 Good morning. I'm told that Because we have the first true rose here locked off at whoever is at this Unmask My name's Tim waters And I can't tell you how thrilled I am to stand up here and welcome you to this For how many of you is this the first real life event? Good morning I'm told that Because we have the first rose here Whoever is at this so we have you you see the agenda and I'm gonna come back to this microphone My name's Tim. Why? Good morning Because we have the first rose here So we have you see the agenda and I'm gonna come back My name's Tim Good morning Because we have the first rose here My name's Tim How many of you is Good morning Told that In los idiomas present es el día de hoy son el inglés y el español Les damos un equipo de interpretación esto nos permita todos poder escuchar de la misma manera Participar hablar reírnos y poder hacerlo en idioma nuestro corazón el que hablamos con nuestras familias Queremos prevenir que se establezca un idioma dominante para todos poder sentirnos escuchados y valorados de la misma manera Good morning, everyone. My name is Luis Gomez I'm here with the community language cooperative as a Spanish interpreter and as Tim mentioned We have a commitment towards language justice to do so that's why we gave everyone Interpretation equipment to everyone that's not fully bilingual and the language is present this morning That is English in Spanish this allows everyone to be able to listen participate Speak talk laugh all in the same way and to be able to do so in the language of our heart the language that we speak with our families If you haven't put on the equipment yet You can it'll have an L or an R on the headphone is a little bit hard to see But if you can open it it'll open to the outside and that's the and then the curved part will go around your ear You just close that leave the headphone in your ear and then just plug in the jack And whenever you do not need the interpretation when the meeting's being led in the language of your heart You just simply unplug the jack from the device that'll cut off my transmission and it'll go silent when the language changes where you do need The interpretation you just simply plug back in the device and you should be able to hear my voice with the simultaneous interpretation Para usar el equipo simplemente se pone el audífono Cuando lo abra la parte que parece como anteojos anteojos va a ir alrededor de su oído y simplemente lo cierra y les pido que mantengan el Audífono en su oído y cuando la reunión se ha dirigida en el idioma de su corazón donde no necesita la interpretación Simplemente desconecta un poco la parte de arriba cuando la idioma cambie y si necesita la interpretación Simplemente lo conecta y poder escuchar mi voz alguna pregunta any questions up to this point All right perfecto, we will go ahead and test the equipment briefly vamos a probar el equipo But then before some cleaning instructions before we all leave we have some volunteers are going to be handing out wipes So that we ourselves Wipe the equipment that way we limit the amount of Exchange that we have amongst each other so I will ask everyone to please wipe down your headphone Wipe down the bag even on the inside and then put the headphone just the headphone inside that bag the same way you received it Wipe down your device and the lanyard and then you can hand it back up as you walk Outside those tables para limitar el tipo de la cantidad de intercambio que tenemos entre nosotros Les vamos a dar unas toillitas de desinfectantes a cada persona para que por favor simplemente limpien su audífono con el cable y todo La bolsita y luego ponen el audífono solamente la audífono en la bolsita como lo recibieron Limpian el aparato y también el histone y lo pueden dejar en la mesa al salir preguntas Questions all right if everyone that is not fully bilingual can put on their interpretation headset Si pueden ponerse el equipo lo vamos a probar y con esa intención les pido a todas las personas que son bilingües que por favor Utilizan ambos idiomas porque de nuevo no queremos tener ningún idioma dominante sólo no cambien en la misma oración pueden cambiar cada otra oración Pero si lo hacen en la misma no se es temprano And then for those of you who are bilingual in both English and Spanish I'd like to encourage you to use both languages because again we want to Prevent establishing a dominant language. Just don't switch in the same sentence. Thank you Thanks, Louise so again On behalf of long months child care and early learning community coalition. I'm thrilled to welcome you to this event I want to say thanks to a number of people who helped pull us together Justin Beach who is our events coordinator the back of the room has been working diligently on this We appreciate the leadership from our business community. Jessica Erickson who you'll hear from before we're finished today She's our closer Who is the president of the Longman Economic Development Partnership Scott Cook is somewhere out here is the president of our Chamber of Commerce Do we have anybody from the Boulder Chamber here? Anyway, the Boulder Chamber supported this as well AUW the women who you see working the registration desk and Helping with questions. There'll be the runners here and they'll help with cleanup that every whatever we need AUW has been part of this in serious way. So we were very grateful and indebted to AUW and their Their membership coalition members if you're if you're a member of our community coalition stand up. I Know you're out there. We have a bunch of yeah, here we go These are your these are your friends and neighbors these are People volunteered who are who volunteer Whatever they do in their professional lives and many of them are involved in in the child early childhood issues from child care to early childhood education This is a labor of love and they did they have dedicated so many hours over the last what a couple of years To get us to where we are right now in Longmont, which is which is just on a path Into the future and we'll talk about what that might look like. How many elected officials I see? Mayor Bagley I see council member Martin. I Saw Council member Aaron Rodriguez Council member Susie a dog o farang County Commissioner Marta Lochemine Marta. I saw council or a county commissioner Claire Levy Are there any other either elected officials in the house that I missed? Oh One of Richard Garcia. How could I it's like he's like my brother You know you forget about the things that your brothers have done. Where are you Richard right over here? and there's a long story we have a long history together and And there's an interesting story that we won't tell today about about the old men some of the old men who got this Got some of the momentum going here, but he's one of them. So Thanks to all of you for being here You know there I should also ask how many how many folks from the business community either representing businesses or employers? Terrific. Thank you so much for being here Here's the background on this event specifically with those hands in the air This coalition got started. I don't know a couple years ago and in about 19 months ago We thought we were at the point where we could make the case To the business community how important It is and will be to to redefine what childcare and early Learning opportunities should look like and why it's so important and we at that time We were talking about the all of the return the ROI on quality programs What we learned over the decades from high quality early childhood experiences Lifetime indicators or lifetime outcomes so much better and you all know those data better than I do But we we scheduled an event to be in this hall on March 13th 2020 the governor had agreed to come and We had reached out to the business community because we were going to try to make the case to the business community That we need you to lean in on this in more substantial ways The governor had a conflict in his schedule and couldn't make it on that day. So we rescheduled to March 27th 2020 you all remember what happened on March 13th Before the end of the day it there were no more events after March 13th, right? So now we're fast-forward however many months that is Where we are now able to bring you together and the governor will be here in just a little bit And I'm guessing today that we don't have to make the case To the business community of just how important this is Recovering from this economic Recovering from the pandemic and the economic consequences of it will not happen Without a stable workforce without the ability to bring moms and dads who want to work Back into the workforce and know that their children are where they need to be and that where they need to be helps those kids to get to be school ready and life ready And I know in the same brave valley school district and I know it's true in the bowler valley school district We have schools that are kid ready, right? so we have school ready kids and Kid ready schools all those gaps that we try to work so hard to overcome for the next 12 years kind of melt away We get a whole different start But it only happens going forward if we're able to reimagine what this industry should look like Because in the new normal that we're moving to Still to be defined Many of us thought we'd be closer to whatever that new normal is gonna be in that new normal Dragging what we did in the past is simply not gonna be good enough When it comes to child care and early childhood education, it's why the governor's so committed to it It's why we're so committed to it here And this is just one day along the way to redefining and reimagining what that future is So I invite you as for the next hour or so to just Let it go in terms of your own aspirations Nothing is off the table and we're gonna get a chance to hear in a few minutes where the business community is with their Investment in this initiative going forward now one of the people who's been For me One of the heroes that I've gotten a chance to know as we've gotten into this work is he got a Matt Eldred most of you know Matt because of his role His statewide leadership role in his his role and responsibility at the learning center But but in the world if it's if it's true in the world that there are three kinds of people This is one of those kind of generalizations and cliches those who make things happen Those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened Match in the first group