New partnership working to solve local child care shortage

Opportunity Council and the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce have partnered on a project that aims to expand the region’s market of child care providers. The Northwest Center for Care Retention and Expansion will provide current and would-be child care providers technical assistance, coaching, feasible studies and planning help.

Through support from the state department of commerce, North Sound Accountable Community of Health and other philanthropic organizations, the new center will also award grants to child care providers to retain the market and stimulate its growth, according to a press release.

Five areas of focus for the center will be:

• Stabilizing the child care market after the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic

• Retaining care businesses and nonprofit operations when “natural transitions” are set to occur, such as provider retirements or situations like the recent sale of Kids World in Bellingham, a large multi-site provider

• Starting up new child care enterprises, including those financed in part by local companies or co-ops of local companies

• Expanding existing child care businesses and nonprofit operations

• Routinely incorporating licensable child care spaces into new housing and commercial developments and altering local, state and federal regulations that pose barriers to child care market retention and expansion

A shortage of child care providers is a problem locally and statewide. In 2018, Washington only had enough licensed care providers to serve about 17 percent of the state’s children younger than 13, according to a Washington State Department of Commerce paper on the issue.

“The Center has one very big goal: help parents, especially those comprising local companies’ workforces, have more quality care options for their children, whether it’s near their home or place of employment,” said Bellingham chamber CEO Guy Occhiogrosso, in the news release. “Quality child care supports employers and business today and is also a long term economic benefit resulting in an even greater educated future workforce.”

The center, at the chamber’s office at 119 N Commercial Street in downtown Bellingham, had a soft opening in early August. The Opportunity Council is staffing the center with employees from its department of early learning and family services. Washington State Department of Commerce invested $500,000 in the new Center to help fund the child care provider grants and support staffing.

“Many forces have contributed to our area being designated a ‘child care desert,’” said Greg Winter, Opportunity Council’s executive director.  “We have every expectation that the new Center’s tools and staff expertise are going to help address those forces and create a competitive edge for our communities.”