CONTEXT: Not enough affordable child care to meet the community’s needs 

Like many communities across the country, the City of Beloit, Wisconsin needed to improve adequate access to child care. As of August 2023 Beloit had 16 licensed child care programs—including centers and homes—which together met only 37% of the need in the city. A city survey showed that 88% of families found child care unaffordable. At the current cost of care for an infant or toddler, a Beloit family would need an income of approximately $170,000 for child care to be affordable, but the median household income fell well below that at $52,000. Families also highlighted the extended waitlists and the need for improved quality in existing programs.  

At the same time, child care providers struggled to maintain their programs due to rising costs and difficulties with recruiting and retaining new employees. While there was both a high school ECE credential track and a community college ECE associates degree program, students had little interest in working in community-based child care programs and instead looked for roles in higher-paying school-based programs or outside the child care industry. Rising wages in nearby Illinois and higher compensation from large chain employers in the area further contributed to hiring challenges.  

GOAL: Create a holistic plan to improve child care supply through addressing multiple contributing factors  

Afton Partners, in partnership with All Children Thrive, sought to deliver a comprehensive child care SWOT analysis and child care supply action plan for Beloit families, employers, and the community.  

At the end of the engagement, the plan needed to serve Beloit child care providers and families by:  

• including compensation and benefit strategies, an innovative shared services model, various community-supported financial models, business coaching, and opportunities for partnership;  

• focusing on sustainability and feasibility while meeting the needs of the community; and  

• identifying opportunities to grow the child care workforce and increase child care supply, ultimately impacting employment in other industries located in and near Beloit, advancing the economy as well as promoting overall well-being of families. 

The final comprehensive strategic plan would include local, regional, and state public and private funding to meet the demand and intended outcomes.  The plan needed to be highly localized to provide wrap-around services that would support child care programs in recruiting and retaining staff, providing quality care for children, and ensuring employees have care that meets their families’ needs. 

APPROACH: Center community input and the preservation of the mixed delivery system 

Afton Partners took a holistic approach to child care, understanding how it fit within both the mixed delivery system and the community at large. To do so, we centered the insights of community members and especially prioritized the input of families, educators, providers, and program directors. We engaged a wide variety of community members through: 

• Interviews with local child care providers, 

• Educator focus groups, 

• Parent focus groups, 

• A survey for Beloit Memorial High School ECE track students, and 

• Attending the City’s Quality of Life subcommittee meeting. 

Existing research and surveys on child care within the county also informed the plan, as did the prior work of peer cities in Wisconsin that demonstrated success in addressing similar challenges.  

Providing various opportunities for engagement and attending meetings in person facilitated a rich and meaningful connection to the community and served our intentions for a co-designed plan.      

After the extensive research concluded, we developed a SWOT analysis and explored how the prevailing challenges connected to the four critical components of child care: access, affordability, quality, and the workforce.  

OUTCOMES: A robust action plan that drove quick wins and a promising long-term trajectory of change 

Using the findings of the SWOT analysis, we developed an action plan that included both short-term measures and long-term levers of change for the existing child care challenges. The solutions addressed all four components of child care and knitted together the provision of support to existing child care, changes to the mixed delivery system, and addressing larger community needs.  

The report named five main goals for the City: 

• Retain high-quality, experienced, and passionate providers and educators  
• Recruit passionate pre-service providers and educators  
• Support the needs of families 
• Build awareness of the importance of child care  
• Explore strategic public-private financing opportunities 

Each goal named multiple recommendations and direct action steps that would support Beloit in implementation.  

After receiving the action plan, the City of Beloit immediately began implementation. As of 2024, the City made significant progress by: 

• Ensuring that current child care programs were aware of county funding for child care through ARPA funding through individual outreach to each provider in the area. 
• Significantly increasing access to healthcare for the ECE workforce through a Marketplace communications campaign.  
• Connecting families with after-school care for children enrolled in the City’s universal pre-k program.  

As of 2024, The City is also considering longer-term changes such as including community-based preschool programs in Beloit’s universal pre-k. Taken together, the community-centered approach ensured that the City of Beloit can make changes that serve those most impacted and support collaborative solutions that greatly improve long-term sustainability.