you want to get something done. Here's the guy you want next to you in The process at Eldred come on up here, please Thanks, Tim, and it's good to see half your faces. Oh That's great Like like Tim said this is a 19 months in the making well It's 19 months in the postponing. It's really probably 24 months in the making But I'm glad to see you all here this morning. You're in for a treat You're gonna hear from some folks this morning that are way more experts than I am But I do want to reiterate what councilman water said that and I think Mayor Bagley actually coined the term Do not don't let a good pandemic go to waste If you didn't think early child was was important pre-pandemic, you know, it is now And so I'm really excited to be able to share with you about some of the innovative the creative The flexible and the collaborative opportunities that are coming for early childhood education And what that means for you as an employer what it means for you as a parent What it means for you as a community member We're gonna be hearing some things and there's gonna be some opportunities for you to get involved over the next Six months eight months and the next year around how do we make sure that every child birth to five has access to high-quality Early childhood programs and that may mean something different for every kiddo in our in our neighborhood Just like it means something different for your family We have families that are taking care of their own kiddos that we call that friend family neighbor care We have kiddos that are in licensed homes. We have kids that are in licensed childcare centers We have kiddos that are in our school district programs We have kiddos that are in co-ops and pods and whatever new names We've come up with during COVID right to make sure that our kids are taken care of safely and given the best opportunity to succeed But in the early education world, we would say that we want kids to succeed because there's all kinds of statistics about graduation rates and college graduations and higher employment and Lower teen pregnancies and incarceration going down all those things are still true But it is an economic impact issue today for our employers to make sure that you have employees That can do the work that you need them to do and they can only do that if there's a place for their kiddos to be That is safe and inclusive and where they're growing and thriving So you're gonna hear about that this morning And I don't want to take up too much more time because Nicole real is the executive director of epic executives partnering to invest in children and epic is not a COVID Initiative Epic has been around and Nicole's gonna share a little bit about the history of epic But there is no better time for epic to be partnering in the public private sector than right now And so I'm excited for Nicole to be here for her to share with you about what epic is and how you can get involved And she's also gonna share some statistics that will probably be encouraging and scary But I hope we'll be moving to you all the same. So Nicole real from epic. Please welcome Nicole Buenos dias. Good morning everyone. Thank you for having me and Thank you to councilman waters and to Matt for having me here today. I really appreciate it So my name is Nicole real I serve as the president and CEO of executives partnering to invest in children a little bit about our Organization and we have been around in Colorado for 12 years We have a statewide membership of business CEOs and executives who started our foundation in 2009 because they felt like there needed to be an organization that could serve as the business community's voice in Support of early childhood and we really focus on early childhood advocacy policy and Community and workplace initiatives that help us not only build a great workforce for the future and help us maintain an economically competitive State and economy But also help us attract and retain a great workforce today because our business leaders recognize how important that is So that is epic a little bit about me I'm a Cardo native. I actually have lots of family living in Longmont So you might see my husband's aunt flying her hot-air balloon around town from time to time I also have a brother and a sister-in-law who owned businesses in downtown Longmont as well so I'm actually around here quite often and Care deeply about this community because this is where many of my family members and especially my nieces and nephews are growing up So we are going to move into the slides. Let's see if I can get this to work There we go. He likes to sleep Oops, maybe not tech issues We've all been living on zoom. All right. It might have gone to sleep. All right Anyways, it's not coming. That's okay. We'll figure it out So I spoke about our mission a little bit earlier. I also wanted to let you know You know, I've worked in the private sector. I worked for a large home builder National home builder for a number of years. I'm a mother of a second grader. I was a part-time first-grade teacher last year Which I discovered I'm not good at and You know, obviously there were a lot of challenges for those of us who are working parents and had children who were quarantined or learning from home And I also actually started my career as an early childhood teacher and educator and That started at storage techs on-site childcare facility, which was right off of highway 36 And that is where I actually started my career in early childhood So it's been a really great journey. I've had the opportunity to work in the private sector I've had the opportunity to work in the classroom as an early childhood teacher and educator And now I have the opportunity to work with the business community and our early childhood partners And really spread the message around why early childhood is so critically important and why we all should really care about this So while we're working on getting the slides up Oh, there we go. That's my daughter when she was little. So she has a lot more attitude right now, but She's so cute So that's our mission. You can read it for yourselves, but I've already shared that with you Matt, if you wouldn't mind going to the next slide All right, so we're gonna talk about some of the COVID impacts that we have seen as a result of Families really struggling with access to quality affordable child care. This is data that was Obtained through the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation So this was sent out through their foundation to a number of US chambers and local chambers and state chambers across the country So this is not data that is specific to Colorado But you can see that there are a tremendous amount of impacts here that families have reported That we have families who are saying they're not returning to work because they don't have access to child care We are saying Families who say that even before the pandemics 80 almost 80% of families said that they had adverse impacts on Their efforts or commitments at work due to child care problems So this wasn't something that was not happening before the pandemic But it's certainly something that businesses and employees have come to really Draw attention to because the pandemic just really heightened the attention around this We also know that a number of employees actually leave their positions and their jobs for child care reasons And that we have families who are turning down positions and work opportunities and career growth Because of these child care access issues So definitely a major challenge for the workforce We also know that about 16 percent of the US workforce 26.8 million people are dependent on child care in order to work So we know that approximately Two-thirds of all US households have both or all available adults in the household working and participating in the workforce So this is something that affects of course a very large population in our country And is something that we really need business leaders and employers to be to know number one And to think about as they're thinking about benefits culture and ways that they engage in their local communities we also know that Women especially are more than are more likely to be citing a reason for stopping work or stopping to look for work because of child care And that only 39% of respondents with household incomes below $50,000 and it chill with children at home So that they could afford child care themselves So definitely some data here. This is from McKinsey and again national data And of course now we're starting to see headlines like this that show us that there are still a lot of parents Especially women who have left the workforce who are still tentative about returning to the workforce because of the Delta variant and because of the uncertainty that we're still seeing in our communities around the COVID transmission levels and What that's going to look like for children in terms of staying in school Perhaps being quarantined or you know things like that happening as well So this is a little bit harder to read I'm gonna talk you through some of this data again This is from McKinsey, but they surveyed a number of workers across the country and asked them what they felt were perceived a negative impacts and aspects of of themselves that decreased their future job prospects and Prevented them from being fairly recognized and compensated at work and we see that So that people who reported being black or Hispanic, especially Reported that they were more likely to see those job prospects diminish and to not be fairly recognized or compensated at work we saw that associated with Their sexual identities as well as whether they had children at home and whether they were women and Also older age groups. So this is interesting data for employers to look at because this really shows you I think what employees have experienced in their job searches or in their interactions with You know potential Employers or others in their community around what they have experienced in terms of job prospects growth and their own economic opportunity This is actually something that was just released by the US Treasury this week So this is a graph that's showing nationally Where are the United States is in comparison to women in the workforce? So again, this was not something that Wasn't an issue before the pandemic, but the pandemic of course certainly set us back decades of progress So you'll see that this is the organization of economic development countries