 Welcome to the backstory on one of the lowest profile but highest stakes needs in Longmont and every other community in the United States. My name is Tim Waters and I've been invited by the Longmont Observer and Longmont Public Media to moderate conversations of leaders, advocates, experts, and policy makers on topics of interest and relevance to Longmont Area residents. This month we're focusing on young families and our youngest residents, concerned that we're failing too many of both because of insufficient childcare and early childhood learning opportunities in Longmont. Every story that each of us reads about in newspapers or on the Longmont Observer website has a backstory and the backstory is frequently more interesting than the story we read about and reported as news. So this month we're telling the story that's understood all too well by moms and dads and grandparents of children and grandchildren under the age of six. It's a story that's less well understood by business owners, although we'll learn from one of our panelists that that's changing. Our business community is coming to this issue and this need in a far more enlightened way than maybe in past years. The implications for municipalities, for school boards, and for county commissioners are significant because for every goal that a school board or a city council or a county commissioner would set, if we don't get it right for the youngest of our residents, if we don't do more and better for our youngest residents, our children zero to five, then virtually everything else is more difficult to achieve. So this is a backstory on a challenge that's so complex and so pervasive and of such consequence and significance that we're telling it in a series of at least three podcasts. These will be produced and posted in sequence on the Longmont Observer and the Longmont Public Media websites. They'll stream off a YouTube channel in hopes that Longmont and Boulder County residents will understand what's at stake for all of us if we don't get it right for the youngest of us. So for this podcast I'm joined by a pretty remarkable panel, people who are deeply involved with this and bring their own expertise and talent and I'd like to start by introducing Marta Lochelin, a former teacher in the St. Rain Valley School District, a small business owner, a mom who has first hand experience with the accessibility and cost of child care and happens to be a candidate for Boulder County commissioners. Thanks for the invite. Lorena Garcia, executive director of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, she happens to be also running for, I don't know if she's a candidate for the United States Senate. And she has a powerful story to tell about her work and what's been happening for the last couple of decades actually to build capacity in this state to respond to the needs of young families, both informal and informal child care settings. Melanie Piazza is a co-founder and executive director of the Family Village, which is located in Longmont. It's a child care co-op, shared workspace and an opportunity for young moms to stay engaged professionally and also see that their kids are well cared for. So an interesting, I don't know if it's unique, but a very unusual model exists right here in Longmont. And Gloria Higgins, who is a co-founder of executive partnering to invest in children. Epic. Epic is a coalition of business interests. She'll tell the story. It starts following the Denver preschool initiative in which she was the initial chair. Gloria now works with and through Epic as a consultant. She works with communities throughout Colorado to bring the business community to this issue and to bring the issue to the business community. So welcome to all four of you. Thanks for doing this. I know you could be doing other things with your time, but this is a gift to this community. And I appreciate, I know others will. Before we get into content, there's way more of your stories to tell than what I just did. So why don't you do your own self-introduction, what brings you to this, and then we'll get into the content of this conversation. Who was to start? We'll just go right to left. All right. So again, I'm Melanie Piazza, and I founded Family Village, which is a cooperative, co-working community and childcare center here in Longmont. About a year and a half ago, I was a mom of two young kids and had kept telling myself, my gosh, I just need some space to do something for myself. Start thinking about what I want to do in terms of building a business. And also I was really missing community and connection with other moms. But the cost of childcare was so prohibitive that I couldn't find space for myself. And I just kept imagining, wouldn't it be great if there's a place I could go? And I could do things for myself. I could meet with other parents. And I could know my kids were taken care of in the same location, but I'm not the one taking care of them. And I got angry enough that it didn't exist, that I just decided I'm gonna put it out there. And a bunch of moms on Facebook agreed that they could use it as well. Lots of dads as well. So we were founded in June of 2018 and are currently located at 1303 South Bross Lane. And we're just a place for childcare to be a little bit different. So it's cooperative in that we are all as members, owners of the business. We have a full-time childcare provider, our childcare director is there all the time. And then we support her in taking care of our kids as it ebbs and flows. We're a drop-in center, so we have no idea how many kids are coming at what time. And we have lots of volunteers, a lot of elder volunteers who are interested in engaging with young kids because they don't have theirs anymore. And so it's really a community based center. And part of the reason it works is because there are a lot of parents who are working remotely. Boulder County is now the number one county in the country for remote working population. And so there are a lot of parents who say this is great. I'm gonna get to work at home and I can have my kids and it's the perfect situation. And we always joke that you start to get tired of taking phone calls from the closet because your kids inevitably make noise the moment that you need to have an important phone call. So we sort of become the opportunity for parents to take the time that they need in small chunks. We can offer three hours of care per day. We can go into more of that later why it's only three hours a day. But it gives parents the chance to do those things that they need to do to run their business, run their lives, get their sanity back, especially