Truist Foundation has awarded a grant for $35,000 to the Children’s Council of Watauga County, Inc. The grant aligns with the Foundation’s mission to build career pathways to economic mobility by investing in local early childhood educators.
“At Truist, we believe that we succeed when we give our communities the opportunity to do the same,” says Jonathan Lubkemann, Market President for Watauga, Avery, Alleghany, and Wilkes County of North Carolina for Truist. “We understand that children are the future of our communities and ensuring they have consistent, high-quality child care and education is just one way that we live out our purpose of inspiring and building better lives and communities.”
As the “workforce behind the workforce,” the child care industry has a multi-generational economic impact allowing parents to work today and by providing quality care that helps the future workforce grow ready for school and for life. The industry’s low wages can result in a lower-skilled, high-turnover workforce. High turnover of caregivers is not good for children.
Decades of research shows that high-quality child care helps promote the school readiness of children, particularly for low-income children. However, providing high-quality child care depends on developing a high-quality early learning workforce. Nobel Laureate in economics, Professor James Heckman estimates that for every dollar spent on high quality, birth-to-five programs for disadvantaged children, there is a 13% per year return on investment. Child Care in general is not a profitable industry since business models depend on parent fees (tuition) and child care directors are reluctant to raise their fees knowing most families cannot afford them. The Children’s Council offers the Pathways to Accreditation Quality Enhancement program as an alternative compensation strategy that links professional development and educational attainment with increased wages. Funding to support the program comes from blending public (Smart Start funds), local (Watauga County) and private funds raised by the organization.
“Funds from Truist Foundation will be used to help support the Pathways to Accreditation Quality Enhancement program,” says Elisha Childers, Executive Director of the Children’s Council.
Child Care is recognized as one of the county’s top two economic development priorities for Watauga County by the Watauga County Economic Development Commission. In North Carolina, the Child Care industry had a $3.15 billion economic impact in 2016 with total earnings of $1.25 billion and a jobs impact of nearly 65,000 jobs. In Watauga County, there are 36 licensed child care programs that employ 163 people and serve over 900 children (birth – school aged) so parents can work, and there is currently a waiting list of about 300 children for licensed child care.
“The child care industry has not fully rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic and many local providers are unable to enroll the number of children they are licensed to serve because they have not been able to attract and retain the workforce needed to do so,” says Childers. “This impacts their business and the livelihoods of their employees, as well as the livelihoods of the working families they serve.”
The Children’s Council provides programs and services that help child care owners and directors provide high quality services to young children. The biggest driver of quality child care is the teacher’s knowledge and skill in the classroom. The Pathways to Accreditation Quality Enhancement program is focused on improving quality of care through advancing teacher education and skill level. This is done by supporting teachers in earning their associate degree in early childhood while providing professional development training and on the job mentoring and coaching. In turn, participating child care centers also receive a quality enhancement payment each month in order to pay these teachers a minimum of $12/hour (which is the state average). When we launched our program in 2018, the average wage of a lead teacher in Watauga County was only $9.50/hour. Participation in this program helps child care center owners and directors attract and retain qualified employees in lead teacher positions through higher wages and educational support.
About the Children’s Council of Watauga County, Inc.
The Children’s Council of Watauga County has been serving children and families in Watauga County for forty-five years. The mission is to build a strong foundation for children’s learning and development by strengthening families, the early childhood system, and the community. To learn more, visit www.thechildrenscouncil.org or visit us at 225 Birch Street, Suite 2 Boone, NC 28607.
About Truist Foundation
Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an equal opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation’s leading initiatives – the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at Truist.com/Foundation.
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