So there are about 37 countries in this group in this coalition Unfortunately, the US ranks in the bottom five countries of this group in terms of women in the workforce And you'll see some of the other countries like Canada or France United Kingdom countries that actually make tremendously large investments Into access to quality affordable early care and early learning are at the top of this and of course We also have seen that unfortunately women's participation in the workforce United States has been waning for quite some time It was on the upswing before COVID and now unfortunately after COVID has been Significantly reduced and we will look at some of these numbers specifically in Colorado So this is data from the commonsense Institute, which is a research and data organization here in Colorado They track all of the labor participation rates across the state and this is from their survey data that they put out in June I believe They may have just put out some new data, which I think has improved for women But you can see here that they are breaking down the data and the labor force participation rates by different categories They're looking at women who are mothers women without kids Fathers and men without kids and you can see a very distinct difference here Between those groups if you have children Your tendency to be out of the workforce as a result of this pandemic is of course significantly greater and at the time that they did this We had over a hundred thousand women who had disappeared from Colorado's workforce and economy as a result of the pandemic Now like I said, I think they've just released really some new data that shows we are improving in this area But it's still a significant amount of women, especially who have left the workforce So women with children and in particular It's really hard to break down this data by race and ethnicity in Colorado But qualitatively, we know that many of those families are also families of color And lower income families who are being directly impacted the most All right, so the Council for Strong America and Ready Nation released a report just before the pandemic So this is pre-pandemic data Which I feel is now very conservative data that told us what type of economic impact It was having on our state as a result of not having enough access to quality affordable child care And most especially this is for infants and toddlers So their study said that Colorado had 2.2 billion dollars in lost earnings and economic activity Each year now, I don't know about all of you, but those numbers are really hard for my brain to Understand and so I wanted to break this down a little bit further for all of us So if we look at Boulder County specifically, it's really hard to break this down by Long-launch GDP and data, but maybe I can work with Jessica and we can look at doing this So if we look at Boulder County, which has approximately 7.7 percent of the state of Colorado's GDP This means that Boulder County has a 169.4 million dollar economic loss each year due to limited or inefficient or in Or lack of infant and toddler and early care and education for families if we break this down further the state number for employers is 680 million lost by employers alone if we look at that on a Boulder County level That's 52.4 million dollars and Boulder County that employers are missing out on Because the workforce does not have sufficient access to quality affordable child care And if we look at this even further if we take into account that the average Economic contribution of a job being created in a local Community is approximately a hundred and ten thousand dollars Again a very conservative estimate considering this is Boulder County that we're talking about in Colorado Then that means that we have an economic opportunity cost to the Boulder County community alone of over 1,500 jobs per year So when we think about this in terms of jobs, this is a really really big deal Because we've all seen our economic development State and local organizations, you know bringing companies in for new growth, right giving them economic development incentive packages To create jobs job creation is a very important economic driver for local communities and across the state And yet we have this opportunity cost sitting right in front of us So what can employers do? I know that's a lot of really Tough data to listen to and to see but we have Opportunities and I will tell you that employers can be one of the single greatest Catalysts in helping us change this issue for our communities So first off employers have opportunities for quick wins. What can they do around flexible scheduling or working parent support? So flexibility and predictability are key here, which I know seem to be in contrast with one another But as employers as much predictability as you can give your employees around when meetings will happen Or when events will take place. That's helpful for working families So they can schedule around that if they have drop-ups or pickups or changes in childcare situations Also, if you have the opportunity to do flexible scheduling Remote work if it's possible or even job sharing Oftentimes that is a great solution for working families as well And this is an area where you know, they always say culture eats strategy for breakfast boy Is that ever true now? Right, so it is the great resignation Employees are looking for employers that not only care about their needs and their Personal needs as a family, but what they're doing to address those things and Employees have become so much more aware of the value of their time and the value of their time with family So again, if you can think about ways that you embed Family-friendly practices into your culture that will be a great benefit to employers The ways that you can model it as a leader if CEOs and leaders in the company are not only modeling family-friendly activity But normalizing it in the company that is going to go a long way because there are oftentimes employees who also think well You know, maybe our leaders are supportive of family-friendly practices But I know that my immediate supervisor isn't and they don't like it when I have to ask to leave early to go pick up my child So they're really worried about taking advantage of those opportunities because they think that that manager is going to then give them a poor Performance report when it comes to performance evaluations that their opportunities for growth in the company Their opportunities for career advancement are gone and then what are they going to do if that happens? They're going to leave they're gonna look for another job where they perceive they have that opportunity So again really important for employers to set their cultures to train their managers From the top to bottom of the organization and make sure that that culture is not only embedded in the organization But it is normalized and it is expected Next internal investments, what can employers do around internal investments to think about providing And meeting these needs of their employees things like backup care can be helpful if families already have child care Arrangements and you can fill in the fill in on the back end of someone, you know If their child care falls through and they need help with that Childcare vouchers or tuition support in local community providers. So some companies might think about this Or you know subsidies in cases where they have a workforce that's spread out across a large geographic area And then of course on-site care you can create for campuses where we're thinking about things like manufacturing logistics healthcare K-12 right all these different types of campuses where we know we have large groups of employees who need to show up They need to report to work. We need them there in one location On-site child care can be a great solution to meet the needs of the workforce that can support your continued business Operations make sure you don't have lapses and coverage there and also save them time and make sure that they have access to great quality affordable childcare for their workforce And then lastly community investments public advocacy and expanding community capacity I will tell you backup child care is a great solution But it does not help us with our supply problem in Colorado We need to create tens of thousands of child care slots in our state We have half of our state considered a child care desert Which means for every one child care slot available in that community there are three children or more who need that slot That is unacceptable for our state and it will not get us to a globally competitive advantage with our economy If we have those types of statistics holding us back So we really need our employers to not only be partners in solving this internally for their organizations But be partners in helping us solve this externally We need you to advocate and be a voice out there in support of more solutions More investments and more ideas and innovation around access to quality affordable child care We also need you to be a part of the supply solution if you have land or Buildings or resources that you can put to good use for your local community for this need in this service That is a great contribution that you as an employer can make as well All right So what are some of the things you can do feedback surveys and data only 13% of employers actually ask their employees specifically about child care challenges and issues it is not something that is commonly surveyed in companies It is something that comes up through the management chain and is kind of filtered through to HR based on what? managers and supervisors are telling them but ask your employees and they will tell you what their challenges are Equal job benefits versus equitable job job benefits. This is a big one I used to talk to employers and say, you know, what about on-site child care or what about child care subsidies? And they would say well not all of our employers not all of our employees have children So it's not really an equal benefit that they that everyone can take advantage of you're right It's not an equal benefit that everyone can take advantage of but the employees that employers are desperately searching for The ones who are not in the workforce the ones who cannot apply for your jobs and the ones who cannot advance in your companies Are the employees who are struggling with access to quality affordable child care oftentimes, right? That is