really new moms who feel, oh my gosh, we thought parenting was gonna be so easy and it's really not. And it helps to hear other parents who have been in it to say it is hard. You're not wrong. This is not just you. So yeah, we're the first of our kind in the country. There have been co-working spaces with childcare attached that have been some successful, some unsuccessful. But I think what makes this different is that we're a cooperative. And so parents are much more engaged in the whole, not just the childcare, but the operation of a business. So it's making parents who are feeling lost in terms of their identity have a purpose again. And there are a lot of people are finding a career that they didn't know existed before they started coming to the village. So yeah, that's my story and that's what family village is. Glad to be here. Wonderful. Yeah. And I had the delight to go over and meet Melanie and see what she's been doing. And it's when you talk about unique and opportunities, it really speaks to the entrepreneur thread of Boulder County, but certainly in in our city of Longmont. So my name is Martha Low-Trimming. And as you shared, I am a candidate for Boulder County Commissioner. And Gloria and I were speaking earlier that we have multiple hats. And a lot of that is our story, our stories as women. So as a single parent, I've navigated the system of, you know, the same thought of like, Oh, maybe this will get easier as my kids get older. And the reality is that the childcare needs change certainly from being initially employed by a corporation where I had maternity leave and I had benefits and I had time off with my my oldest son. And then when I went to self employment in 2001, and a lot of our community deals with that is when you don't have benefits and you don't have childcare options, I had to go back to work a week later because I was self employed. And I was the only person working for my household. And so those are that's an experience and perspective that I bring as well as as you mentioned that I am also a teacher. And so from a family perspective and doing a family engagement and consulting around the community now doing work is really talking about one of the things that I know we're gonna talk about later is how do we involve parents in this conversation to a higher degree? How do we know one of the requests initially for why I was invited was from the business community perspective. And so how do we bridge all of our voices together to address what you talked about already this very important need and more pressing intertwining issue of all of our big issues. How do we focus that into the early childhood? So thanks for having me here. Thanks for being here, Gloria. And my name is Gloria Higgins. And I'm personally a CPA by training. So I grew up in the business community, understand the perspective of the business community. And through that was asked to become the board chair for the Denver preschool program, which was one of the first public taxing initiatives that was passed in Colorado. And I think maybe across the nation, the challenge that we had and I think the reason I was asked to participate was the fact that we were starting from scratch. We had millions of dollars coming in on day one January one, and we had no methodology of getting that money back out to the community in a real way. So it was that entrepreneurial spirit and the very strong board that was handed to me with the expertise in early childhood expertise and education expertise and some of the community issues that we were able to create a sliding scale methodology for transferring sales tax dollars in the city of Denver to parents for the benefit of their four year old in a preschool or an early education setting. So that sold me. I gave up being a CPA and decided that my third career was going to be as an advocate for early childhood. And my background was with community. So that's why I've landed. Well, there's lots to learn from that experience across the state and we're trying to learn it here. So thank you. I'm really excited to be part of this panel of a lot of expertise. Thank you, Tim, for inviting me. Again, my name is Lorena Garcia and I am the executive director of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition. And CSPC was founded 40 years ago by a group of parents that felt like the education system wasn't meeting their needs. So they self organized started to train each other on how to be advocates for their children in schools. And through that the organization grew to reach parents statewide. In 2001, the organization was finally able to bring on staff. And in 2005, what was the organization went from being 100% parent serving organization into expanding to serve school districts, schools as well as childcare providers because there was conversation with parents that yes, I'm going to do everything that I can, but my kid is not always with me. My child is in a childcare provider, provider setting, whether it's licensed or if it's informal. And so there's only so much I can do. So through a grant, the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition was unable to do some research here in Boulder County to identify where are those kids going? And it was discovered that a large percentage were going to informal childcare providers, the providers that we consider babysitters. Now, they're the grandparents or the neighbor down the street or the family friend. And there was a desire within that population to improve their skillsets that they could also support the educational and school readiness development of these young children. So from that CSPC developed a very rigorous, intensive training for what we call FFN providers, which are friend, family and neighbor care providers. And right now this training where what are we 14 years later, we've trained over 1300 FFN providers across across the state, around 160 of them here in Longmont. And it's a it's a program that has proven success in the sense that we also have an external evaluation that shows that the children in the care of positive providers have a 17 point increase in their school readiness scores. I mean that one of the things that we often say is our efforts of closing the achievement gap is to close it before it starts. And we do that by empowering parents and powering FFN providers and making sure that that there is support in the community and there's the constant growing of skill sets because I think someone mentioned you you you don't become a parent and suddenly know how to parent. You don't become a childcare provider and suddenly know how to provide childcare. We all need support. We