Building a strong early learning and care (ELC) infrastructure is essential to supporting families, fostering economic growth, and shaping the future of our communities. These roadmaps offer tailored strategies for a variety of stakeholders to collaboratively address the challenges and opportunities in ELC. By exploring the unique needs and solutions offered here, you can find actionable ideas for creating an ELC system that strengthens your local workforce and support families in your community. Pulse at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and its partners are providing these roadmaps to help guide employers, municipal leaders, and others through their options when supporting working families with childcare needs.
The Employer Roadmap is designed to guide businesses and organizations in supporting working families by expanding access to affordable, dependable, and high-quality child care. As workforce challenges and productivity pressures continue to grow, employers can leverage this resource to explore innovative strategies for integrating child care solutions into employee benefits. From offering financial assistance to supporting on-site or near-site child care options, the roadmap provides tools, case studies, and best practices that enhance employee retention and job satisfaction.
Municipal leaders play a critical role in creating a community infrastructure that supports working families by investing and partnering in early learning and child care services. Access to affordable, high-quality child care is not only essential for families but also drives economic stability and growth, ensuring thriving communities where families want to work, play and live. The challenges in the early care landscape, amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, have left many communities struggling to meet demand.
The Development Roadmap is a strategic guide designed for professionals in workforce, economic, and community development to collaboratively invest in early learning and care infrastructure. By recognizing child care as a cornerstone of vibrant economies and thriving communities, the roadmap highlights actionable strategies to bridge gaps in accessibility, build community resilience, support working families, and foster long-term economic growth. Each theme provides tools, resources, and next steps to empower decision-makers to integrate child care solutions into their projects, ensuring sustainable impacts for families, businesses, and entire regions.