prohibiting them from participating in the workforce It is oftentimes pro prohibiting them from adding value to your corporation by moving up into a leadership role because they Don't have that access so think about this as an equitable job benefit Because that is an equity strategy to make sure that you as an employer can attract all sorts of families and children and Great workers in your local economy We do have some Companies that have expanded family friendly benefits some examples would be you might have seen the articles around McDonald's Adding child care as a benefit so that they could help make sure that their Franchise ease and their operators could continue their business operations Bank of America offers a monthly stipend to their bank employees to support child care and VF Corp Which manages a large number of retail stores North Face smart wool some of those to be Specific are also offering things like backup care and child care stipends to their workforce now as well So incentives to engage employers I'm really excited to tell you about a new program and grant opportunity that we have in Colorado This past session the General Assembly in Colorado Created an 8.8 million dollar employer based child care facility grant program The state wants to partner with employers wants to encourage employers to think about this as a solution for their workforce On-site child care is not a solution That's going to work for all employers and we want to continue to work with the business community to look at other Incentives and other ways to work with you and partner with you and your workforce, but this is just a start So we have this grant opportunity There will be an RFP coming out from the state in the next month or two with more information on this opportunity And we think that it will be due in early 20 early 2022 It's up to eight hundred thousand dollars To support employers in creating on-site or near-site child care facilities It can be a single employer or it can be a partnership that includes one or more employers So there's lots of flexibility here co-op models and innovative models are welcome We also epic has been contracted by the state to lead what we call an employer-based child care design lab If it was easy to create on-site child care many more companies would have done it already. It is very complex There's a lot of regulation There's a lot to manage and think about in terms of operations We know that and so the design lab will be offered as a five-month intensive program So that employers can build their knowledge and expertise around what this is going to look like We're gonna set expectations around. What does it cost? What does this look like for long-term operations? We'll talk about things like real estate and architectural design and tenant improvements and finish for a child care facility We'll talk about things like operations how to find an operations partner or do it yourself And talk through all of those different pros and cons and then also things like Quality how to pay for your workforce how to think about the ongoing operations for that child care facility So lots to look forward to there. We'll send some information out I think hopefully it's already gone out to some members in the community There's a very informal and easy application out right now, which is due actually at the end of today We pushed it to the end of today because we wanted to make sure we got in this event first So hopefully we will see some long-mant applications coming in and hopefully we'll see some more You know grant opportunities and design lab opportunities coming up in the future as well So With that we're gonna move on to questions. There's my contact information if you'd like to email me or chat with me I always like to hear from people in the community as well so Your questions have been collected. There are a bunch of them We just won't get to all of them But but it became clear as we were looking at the questions Virtually every question that's been asked is important for us to address if not this morning Over the over as we move into the future with our coalition work So for those of you who would like to be part of helping to answer those questions or respond to whatever the concerns are think about joining us in this in this Coalition effort to move us into a new normal in ways that you just heard Nicole described We're looking for another mic. All right. All right. There we go. Okay, Nicole We have a question for Nicole in the employees take action slide you identify different things employers can do To address the issue of childcare affordability What was missing from the slides was increasing wages wouldn't a wage increase for employees being immediate a way to solve this problem That's a little bit complicated You know, I think lovable wages in Colorado are certainly a challenge that a lot of families really struggle with right now But they also really struggle with Finding access to quality and affordable caregivers and early care and education programs for their children. So You know lovable wages. Yes help that situation But at the same time we also have, you know programs that families need to be able to find for their children They may be able to find a great family member or friend or local caregiver that they trust and can work with That isn't licensed and that's great I think as an employer if you can think about how to support all types of care for your employees And your workforce, that's a great opportunity But like I said before we simply just do not have enough care options in our community as well So we can work on, you know, and we should work on increasing lovable wages for our Colorado families and communities So that they can stay here and contribute to our economy and remain in the workforce But I think that we also need to think about solutions where employers can contribute to not only, you know Affording the cost of child care, but actually helping to create access to this important resource for the workforce as well Thank you Another question for you Nicole What can small and large businesses do to support the idea that all children ages birth to five have access to high-quality learning? Yeah, so I mean every business is different right We've got small medium and large businesses with different types of scenarios and some businesses have been hit Really hard by the COVID pandemic and this is you know Investing in on-site child care or investing in subsidies is not something that a lot of businesses can do I always say, you know start small start with the things that you as a business owner Or you as a business leader can control so those small wins that we talked about around culture Flexibility Predictability scheduling, you know really listening to your staff and understanding their needs and what they're struggling with because I think You know what a health care workforce might be struggling with is probably vastly different from what you know Another type of industry and their workforce might be struggling with as well, right? We have different types of shift work We have different types of industries and needs and so again I think it's really important that as an employer you start with understanding What your employees are really needing what they might be struggling with around this topic and then starting with those easy quick wins and Moving up from there It might be a long-term goal for your company to think about in 10 years Moving to providing child care subsidies are moving towards being involved in some sort of partnership Around access to child care in the local community, you know I think on-site child care is also something that could be done in a collaborative or in a consortium type model with multiple employers So, you know, if you if you don't have one big employer that can do it themselves But you've maybe got three smaller employers that could do it together then I think it's important to think about those types of solutions too So this question will be asked in Spanish and then we'll translate it to English Guess look at this is it Necessitaria hacer colorado para tener una sistema como en los países escandinavios donde child care is gratis What do we need to do in Colorado to have a system like the Scandinavian countries where child care is free Well, we have a long way to go until we have free child care Need to break it to everyone So, you know, I think this is a combination of looking at, you know The business model of child care. How do we make that a more sustainable and economical business model? And how do we promote more public and private investment into early care and education for families? So on the business model side, you know operating child care is an expensive endeavor and Labor is your number one cost driver You want to make sure of course that you have highly trained Excellent professionals working with children and they are paid appropriately for the excellent and amazing work that they're doing Right behind that though is the cost of operations and fixed capital things like buildings the cost of a mortgage or lease taxes You know all those ongoing expenses that businesses have to account for but they you know drive up the cost of care They make it so that it's harder for them to pay top wages to their staff and they make it more difficult to deliver quality So I think on that side of things we have some ideas at Epic and a new initiative going That's really looking at how do we provide better access to free or very affordable real estate? How do we provide some relief on the end of things like taxes? So that these businesses are not having to pay, you know, tens of thousands of dollars each year in taxes perhaps And also looking at things like better access to finance and capital For starting up a business because this is an industry that has 98 percent women Many women of color. It is a very difficult endeavor to not only open a child care facility or a business But to actually fund it appropriately and find all of the financing you need to do that and do that in a great way On the flip side of that. We also know that if we want to get closer to free child care We're gonna need some really substantive Public investments to come into that and private investments. So I think it's gonna need to be a public private partnership We need employers to be involved. We do need I think, you know, a greater degree of investment coming from The government whether that state or federal but