all need encouragement. We all need skills development. We'll see where the conversation goes. I've got some questions I'm going to ask, but I would delight if we come back at some point to the to the effects of closing the kinds of gaps that we know children arrive at the kindergarten door with in terms of vocabulary, planning skills, problem with all skills, delayed gratification, the kinds of things that get developed in in quality early learning experiences and what that means to them for the rest of their lives in school and in as adults and all the costs associated with it. So we get there. That's part of why we should be in this conversation. I just want to remind anybody who is a listener to this or or tunes in their city of Longmont, the city council and listeners know that I do this as a volunteer. I also serve in the city council. So sometimes it's hard to know which hat you're wearing. Just to remind listeners that the the Longmont City Council has adopted a couple of vision statements and seven goal statements. And among the goal statements are a goal about housing and there's a goal about economic development and goals about the environment and the kinds of community in which we want to live. We also have a goal that we are going to provide more and better early learning experiences for all of our children. The premise for this series and the work that's going on right now in Longmont as a coalition comes together around this topic. The premise is that if we don't get it right for our youngest residents, every other goal that we want to achieve becomes more difficult to achieve. Or conversely, if we do get it right, attaining or achieving the other goals in terms of housing and economic development and quality of life are all enhanced or strengthened. Our chances of success are are much improved. So the first of these podcasts focused kind of on big picture. The second of these podcasts really focused on kind of formal and informal early learning opportunities for four and five-year-olds. So we can go wherever we want to, but I really would like to drill down on that zero to three age group. Child care because there's so much learning and development that occurs there, but in less formal settings, but no less important in terms of life preparation. So we'll see, I'm going to ask some questions, we'll see where we go with these questions and how much you want to bite off. Just generally, you've already begun, Melinda, you touched on some of the experience of families in Longmont. Marty, you did as well. Is there any more we would want to kind of lay out for listeners? Just generally, the experience of families in Boulder County in need of high quality, reliable child care, formal or informal? I got a couple of comments. Keep in mind everyone should recognize that I bring the business mindset to the situation. So I've done some research on Longmont and I've been able through studies that were prepared by the Center for American Progress to identify what's called child care deserts. And when I look at the child care deserts, I've five or six popped up and I was very amazed and interested to see the income levels of those families in that child care desert and the degree that the area is a desert. And what it spoke to how it spoke to me was as you address the problem in the situation in the crisis in Longmont, I think it would make sense. I always go back to location, location, location and really begin to focus attention to those deserts and create kind of a solution based process that would help you earmark. And I think what you're going to find out is that many of those areas are working families. You know, they're not the the below poverty level families, but it really spoke to me on so I'm working hard and I think this goes to Melanie's concept. I'm working hard. I'm trying to do the best for my children. I'm stressing out. I'm not a good employee. I feel like I'm not a good parent. And yet there's no real pathway for supporting those families. The data you're suggesting or you've looked at suggest that we are a desert, a child. There are there are some deserts. Yes, I can. I can tell you the area is they're done by census track. So in Longmont, we have childcare deserts. Well, that's an important frame to take with it. Yeah, I think that it's also important. I don't I haven't looked at the data you're talking about. So when you're when you're considering a child care desert, is that a desert of licensed care providers? It is a desert of licensed care providers. So the information speaks to me in one particular area. There has to be a huge element of FNN family, friend and neighbor because these parents are working. Yeah. And I and I never want to presume what the quality is going to be. But I know there are loving arrangements and thank goodness for organization. It could have some very high quality. But we should learn from that. Talk about what might not show up in the data that reflects the work that you've done. Yeah, so when we know when we look at data around childcare, even kids count that happens here in Colorado, it focuses on licensed because it's easier to track. We can we have the registry of licensed care providers. We have the quala star ratings or the Colorado Shines rating, excuse me. But what we don't have, because it's almost virtually impossible to track is who are the FFN care providers? And the reason why it's so challenging to incorporate FFN care when we're doing when we're looking at data with childcare is because there is no registry. There's no licensure. People are operating out of the goodness of their heart because they have the space because they have the time. And so and some some let FFN care providers are absolutely outstanding, just like some license care providers are outstanding. But there's always opportunity for growth in all areas. And I think that when we when we're talking about childcare deserts, it's it's absolutely important to recognize those childcare deserts as those are also the flourishing opportunities for FFN care. Sure. You know, I think here in Longmont, there's several areas where the majority of the providers that we work with are the providers in that area because there aren't any more licensed spots available at all or there isn't even a center that's close enough for the families to take advantage of. I'm going to I'm going to we're going to come back to that. What assumptions can we make about total numbers and need and capacity because those are huge both the numbers and the and the options are huge both in this community and the rest of Boulder County. Any other perspectives here from just in terms