Chamber Leadership in Cross-Sector Childcare Collaboration [Video]

After recognizing a high demand for childcare in Montana relative to supply, especially for young children, during after-school hours, and in the summer, the Childcare Initiative Committee began to collect data on the topic. Business leaders noted that their parent employees had challenges finding childcare and reported that workers often don’t return to their jobs after having a baby.

Childcare providers indicated that they were not able to meet the strong demand for their services. As many as 1,000 children were estimated to be on childcare waiting lists in the Missoula metro area, which had almost 6,000 children under age 5, according to the American Community Survey. After digging even deeper, the Committee recognized that the lack of affordable childcare was impacting area businesses.

The Missoula Area Chamber of Commerce didn’t realize that it would emerge as a leader in solving the region’s childcare challenges, but they did recognize that …