at the same time, I think we need to be smart about that too Because one size does not fit all and it's not necessarily something that is working efficiently or well for families right now either Tim we have a question for you. I would be delighted to respond to that But our our next keynote speaker just walked through the back door. Thank you Well, just to hold that question. We'll come back to it Gina no Sarah is Director programs. Is that the right title? Okay, she has been an important part of this effort from the beginning. So it is a delight to to invite Gina to introduce the governor Good morning friends. It is so nice to see everyone today and it's everybody has beautiful eyes Okay, I'm Gina no Sarah. I'm the vice president of community impact at mile high United Way And I am a long-standing member of the Longmont early childhood community coalition. Thank you everyone for being here this morning So it's a pleasure and a privilege to introduce our next speaker. I've known him for nearly 20 years I was fortunate to lead his foundation for 15 years with a focus on education technology and philanthropy The foundation started charter high schools for teenagers who needed choice We supported classroom teachers through our technology grants and with annual teacher recognition awards We founded a computer refurbishment nonprofit We co-founded a veterans nonprofit and we awarded grants to Colorado nonprofits Centered on education the environment and healthy and diverse communities So I know firsthand how dedicated our governor is to call a radiance and to the issues that are most important in our daily lives I'm proud to call him my former boss and my friend always governor Jared Polis It's great to see you again Gina. We really did some great work in the nonprofit sector and I'm excited to see you continue that work with mile high United Way It's really great to be here and thank you to the Longmont early childhood coalition for inviting me to speak. This is Really an exciting time for today's and tomorrow's kids in in Boulder County and Weld County in Colorado And your leadership in advancing early childhood education really goes to the heart of effective economic development Affordable living for families and of course the successful development of the next generation of kids This is a real exciting time and help is on the way in so many ways The state and federal Thank you to the Longmont economic development partnership for being here You heard Nicole real of epic this morning her leadership on the state level and bringing business to the forefront of these discussions is very valued Of course, it's about kids and families. It's also about business and workforce I'd also like to thank Matt Eldred of tiny Tim learning center. Of course, Gina Nacerra Bob Norris Bob Palake Richard Garcia Help organize this event. I think there's a number of elected officials here as well Mayor Bagley and Tim waters and Joan Peck and Pauline Christensen and Susie Hedal go faring and Marsha Martin, and I think there might even be some commissioners here Maro Lochemine and Claire Levy. Thank you for joining us on the conference call with Marna Just the other day and senator walk is Lewis and Kim read from congressman Jonah Goose's office. It's great to see so much interest from all of our elected officials local state federal Joining this really important discussion. So as you know We made great progress when I took office. One of our top goals was free full-day kindergarten That's in effect run by school districts and friends doing a great job and the voters passed by more than two-thirds vote Universal preschool and in this day and age, you know It's hard to get two-thirds of color rodents to agree on anything Isn't it wonderful that rural and urban and red counties and blue counties? All across our state voted overwhelmingly 67.2% of the votes. You know what kids should be able to go to preschool and that starts in 2023 And our office is in the process of setting up the department of early childhood education which we're very excited about with a laser focus on the successful implementation of that program and the other funding streams available working with early childhood councils local early childhood councils To maximize the positive impact on these of these funds Colorado's business community has been a real partner in getting us where we need to go. We're grateful for all of the advocates We you know early childhood education and Childcare are absolutely critical for kids but also have an immediate and long-term ripple effect across Success of our workforce a success of Colorado Families gender equity in the workplace and so many other priorities and that's only been highlighted by the pandemic One of the studies found that 79% of parents faced additional difficulties at work due to childcare issues and the pandemic has Made that even more challenging By investing in our children We're investing in today's and tomorrow's workforce We're helping kids and we're helping families get by especially in Colorado, which has a Rising cost of living and one of those drivers of cost in addition to things like rent is is Childcare and costs associated with having kids I was incredibly excited that for the first time ever our state legislature and us work together to fund a child tax credit For Coloradans, they'll be getting that next year as well as earned income tax credit There's just a small amount relative to the federal EITC and we're grateful for senator Bennett for that work But we're going above and beyond here in Colorado and adding it's additive to what the federal EITC is doing and with it for a child tax credit. I mean several hundred dollars more a year per child for low-income families with kids I Want to thank the Longmont Early Childhood Coalition for your leadership and addressing the top Community goals for the area. You've really done a great job in communicating these goals to policymakers Engaging them the Longmont City Council the commissioners Really making sure that everybody is on the same page And I know that the mayor of the City Council the school board the Boulder Early Childhood Council have prioritized Early childhood care and education Locally including through the bright eyes initiative Listening session with employers and providers and parents including Specific outreach to make sure that the voices of Latino parents were heard and so many others across the community and I want to make sure you know that you have a strong and enthusiastic partner in the state in the state and We are also seeing really terrific collaborations and partnerships with the private sector as well You know when we got Universal full-day kindergarten it seemed like a steep hill at the time There were people who said you'll never get full-day kindergarten in Colorado and remember before many parents had to pay $300-400 a month for full day and it created inequities because you had the parents who could afford it paying for full day You had some kids who got it for free But then you had other kids who'd have to leave at 11 30 or noon because their their parents simply couldn't afford an extra $400 a month with the high cost of living But we got it done We also signed a bill creating the Colorado Department of Early Childhood Making Colorado the sixth state to move in that direction and and those of you who are you know Whether in the public or private sector you sort of appreciate some of the reasons for that early childhood for too long fell between The responsibilities of different state entities. It's not exactly an education thing and then it's not yes It's some of it is run by school districts, but not all of it is run by school districts, but it's also not exactly Just a normal human services thing because it derails early childhood councils school districts private providers And so it needs its own focus on those birth to five years It will have that in Colorado the planning is underway for coherent statewide system including good data reporting public accountability Parental empowerment multilingual so parents can make the best choices for their kids You know earlier this week. We just announced the state plan for the federal child care stimulus grants Who ever thought it was wonderful news to me? We got 270 million from the federal government to invest in childcare in our state That was through thanks to the American Rescue Act and we thank Our senators and the members of our congressional delegation who voted for that And our plan prioritizes support for infant and toddler care has some quality incentives that are a piece of it Children's health and mental care Engaging family and friends and neighbor care and very important also a substantial part of it goes to Saving families money on childcare so they can afford it We don't want to Do so much on the quality side and have it still be out of the affordability range for families So a lot of that will be passed right back so families can take advantage of high quality child care here in Colorado and Certainly being able to plan and implement how to invest that 270 million was one of my highlights as governor certainly a lot more fun than some of the other things we had to do like handling a pandemic You know and it also helps address some of the impact of the pandemic on providers in our state And and there are providers that are distressed and challenging situations We used federal cares act funds to state help stabilize our child early childhood providers early on During last fall's special legislation. I called of the legislature We passed bipartisan funding for childcare sustainability grants as well as facilities start up an expansion grants because even where we were with the status quo and many communities Were underserved with regard to capacity and it's been really exciting for me to be able to visit Childcare centers in places like Fort Morgan where they're able to deploy those grants to add an extra building in other classroom to meet The needs of their emerging workforce You know as we shift from the of those immediate needs and work to the medium and long term We know that we want to up our game here in Colorado and really move from a Laggard in early childhood to one of the nation's leaders and I think that that movement is well underway with the preschool funding this funding the early childhood Focus and department And that's why we're also funding recruitment and retention for early childhood educators Direct