of what our options and experience is like in in Longmont? Marty, you've you've you've experienced it trying to find your way along both as a mom and as a business person. Right. And I think of the coalition that we've been working on over the last year, this tends to be the conversation. Right. And and I know in my own personal experience that finance was an issue finding a care, even finding a facility, but for in the community that because I work about 90 percent of my clients are not a monolingual Spanish speakers and or bilingual families. So there's a whole another avenue that we haven't touched on. We might not even get to based on a lot of questions and great conversation. But there is a sector of our community in a multicultural and a multilingual need. And there's an underlying thread there of trust and all parents and make it speak for myself. I want to be able to leave my child in a place where I trust they're going to be cared for. I hope that they're going to be academically you know, challenged in some way. But I also you know, those referral partners we talk about in our community is so important. And you know, how we line this up with, you know, we look at it just from a data standpoint, we look at just from a number standpoint, we look for at a facility standpoint. But there is a bigger topic here about how do we ensure that families can really trust where they're going to whether it's in our family for a neighbor or if it's in our facilities, whether it's licensed or unlicensed. And again, I think that's why the family village is so unique. And when you have families together that are creating these opportunities, how do we use that pilot and do something more with it that's going to include all sectors of our community. Yeah, yeah. From the moment they're born, right? They are learning immediately and constantly. And that learning and the curiosity occurs when they're safe, when they're supported, right? And when parents are comfortable with the settings in which their children are being cared for. Well, and I think Mellie touched on it a little bit. And the other aspect of this is a mental health conversation, too, for a parent who, and we look at, you know, when I'm looking at the data of where our, you know, Boulder County, but it could be, you know, statewide conversation is where our parents working. What does that commute look like? What does that create then from a pressure and this conversation of kind of failure as a parent? There's all these different pieces that are all attached and why this topic is so important. Yeah. Well, and also, let's not forget now, long months considered a boom town. So we have people moving here rapidly. And as a mom and as a business owner in this sort of childcare providing world, I see posts every day, multiple times a day from people who are planning to move here or do live here, but haven't yet found a connection and they don't have, they, they don't have friends, they don't have family. So that network of where do I go to get care becomes really reliant on a bunch of it's beautiful in a way as strangers on a social media site saying, here's someone I recommend or here's an in-home childcare provider that you can't find on a database. I mean, I know care.com. Some parents use that. But it becomes even more of a I have to jump into this new living experience. And the places that I would normally say I was were trustworthy in terms of being licensed. I have to now go on the advice of strangers really to, to decide where I'm going to take my kids. So I think some of this is about how do we build that community for these new families that move here. And that's what I hope Family Village can be and anything else that sort of evolves from it. Because once you have that trust in people, because you know them, then it's much easier to say, Hey, I've got my, my aunt is now looking to provide care in her home and she'd be an excellent you can meet her. And I think it just, there's a lot of gray area that we don't really know. And how many parents do want full-time care? How many just want part time or as needed? And there's really not a lot of opportunities in all of Boulder County. But I think probably in the state for I need care today. I didn't know that I needed care yesterday. So I think there's, there's a lot of creativity, I think that has to come to the table and solving this problem because it's not just building more childcare facilities in the traditional way. It's finding ways that we can build the community networks and, you know, the more babysitting co-ops where it's parents that come together and they take turns taking each other's children so that there isn't a financial burden at all. But it just means that means a day that you need to actually watch seven or eight kids. So anyways, it's I think it's a very nuanced question like about we know what's in, in licensed care, we can maybe have some idea through your organization of what's happening in terms of friends and family network. But I think there's a lot of people that are not even showing up in any statistics because they don't even know where to turn. They don't know how to even start looking for care. So I want to drill down just a little bit on that part of the question. There's a lot that what part of what I've learned is that getting your arms around what the actual data are is, is a challenge because the data sets are so disparate. There's no one place that we can go to answer questions about total number of kids in the community who are, who are, are in or not in any kind of care facility and the nature of that. So last spring, there was a mayor's summit that several of you were involved with. That was followed in September with a data collection activity that was part of the follow on to a Senate bill that was passed in the last legislative session. What was interesting, the data in both of those suggested that we have a pretty significant challenge in Longmont and these are just gross approximations. So don't anybody at this table or might be listening, hold me to the fine points of here. Yeah. But here's the at least the impression I was left with is that we probably have 5,000 kids at least in the the geography of the same Rain Valley School District, 5,000 children between ages zero and five and of those five year olds among that five those and there are those who are not yet in kindergarten. So these are kids who would be in childcare or early childhood formal or informal learning opportunities. And that about we can account for probably 60% of that 5,000 to be part of an FFN network or in a formal setting licensed or unlicensed. Now, how