The Greene County Early Learning Center has hired First Children’s Finance to conduct a childcare market analysis, to allow them to better understand the child care market in the Greene County.
Currently 94 percent of families with children under the age of 6 have all available parents working, which means these families are in need of some form of child care. For years, the center has been full with continued demand to provide care for more children. The goal of this project is to provide GCELC with an analysis to help make the best possible decisions moving into the future.
Cherie Cerveny, GCELC executive director, reports that high-quality early care and education programs not only improve a child’s long-range learning abilities, but improve that child’s chances of becoming a strong contributor to his or her community as an adult. A quality program helps children enter kindergarten with the skills needed to succeed in school, increases high school graduation rates and college attendance, helps reduce teen pregnancy rates, crime, and other social problems, ultimately leading to reductions in long-term social costs.
The next phase of the project will develop a future operational model for GCELC. The GCELC board of directors will continue working with First Children’s Finance to complete a classroom breakeven and cost analysis to determine the precise numbers of children required in each classroom to achieve sustainability. This process will test alternative scenarios to provide a comparison and help GCELC identify the best model for their future.
First Children’s Finance helps increase the viability, affordability and quality of early care and education, which helps children, families and communities thrive. Their work includes providing financial and business-development assistance to quality child care businesses, including centers, preschools, and homes. They also build partnerships that connect child care businesses with resources in the public and private sectors.
Anyone interested in hearing more about the current study by First Children’s Finance and the future plans of Greene County Early Learning Center can contact Cerveny at GCELC at 515-386-2092.