salary increases for the hard-working workforce and also looking at really career opportunities for people to be able to move from The relatively low-wage hourly economy whether they're earning, you know 15 or 18 hour to be able to professionalize get the skills they need To have a job that support themselves with dignity a salary job with benefits we're also expanding family child care homes by prohibiting homeowners associations and honoris local zoning that prevent the operation of these programs and We need these programs and by the way It also ties into the climate and clean air agenda as well as the parent convenience agenda because you want daycare near where you live Right, and we don't want sort of pesky Regulators saying you can't have it here. You can't have it here In fact, you have to drive and take time off your job or somehow get your kids to a further way location that initiative also means more on-site daycare opportunities at medium and large employers and then potentially also Collaboratives of smaller employers that might share an office building or a campus With more flexible child care facility rules on the protector of children. We're also looking for a lot more Choices in urban areas closer to where people work again one of those key priorities convenient for parents They have more time with their kids less time having to travel to and from taking their kids places And they can even visit their kids during lunch hour or breaks, which is of great value I Want to thank epic Who's here today? They brought business businesses across the state to focus on child care And by the way, it's been exciting to hear a number of businesses many of them epic members Maybe a few of them are aspiring epic members that we need to recruit and get in there Really identify early childhood education and child care as a key priority for them And that helps and will help continue to drive This agenda in Colorado. We're also coordinating closely with dola oed in DHS That's alphabet soup with those are three state agencies the Department of local affairs the office of economic development and international trade and The Department of Human Services to incentivize local developers involvement in building child care facilities Through co-location with housing and affordable housing opportunities, so we want to help make sure that happens No, look, we've come a long way in two and a half years I think if we looked at where we were you know in a room like this three years ago I think we'd be very thrilled to say this is where we are today, but we also have a lot more to do There's a lot more room to to build with historic funding from the federal government and we await Exactly what or if happens under a reconciliation act, but it's all it's all potentially upside for us There's no there's no downside in that there's going to be some degree of additional investment We just don't know exactly what or how it'll be done And that includes Additional funding for preschool enough to expand hours for what we've developed here in our base Support for quality child care, especially low and middle-income families Hopefully making the earning income tax credit permanent or expanding it for ten years and You know business leaders and parents and providers and advocates and foundations and local leaders are really a key part of this Extraordinary moment in history where I think America and in Colorado are finally same kids matter Those birth to five years are incredibly important and we need the focus the investment the data and the accountability To really drive the future success of our state and our nation and also a great sense that we're in this together those in education employers large and small the business community families and parents first and foremost who Worried about their kids and want them to have the best possible experience to prepare them for success all are working to Contribute to this movement in our state and nationally and together We truly are moving Colorado from laggard to leader And I want to thank all of you for being in the forefront of that effort To help make Colorado the very best place to raise a family. Thank you, and I'm happy to take some questions Governor pull us. Thank you for being here. I'm your question asker today. So great a couple of questions for you first up is What opportunities are available through the state of Colorado to support a business that would like to be more involved in addressing the child care gap With like onsite child care as an example and other ways to do it There's there's a lot of different models. So first of all an onsite one of the things we did and you think this would be easy and government but nothing's easy. There was a there was a In our view a regulation that was used was was counterproductive It basically said that if there's a multi-story building that child care could only be on the on the first floor And that was unrealistic in today's world and we said, you know what it can be on any floor as long as they They have their their outdoor time as long as they have evacuation routes as long as they have all the stuff that we need to keep it safe Many Denver office buildings and probably even some in Longmont and Boulder They don't even really have like a first floor that you could you could use their first floor is like a entry floor And then there's you know, whether it's a five-story building or in Denver like a 40-story building So I think that just making sure that you can in fact have like a child care center or floor Empowers a lot of those offices to do it and that is coupled with a trend that we see from the pandemic where a lot of Companies are decreasing their footprint because they're enabling telecommuting And so there are going to be office buildings that have that space And in fact that's an additional Enticement for that building to be able to rent out their other floors to say we have on site. We have on site child care What a great thing right? That's a because parents love that So that's one thing we did we also have eight point eight million dollars in funding for on-site employer-based grants Epic is actually administering that and that's up to eight hundred thousand dollars for an employer to implement that a single employer Or a collaborative of employers on as I said on a campus or a building To really do that and and I think on site can really be a win-win. You need the quality of course same quality But again convenience time parents being able to visit their kids as well and Reducing the traffic which we all care about this color on this too and also parents time is money and time is the most precious Commodity not having to them scurry all over town to several sites to drop off kids before or after work So we're very excited about that and there is funding to do it and there is some regulatory relief to help make it happen This next question will be asked in Spanish. So please turn on your little headsets and Como va a boy are a ffm tienen pensado a boy are a las guarderías informales como in care for ma see Celebrado no estros childcare Centros informales los abuelitos por ejemplo en nuestros comunidad dias Son un parte muy importante de dar servicios a las familias especialmente las familias latinas pero también a todos nuestros familias en nuestro estado pero el estado también Queremos Calidad en todos los lugares y tal y naturalmente seguridad total es muy importante también y Añadamos incentivos 500 dólares hasta 5000 dólares para mejorar el status de calidad para los Lugares informales y ayuda para ellos para recibir la información y las clases para obtener la esencia y un incentivo para Algunos de las tías y abuelos y otros quien quieren mejorar la calidad de su servicio y tal vez empieza un empresa Normal para ustedes también another question What are your thoughts on a special taxing district for early childhood education? Well, we signed the bill to allow it. So that's great. We made that happen before that There were some counties that did it Denver and Summit County, I believe did it But now but that was that was a county now You don't as you know in Boulder County the county could have done it But now you can have it as a special district that for instance might file follow the lines of BBSD or St. Franes you might have to you can do whatever you want with a special district So that was additional flexibility that we provided to create those early childhood districts so that they don't They couldn't only be done at the county level So I think it's a great way to really engage the community around meeting The holes that exist from this other state and federal funding streams Thank you, how do you move forward relaxing child care regulations that you mentioned? Well, we did move forward with that one. We obviously you know like in anything. It's a balance We you certainly don't want to do anything that You want to make sure you preserve the safety of kids first and foremost But that being said you also want to look at flexible ways to provide that safety and experience And so that a perfect example was I mean if it's safe enough for adults to be on the fifth floor 10th floor of a building why isn't it safe enough for kids as long as of course they have the evacuation plans and everything else and they Do and that provides more opportunities for those centers at those locations I think with new technology. There's additional opportunities to find Anything in the requirements that might be outdated or no longer necessary There might be new and more efficient ways to keep kids safe And we should always make sure we update those so that we don't have Legacy requirements that are costly, but don't actually accomplish anything in the real world Just one last question and a comment Question is people want daycare where they live in Boulder County many employees commute to other areas How can we create access for them where they work? Yeah, so I think they generally parents want to either where they live or where they work one of the two They certainly don't want it in some third site And and and you know some of it is preference. I want it where they live someone or where they work The where they work piece we've talked a lot about the where they live piece We also have preventing making sure that for instance HOA's don't some of which are fairly expansive and large Don't actively prevent Childcare from being offered where people live, you know subject to the normal parameters. I