accurate is that number? But it would not be inconsistent with the idea of deserts to some degree. That does leave, if you think about the numbers, 2,000 kids today and every day in settings where we're not certain what they're experiencing. And I'm certain many of them are experiencing the kind of care you'd like to have where parents can be confident. I do fear that there are too many who aren't. And whatever that number is, are those to whom we owe something, right? So could we just talk about what are the consequences? What does it mean to a community, to a society both short term and long term? If whatever that number is, whether it's 2,000 or some smaller number, what are the implications for the children, for their families and for society? If we don't do more and better to ensure that whatever that number is, they're either with a prepared friend or family care provider or in a co-op or in a formal licensed setting. What are the consequences if we don't do that? The consequences are enormous. I mean, there's consequences to the family. There's consequences to the parent. There's consequences to the city council's goal for economic development. There's consequences to the ability for the child to develop in their social and emotional learning in their academics. And I think one of the things that strikes me most is what is the need? Why do we even have the need for childcare? Because we are still operating in an archaic system that does not support two working parents in a household or does not support a single parent working. And because of that, even though we have, when children even get to kindergarten, for example, there is still a need for childcare when the school day is over because parents are still supposed to be at work until five. But then how do they pick up their kids at 3.30? So then they're still figuring out how do I get my child cared for in this hour and a half that I can't leave work? Yeah, add that to the number. I shared a few minutes ago. Yes. And I think that when we are what I do want to acknowledge is Longmont is doing a lot to address this more than more than most any other community in Colorado right now. Longmont is really focused because of the commitment of the city council to ensuring that there is attention brought to this. I mean, the fact that there's this type of podcast happening is enormous. And if we don't take advantage right now when we have the opportunity to use the dollars that the Longmont City Council has put forward to use the expertise that's even just sitting at this table right here to make sure that we are engaging businesses that Epic is doing fantastic job with to say we have to in order to address this problem it's going to take about 10 different prongs. There's not a single solution to making sure that these 2,000 kids are safe or in an environment that's going to be stimulating their minds. You know, we need to rely on FFM. We need to expand licensure. We need to make sure that that businesses start understanding that investing in childcare is ultimately better for their own bottom line. We need to make sure that that the city and the other I'm going to I'm going to stop. I'm going to allow everyone. I keep going. And I want to add on to what you said, Lorena, because there's I mean, we have this this this 2,000 number, right? But the other reality that we have in Boulder County and in our state because we're, you know, the amazing part of the country is that on a national average, if you look at the cost to have a childcare provider, national average is around 25,000. In Boulder County, that same position is about 30,000. And so we have this. We know we have a need right now. And the reality is that those childcare providers are also being pulled into other areas of employment. And I hear that all the time from different nonprofits that are also facing the same thing. And so if we are not careful and we've talked about this in our coalition meetings, we are also going to see more closures of childcare facilities that we have right now. So we have to be and I'm in love with what you're saying because we have to be very vigilant because that 2,000 number is more likely to grow versus lower if we don't get very active with all of community members to find some solutions that are going to help. I think that's why from my perspective and keep in mind, I'm totally biased about the business community, but now is the time to have those very difficult conversations. And my experience has been is what was a difficult conversation five years ago is now a five minute conversation. So they're beginning to understand all the brain science, all the economic reasons. What they're the gap is, is what is the most logical place for them to to be active? And I think that's the question if through the city council, we can develop kind of a pathway. I don't believe there's going to be that the challenges that we saw several years ago. I want to reinforce, Lorraine, you touched on what's different today. A generation ago, we didn't have the absolute need for two workers in every household, right? The economics of life today have drawn moms and dads into the workplace. The number of single parents, right? Who obviously are going to be in the workplace. Add to that what we've learned about brain science. Why do kids need to be places today when they didn't need to be a generation ago? Well, they needed to be there a generation ago. We just didn't understand how the brain works and why it's so critical today to address what become deficits, right? Not in terms of abilities, but in terms of vocabulary or the kind of brain development that occurs to get them ready by the time they get to kindergarten. So just imagine what would it be like if all of our five-year-olds showed up to the Savory Valley School District school ready and we weren't having to overcome deficits in vocabulary or planning skills and those kinds of things. Think of the number of special ed referrals that decline and use those resources differently. Think of how you'd used compensatory Title I dollars differently for enrichment and what life options are presented to those kids. The storyline goes on for decades and decades and decades. Adults who make better decisions. They live longer, healthier lives, more productive. The returns on these investments are pretty profound. But we've got to make some progress here and let's talk about, several of you have referred to what's going on in Longmont. This isn't going to get solved by the City Council. The City Council teed it up. It's going to get to the degree that it's a solution. We're going to make progress on a very complex