and developed the survey. Lisa Eberhardt, the Chief Nursing Officer with Clark Fork Valley Hospital, is also part of the cohort. "Having more accessible child care for all different ages is important for our employees, not only new hires but with employee retention," Eberhardt said. "I'm very excited and hopeful for this process. I'm hoping our community will get behind this and help us solve this problem."

Eberhardt noted the survey is the first step. "We won't fix the problem until we understand what the needs are for the community," she said, adding that the survey will need to be redone over time as the workforce changes. "We have several large employers here that could really benefit from understanding what resources are available to help. It's going to take all of us." She added that the hospital has been thinking about child care issues but "we can't solve the problem for us without solving it for the community."

The Childcare Alliance survey is available at http://www.jotform.com/app/233028551571150. For more information or to join the Clark Fork Childcare Alliance team, contact Sanders County Community Development at 406-827-6935.