mean we're not you're not talking about you know Large centers opening up, but at least being able to do the in-home piece in communities across our state to be able to Provide that alternative to people and of course where people work. So It's really about both of the above another provider There's other providers as well that that are in a mixed delivery system You have everything from private providers to employer-based to school districts To informal to formal and and I think that's a good thing the more variety we have The better we can meet the different needs that parents have and that's the different needs geographically as well as economically and culturally and what what parents want for their kids So we have a great diversity of child care opportunities in Colorado. The bottom line is of course quality safety And the Department of Early Childhood Education will make sure that we can really up the bar on both quality and safety For all the opportunities kids have in Colorado while reducing costs. Thank you for the opportunity to address you thank you for your advocacy and work and Let's continue to make Colorado a leader Thank you. All right. Are you ready for child care? I need to pause for a moment public service announcement. There is a green Prius out in the parking lot license plate 721 SVP you are blocking somebody that needs to get out. So if you don't want a denad Prius go move it green Prius I Want to also pause for a second There were some questions that I think are really good for the folks that are on stage or are some of the experts that are here but if you are a licensed child care provider or a school district child care provider or if you watch children in your home an FFN provider or your friend family neighbor care provider Would you just raise your hand for a moment if you're an FFN? licensed Child care provider. Okay, just hold your hands up for a second there If you are in the business community, I want you to see these hands if you are interested in talking about What would a partnership look like? What would it look like if I could have? 10 slots and subsidize them in your child care center Or could I have five children come into your home if you're an FFN provider the hands that were raised Those are the folks that know how to do these partnerships on the ground It's it's tricky talking about I don't know the first thing about child care and all I know about kids is You know wipe and nose and other things you don't have to know everything There are experts in this room that can help you with the Flexibility and the possibilities of what could happen in terms of child care for your employees So I just want to mention that today that there are folks that are up here answering questions But there are also folks in the crowd that are experts as well. So grab somebody like that another folks Group I want to point out Daniel Butler is executive director of their Boulder County early childhood council of over County She's back there the early childhood council of Boulder County really represents all things early childhood throughout Boulder County there They know how many slots we have they know the availability They know when slots close down when centers close down they help programs stay open if there's licensing or health concerns And so the early childhood council is really a leader in helping us both preserve our well Well-rounded child care center system as well as expansion and so Daniel is a great resource and the early childhood council as well But another person I want to point out that I want you to hear from because you need to hear their story And if you are non Spanish-speaking, this is your chance again to use your user headset But the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition is really a coalition that has a lot of different programs One of my favorite programs is the PASO program PASO really helps to enable Teas or Mostly women that are watching children in their homes. How do we do that in the best way possible? How do we give them the tools and the skills to do it in a quality way? And I'll tell you there's FFN providers that are doing amazing care across Boulder County So I want to introduce Gar Garciela Cabriol who is the PASO program coordinator for Boulder County And she's going to introduce our speaker that's going to talk about her friend family neighbor care experience Garciela Buenos dias Bueno, mi nombre es Graciela Cabral. Tengo a siete años de estar en esta maravillosa coalición La coalición es total de padres de colorado en la cual tenemos mucho que agradecerle a los fundadores de esta coalición en la cual ellos siempre han pensado en lo que es la educación Temprana en lo que es la dificultad para nuestra comunidad latina para incluirnos para hacernos contar Para que llegamos a ser alguien en la vida y nuestros hijos tengan un futuro mejor que no haga esas brechas en las cuales por el idioma o por el la cultura que tengamos cada uno diferente no lleguemos a cumplir metas y esta coalición que tengo casi quince años de conocerla y siete años de pertenecer a ella que para mí es un gozo que estábamos creyendo que íbamos a festejar en grande el año pasado nuestros cuarenta aniversario porque es algo grande que ha hecho la coalición bueno lo estamos todavía festejando en grande porque gracias a Dios estamos aquí presentes todavía estamos sirviendo a nuestra comunidad no importa las dificultades que tengamos pero estamos ahí luchando para que todo esto suceda para bien de nuestros hijos y en esta ocasión es voy a ser mencion de que tengo más de ocho programas de lo que es paso como coordinadora en la cual yo empecé a trabajar aquí en london y para mí es un placer en esta mañana presentarles una de mis proveedoras que vino al programa de paso para ella prepararse y dar mejor servicio a nuestros cuidados a los cuidados de nuestros niños de la comunidad y les presento a Mayra terrazas Hola, buenos días. Mi nombre es Mayra terrazas Tengo dos hijos de diez y veintiun años Fui estudiante del paso y migración fue en junio mi experiencia en estas clases fue de mucho aprendizaje Estoy aplicando el conocimiento adquirido en mi trabajo ayudando a los niños a desarrollar su aprendizaje físico cognositivo social y emocional Estas clases me ayudaron a mantener mi compromiso profesional teniendo ética y siendo objetiva con los niños y sus padres Busco crecer para brindarles a los niños más ayuda en su en en sus necesidades O fresco seguridad confianza confidencialidad y respeto Aprendí en mis clases a tener horarios reglas papelería tuve conocimiento de primeros auxilios Mis clases fueron por via zoom y mi experiencia fue de lo mejor por el horario y por poder tomarlas en mi hogar con gran puntualidad me evité mucho tráfico y Y seguridad también la tuve por la pandemia porque cuidas tu salud y aprendes al mismo tiempo en mis clases Seguimos reglas y las cumplimos nuestra maestra nos dirigió con gran enseñanza y también nos brindó la confianza de una gran amiga formamos un gran grupo Estas clases me enseñaron a tomar tiempo para mí para crecer como persona y como proveedora de cuidado infantil A sentir merubillosa de mis logros y a poner metas y cumplirlas Quiero lograr dejar huella en estos niños Y me recuerden como su proveedora que les ofrecio seguridad enseñanzas alegría confianza compañía y les ayudó a prepararlos para que tengan éxito en su educación futura gracias Thank you so much For for today and for what you do every day So I mentioned our closer today is Jessica Erikson so I'm gonna ask Jessica to head this direction and Just give you a little bit of information about Jessica. She comes up and depending on on Where Jessica ends up with time? When I come up to make some closing remarks if we have a few minutes to take a few more questions and we can do that But I want you to hear from Jessica For two reasons number one she represents the business community today and every day in a pretty extraordinary way She's president of our economic development partnership in Longmont and with that her mission is to bring New opportunities both business and employment opportunities to Longmont We're pretty certain that if we're gonna if a rising tide raises all boats. She's the tide and The opportunity she brings creates opportunities not just for the employers, but for employees in the whole town But it's her success is so dependent upon getting this right what we're talking about today So she's very familiar with this for that reason and she's the mom of an 18-year-old beautiful daughter 80 I'm sorry. Yes It hasn't been that long has it 18 month old Beautiful daughter so she can relate to this in some real personal ways join me in welcoming Jessica Erikson Thank you, Tim. Good morning, everyone So I have good news Everyone has taken all of my mask jokes. So we are done with mask jokes for today unless they come up with another one But I'm gonna start this morning by thinking I don't even know if he's still here but Governor Polis for joining us here in Longmont and especially for his leadership and his commitment to The issue of early childhood care and education I just want to thank Tim waters a hard time not calling you councilman waters But Tim waters and Matt Eldred for inviting me here to be a part of this conversation today Tim mentioned my name is Jessica Erikson. I'm president and CEO of Longmont Economic Development Partnership We are a 501 c6 nonprofit economic development agency serving the city of Longmont One of our key roles within the community is to serve as the backbone for Implementation of a city-wide economic development strategy called advanced Longwant 2.0 This economic development strategy was originally adopted in late 2019 and it has now in The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic become our playbook for economic recovery and resilience It focuses on talent Attracting new talent and developing pipelines here locally Industry as Tim mentioned Attracting new business investment into our community as well as supporting the ability of our existing industry base to expand and grow here Placemaking as an economic development strategy and transportation connectivity And our economic development strategy Recognizes that the benefits of the growth that we had experienced here in Longwant and In the larger Boulder County region in the years pre-pandemic Did not benefit everyone in our community and That the pandemic and our response to it have impacted some more negatively than