problem because of everybody who comes to this. You are all involved in a coalition that has come together in Longmont. And part of the story is about that coalition. Lorena, you mentioned that what's going on in Longmont is unusual. I think it comes along very seldom that the variety of interests that come together to address this particular issue doesn't happen very often. But it is now. So talk a bit about how you've come to that coalition, what you think of the work that's being done, and what would you say to others in terms of how they get involved from the business perspective, from the business community, from a parental perspective, from a provider perspective, from a business, your business perspective, and from your work as a consultant and as an advocate and from policy. Talk about your experiences and why should anybody should care about this. So I will just speak very briefly on this. There is, so there is this wonderful coalition of community activists here in Longmont and teachers and policymakers here in Longmont that are convening in order to come up with the multitude of solutions that are necessary to address this issue here in Longmont. And this coalition is growing every single meeting. And I think one of the reasons why CSPC is part of it is because this is what we do. This is when we are able to actually engage with people who are directly impacted by this issue, whether it's the business community or the parents or the schools, then we know that we're able to come up with robust equitable solutions that have the perspective of everyone who's going to be impacted involved. And that's really important for me personally and it's also very extremely important for the organization CSPC to maintain with its essence of why we exist. Yeah, I think, so I joined this coalition after speaking to Tim and introducing him to Family Village. And we immediately recognized there are not a lot of parents at this coalition and there are a lot of reasons for that and it's all the reasons we've been talking about parents are stressed. Parents don't have childcare to show up at a meeting. I mean, one of the first meetings we brought, I think it was five or six parents from Family Village and we brought our children with us and it was disruptive of course because that's what you would expect when children show up but that's the statement that we knew we needed to make. We aren't at the table to the degree that we need to be. And the needs for childcare have changed in ways we haven't touched on it immensely today. And that is that a lot of parents are able to work from home. A lot of parents are working more flexible schedules. Parents are working overnight shifts. That's not something new but what is happening in terms of childcare in these kind of less, it used to be exceptions but now it's becoming a more larger population of people who are not meeting the same things that were needed 10, 15 years. Even five years ago. So that's a challenge. We've moved a lot of these meetings to Family Village for this reason so that we have childcare on site available to parents that want to show up. But I think it demonstrates the degree to which this is a problem and that we can't even as parents of young children be at the table to provide the solutions, help provide the solutions to make this not be a problem for the next generation. So we're definitely changing it but I think that's one thing I would say parents listening, anybody that's a parent and a business provider we need your voice at the table. I mean, I can bring my perspective some of our villagers can come but we have very specific needs that other parents don't have and how can we as a community provide the forum to have these conversations in ways that parents are able to show up and be at the table to feel empowered because the other thing I believe deep down is that becoming a parent brings a new wisdom to life and it's not just about raising our own children but it's about what do we need as a community to feel safe and to feel secure and I think many times in my experience parents feel like those ideas, those thoughts this business came because I got pissed and I just decided I have to build it but so many parents don't feel empowered to do that they don't have the resources to be able to take the time off of work to build a new business to be the solution for the problem but I believe many of us as moms have amazing ideas that will solve this problem that will solve many other problems in our society but unless we do what we can as a culture to start making it possible for those parents to be at the table then these conversations will just keep going and going and going we might provide a solution or two but we're not actually addressing the bottom line which is that you're right this is an unnatural way to be taking care of our children to require that two parents work and not have that really comfortable safe network of the old fashioned village where I could work because my aunt or my grandparent or my cousins or all of the above are available to help raise my kid with me that's not the world we live in anymore and we talk about all the time that because two parents are working you don't know your neighbors because you don't have the time to be networking with your neighbors all you have time to do is get home get food in the table, get the kids to bed and so what that does is it provides this distrust of the community around you so if you don't know who your neighbors are then you don't feel comfortable with your child walking down the street and there's this, we talk about mental health there is this constant fear in parents of if I'm not with my child something terrible is gonna happen not just in a childcare providing a situation but just in life in general and I think that's where the answer isn't just both parents work full time and we put our children into childcare facilities it's we have to build community so that we feel generally safe raising our children where we do and that's where I think Longmont having these conversations we have the opportunity to be the forefront of what it looks like to be taking care of our children you know some of it is about education but some of it is just about a general sense of safety in life though zero to three we don't need to worry about teaching them necessarily but we need to make sure they feel safe and loved and parents that are stressed have a hard time providing that safety and love even if they try so I think it's from an economic standpoint from a cost of living standpoint there's so much about this conversation that glosses over the underlying problem which is that we are not we're not taking care of one another as parents we feel isolated and even though we have social media we can talk to someone 24 hours a day on social media about our challenges as parents that the closeness of a community and the knowingness that we're safe here and we know our neighbors and we're in this together I think is part of the conversation that we need to be having I think more parents at the table brings, we'll bring that to light because I think we all feel that I would say what you just described is neither a problem nor a solution it is a much deeper set of social conditions and building on that I mean that's a huge aspiration that's spot on we also have to address some issues like the decline in providers and why and the cost and the benefits of valuing the work in this space like we do other industry sectors anybody want to take that one on? from a teacher perspective I could take that one all day long it's the same issue that we've seen in Colorado from a statewide issue of we are not valuing the people that we are asking to dedicate their lives to care for our kids and it's really at all ages that's a bigger issue and that's a statewide issue but certainly one of the pieces so I was invited to join the coalition I think initially for a couple of reasons one from a business standpoint because the question then was was this group gonna tackle some of this new legislation and really look for a special district tax and the other reason I was brought on was to look at it from a consulting standpoint which you touched on a little bit because I've been facilitating humans in a design project a national cohort for community foundation in Boulder County so it goes back to that same piece and we heard it in September at that last meeting the opening remarks started with feedback we'd gotten from community members who said this is not an accessible time I'm a childcare provider I would like to be in the room and the three o'clock meeting or 3.30 meeting doesn't work and that to me is a bigger issue of when we ask and we want people to be in the room to be able to participate we have to move into a new system that allows people to do that and that's gonna take some creative solutions and the second piece is the business standpoint of how do we encourage business owners and big employers and small employers to really talk with their families to figure out what are the needs here locally because some parents may not want the same old the same old rewards for working for example and I've seen it and heard it from a lot of young folks who are saying hey instead of giving me a bonus check at the end of the year that's kind of an old school why don't you give me add more to PTO or give me some or let me go and get trained so that I can add some more income to whatever it might be but that some of those creative solutions are in all sectors right but I agree that we just need to have more people and at the table and so that invitation obviously is there for people to free go we're gonna get to that invitation before we finish here just a minute I'd like to add and kind of pile on to what you were saying earlier is that we do need to elevate the profession our professional or childhood individuals and I think it's too prompt and I can just I just tell everything in my life is a story because I experienced it somewhere but professionals don't value themselves because we don't value them and I look at it from the regulatory perspective and the reason that probably some of the and many of the childcare providers are not licensed is because of the regulatory issues but when we start telling them we have to regulate everything that they do pretty soon they say but that's not relevant to what I want to be as an early childhood provider and leave the environment so that's an issue that needs to be addressed and I think that the business community we can get them properly educated can be very strong advocates because they don't like regulations either they're kindred spirits so to speak to say what can we do differently and so then I go to the other side where I've had a lot of background in policy and legislative issues and it was just the other day where an individual came up to me and said childcare providers aren't, they don't have a business license so we want to run a bill that says they don't need to have a business license and I said time out we're trying to professionalize that profession and we say, you know everybody else has to have a business license so if we give them an exemption are we really doing them a favor if we're trying to create this higher level of perspective that the community has of them I said there's a way you can get to that point without providing exemptions just embed a business license into the licensing process so I think when some people are trying to help they're not helping but they don't realize that they're business people just like everybody else and we want to treat them the same and we want them to have the same respect and ultimately compensation so I think we have to be careful in how we try to make changes to make sure that we aren't kind of stepping on our own tiptoes If I may jump in really quick I think the fact that childcare is a business is a problem I mean the fact that we look at childcare and early childhood education as a for-profit model is why we are in a place we are right now if we were to actually consider childcare as early childhood education and wrap it into our overall education system you know then we would have more validity towards what is ECE you know it wouldn't be something where we have to rely on all these like this hodgepodge of options for childcare but it could actually be a model that is couched under department even I mean where does childcare fit some people say it's education some people say it's human services I don't know so maybe we'll take it this year maybe you'll take it next year I think that we need to systematize where early childhood education should fall and expand early childhood education beyond kindergarten beyond preschool to start at age zero and I think that as long as we continue to allow child care and allow our children to be another model of profit building then we're never gonna get to a place where really what is the purpose of early childhood education and childcare it's to actually support the development of these children and we're not gonna get there I'm gonna use that as a segue into closing here and I wanna invite you all we've made reference to this consortium I want you all to extend whatever invitation you want to whether it's this consortium or any other