others in our community And so far the reality is is that our recovery has not been equitable We are implementing the advanced Longwant 2.0 strategy Using a collective impact framework to align our community around addressing the challenge of ensuring that future growth and economic recovery Create prosperity for and are inclusive of everyone in our community and We'll know that we've been successful when everyone in Longwant has access to participate in our local economy That everyone has the opportunity to advance professionally to build wealth and to invest in their own futures We cannot achieve this as Tim just pointed out unless we find a way to Collectively address and create a transformational change in our systems of early childhood care and education Our strategic plan actually identified this as a priority in 2019 pre-pandemic and of course we've heard from Nicole and others this morning that over the last 18 months our Experiences have laid bare just how critical it is To our economic recovery and long-term resilience that we address the challenges of affordable accessible and quality childcare together So Matt and Tim asked me a bit about my purse or to talk a bit about my personal experience here this morning As Tim mentioned my family was blessed to welcome our daughter Adeline Grace to the world on March 12th 2020 of all days I Try going into the hospital on March 11th and coming out on March 14th of 2020 for a system shock Thank you to Longspeak Hospital United I think Lonnie's here for making it as pleasant of an experience as possible But the reality is when I was thinking about you know, how to share my personal experience related to What we've gone through in trying to access Childcare here in Longmont is that really I'm one of the lucky ones I'm one of the fortunate ones here in our community But I'm gonna tell you what it means to be lucky when it comes to Access to child care here in Longmont We are fortunate my family is fortunate Because we have the financial resource to be able to squeeze out of our budget The 1200 to $1,600 per month price tag for full-time quality child care While many others in our community do not We were fortunate to get into an in-home daycare That we felt had the quality that we were looking for for our daughter with no waiting list Though some of the options that we pursued had waiting lists of two years or more Well, we were we are mildly inconvenienced in our family to have to drive to every corner of this city every day To get our child to daycare and to get ourselves to work We have dependable transportation That we can rely on to do that while many in our community do not I Am fortunate that my job offers me flexibility in my schedule Because most daycare providers hours are not flexible and In the case of in-home daycare in some cases are not consistent and this is not just this is not Saying anything negative. It's just the reality of what it takes to provide care for a child and so on those days that we're not able to Access our outside of the home child care I am privileged to be able to in my position Work from home, but let me tell you what that privilege looks like that privilege looks like getting up two hours earlier than normal So that I can put in some productive work time before my daughter gets up And I put all of my time and attention towards her as she needs and as she deserves Then it's another two hours of work while she's napping in the middle of the day Before all of my time and my attention goes back to her for the remainder of the day Until she goes to bed at night and then it's several hours late into the evening that I finish my work day I have the privilege of having that flexibility while many do not and For me, it's the fortune of every day pondering How much longer I can continue to do this whether or not I can continue to do this Be a good mom and be the contributing employee and leader of my organization that I want to be But my privilege is that I have other options Should I decide that I can't continue to do this while many in our community do not So I'm not here to tell you that I know what the solution is But what I do know is that it is not going to come from the public sector It is not going to come from the private sector. It is not going to come from the nonprofit sector The only way we are going to solve the challenges we face in early child care education and care is collectively So we're talking about transformational change system-wide transformational change and That type of change is always relational. It's not transactional We've talked a lot about many of the transactional things that are happening throughout our community Throughout our state and throughout our country that are promising but unless we come together Collectively and recognize that it's not about a checklist that it's about the relationships that we build to bring collective action to this issue Transformational change is not possible And so we consider that transformational change of this scale requires collective impact Collective impact means aligning organizations people and resources Around a shared vision which may mean some of us have to set aside our previous visions of what this might look like As well as any self-serving Motivation that we have around addressing this challenge Collective impact gives everyone involved the opportunity to contribute what they are best at if you hear nothing else today from me hear this when you consider your role as private sector employers and When non-profit nonprofits consider the role of private sector employers do not just Consider them as funders or financial resources to put money towards the problem But consider the human resources that they have available To bring to address the challenges We've talked about the built environment and the infrastructure that they have the potential to bring think about technology infrastructure and Technology talent within some of the amazing companies that we have here in Longmont in Boulder County that could be brought to bear to address this issue Collective impact starts with a common agenda. I think we have that Here relative to early childhood education I think everybody just needs to get on the same page and agree that we have a common agenda in terms of where we want to be And it establishes shared measurements as well as requires that we hold ourselves and each other accountable for our shared measurements and goals Collective impact fosters mutually reinforcing activities Not competitive not conflicting and not duplicative activities But mutually reinforcing activities to address the issue and it encourages continuous communication Just like the conversation that we are having today. So again, thank you all for being here I'm gonna leave you with one last thought Can I get we've done a couple raises of hands how many Parents of children under the age of five are in the audience right now Thank you. You're amazing But the point that I want to make is it's a small percentage of this room, right? And I was recently reminded by a very talented team member Marisa who is sitting in the audience here today of the idea That we consider when we're considering issues of diversity and equity inclusion, which this really is one of and that's the idea To not make it about us without us and so for every conversation you're having about addressing the needs of Early childhood care and education whether it be as an employer considering adding a new benefit a community Considering building a new facility or policymakers considering new policy in support of or intended to be in support of early childhood care and education That those who will be most impacted the mothers in our community and the fathers in our community who have Children in that age group Must be at the table to be a part of that conversation And so again, thank you for being here this morning and for your commitment to Collectively solving the challenges that we face in our systems of early childhood care and education What you are doing matters this conversation matters. It matters to our community We've heard very eloquently and much appreciated from Nicole how it matters to our economy and It matters to my family. So thank you take the right closer for this event Thanks, Jessica. So we're not gonna have time for more questions. Here's what we will do every question. We have Well, we will respond to those and figure out whether we do it through maybe through the the council's website Or we'll figure it out or through Facebook Because they're all important questions and there's a lot of information That we'd like to share in response to those. So I'll just close it this way as As Jessica was talking about the collective impact model and she made reference to collective action What it provoked for me was just to think back how many of you ever anybody read the book that used to be us By Tom Friedman and Mike Mandela I published probably 15 years ago the whole their whole Treatment was took a look around the world and look at what was happening in developed countries and To marvel at what they were seeing and then to reflect back on What used to be like us as Americans? So they look at you know airports in Beijing and then look at airports in America and go well that used to be us right example after example and their conclusion a number of observations But the big conclusion to the book was that America had lost its will and capacity for collective action And that the only hope for us moving forward to compete And at least on an international level was to regain that will and that capacity So you look around like where could where could we start with a big solution right? The issues we've talked about we're up talking about today and it would be the federal government, right? Well the chance of collective action. They're right today is probably not very good Maybe at the state level with this leadership with the governor's leadership and the commitment But the one place we know it can happen is in Boulder County, right? So so the call to action let us not leave here today without a commitment To the collective action that's going to be necessary so moms in Boulder County don't have to make the choices The Jessica just described all right the time to have done that was a generation or two ago Best time next best time is today Let's leave with that kind of commitment to the new normal in the new era of child care in early childhood education Thanks for being here