aspect of the work you're doing if people if this motivates anybody to wanna enlist in this cause what would you encourage them to do who would you encourage them to contact and then they can follow up and we're all easy to reach but I will say that the consortium conversation is addressing both of these what is it from the business side or what are the options that you think about this as a system or an institution not unlike our K-12 system just an extension to birth right what does that look like and what are the options and indeed there are some options to take it on that way whether or not we have the political will and the fortitude and the political savvy to move that forward we'll have to see but that's on the table in this coalition so we're gonna close it how would you like to invite people to join you in this cause well from the Colorado Stewart parent coalition perspective you can join CSPC by if you wanna be a trained provider jump on board you can become a member of CSPC but the other thing is also just if you're in this area and you can make it if you can make it to these meetings do because your perspective is vital to making sure that we do come away with equitable broad based solutions that do take into consideration all the different perspectives I imagine you're gonna be putting some information about how to like reach out to someone so email we'll have to see what the long line public media is willing to do with that I will say that this that I'm not certain when these is this is gonna get posted and you know when people view but right now the second Monday of each month at three o'clock in the afternoon at 13 what's the address 13 is where the consortia everybody who's involved or the coalition meets and there are working groups that meet on different schedules but if anybody wanted to come just to get a taste of it find out where and how to plug in that would be a time and understand fact on the next time this group meets we'll talk about meeting times because three o'clock in the afternoon doesn't meet for a lot of working families so but that's a topic for that agenda but just know that there are these opportunities who would like to add to what Lorena just mine is just kind of a general thing that we right now are working to create a no-cost ability for businesses and especially small businesses to say oh I understand the problem and I'm there to support you I may not be able to pay for my family or for my employees childcare or things like that but I'm there to create a business voice and try to help the business community come through so we're doing that through letters of support or quotes because I say the quotes are great because they're kind of a gift that keeps on giving but if we can get enough businesses and particularly small businesses to basically just stand up and say I get it, I don't have a solution I don't know what your solution is gonna be but I wanna be, I wanna go on notice as being part of the concerned community One of the working groups by the way is focused just on these questions and working with the business community so Yeah, you took mine Oh sorry, no he didn't, not you, but so and I think that's important for viewers and listeners to know because this group was a huge umbrella and we've broken it down into three different groups so my particular request because I'm working on the business side is really that we need to have some more business perspectives and not just necessarily business owners but also people who've been in that space and certainly our entrepreneurial world because again I think that the way employment is working is right now we're focusing on something that we know and really our jobs are gonna look completely different two to five years and certainly 10 to 15 years in Longmont and in the county and so folks who are on the edge of that who have some perspectives could be really helpful to guide that conversation and the data is also the piece so if there's folks out there who have some of this data who have some ideas about how to collect because we don't have the numbers we don't even know what the ask is we don't have a specific number yet of not only all the kids specifically that are being serviced by these different programs but also who's not being serviced and what the cost would be again what it might look like today is gonna be different going forward so all those requests would be could be really helpful to join in yeah and like I mentioned I think we do need parents at the table and if you can't make it to the meetings you can always show up at the village from nine to three Monday through Friday because we have these conversations all the time and I think it's important that we have as many varying experiences of childcare at the table as well as what are the solutions that you've come up with because a lot of these parents are very creative but if we can kind of put some bang behind these ideas and do something with them by having those ideas at the table at these meetings I can represent whoever I can't be there but I think we just need to have these conversations which is why this is so important because I think it just feels like we're just treading water and we just have to keep surviving until our kids get to an age where we don't have to worry anymore about this I think the answer is not wait I think the answer is solutions now so we do need all of those perspectives that are gonna be different than probably some of the things we talked about today So anybody who watches this video or listens to this podcast the second Monday of each month three o'clock at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church 1303 South Bronx is where this coalition is meeting who knows where it goes after that I'm certain we'll find meeting times that work for a broader cross-section there are ideas that are currently they're working groups that are coming together around both problems and solutions any idea, it's not just those three every idea that somebody would bring well that coalition will be interested in and there'll be others I'm certain with whom new volunteers would find common cause to help work towards solutions and if you do that you get a chance to work with the kind of talent that's at this table and that's a rare and unique opportunity and it has been a unique opportunity for me this morning so thanks to each of you for sharing your time and your expertise like we said it's a story that needs to be told and I'm so pleased and honored that you were here to tell it Thank you That's your backstory and the third of these podcasts on early childhood education and childcare in the long run