MINERAL RIDGE, Ohio – Carol Holmes-Chambers, community solutions director for Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries Inc., said the workforce participation rate in the Mahoning Valley is 6% below the state and national average.
Locally, parents list child care right below transportation as their primary obstacle to working.
But the obstacle doesn’t just affect young families – it also affects the businesses looking for employees.
Business owners in Ohio have an opportunity to work with day care and early childhood providers to find solutions with the assistance of the Early Care and Education Business Partnership Grant through the Ohio Department of Children and Youth.
Joel Potts, executive director of the state department, said he hopes a dozen or more Mahoning Valley groups take advantage of the opportunity as the state invests $6 million for child care collaboratives.
“We’re asking our businesses to team up with child care providers and nonprofits in the area to find some unique solutions on how we can address what some of those problems are, but we want it to be locally driven,” Potts said. “You know, different businesses have different needs.”
HaSheen Wilson, owner of Crawling to Destiny PreSchool in Boardman, was among those in attendance at The Atrium at Alta Campus of Care on Wednesday for a community breakfast event titled The Landscape of Child Care in Mahoning Valley, presented by the Early Childhood Resource Center, the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, PNC and Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries.
“I like the three-way partnership in regards to the state, the business and the family, and I’ve been seeing how it can help service the needs of our community and seeing how we can be strategic and creative to open new space,” Wilson said after the presentation.
Wilson said there are challenges as a child care business, including finding staffing, despite pay inflation and education requirements, but he hopes to take some of the ideas of partnership from Wednesday’s event to improve.
Retaining child care staff is an issue. Potts said there is a high turnover, with 29% of employees having one year or less of experience in the child care industry.
Potts said when deciding where to live, young couples have a lot to consider, including housing. But if they have young children, they also are looking at the schools and child care.
Potts said businesses should get involved, whether it’s a small business providing a stipend to their employees, with a match from grants, or an already established day care with an empty classroom looking to hire more staff to give a local large business the option of having 10 slots in the room available to their employees. The money could be used to expand hours for nontraditional shift workers or open new programs.
Holmes-Chambers and Brenda Linert, director of government affairs and community impact for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, both emphasized the importance of collaboration in resolving child care issues.
Linert shared statistics from the Untapped Potential in Ohio study, which highlights the financial impact to the state, tax payers and employers when parents can’t work or seek jobs with reduced hours because they don’t have access to affordable, quality child care.
Linert said statistics show 30% of new mothers are going from full time to part time; 25% of them are quitting their job; and 23% are declining to take a job. This results in fewer workers in the workforce, costing Ohio $5.48 billion in productivity and $1.52 billion in tax revenue. It costs employers $3.97 billion.
Maria Spencer, director of early care and educational services at the Early Childhood Resource Center, said Wednesday’s event was about increasing awareness about the ECRC, which works to train child care providers and their employees.
Spencer said her organization also can be the nonprofit piece needed to unlock the grant money, and it wants to help support local businesses to improve the local situation.
“We know from the chamber statistics that businesses are struggling,” Spencer said. “They’re struggling to keep employees, and child care is an issue. So this public, private business partnership grant through the Department of Children and Youth is a way that they are going to start this conversation in a pilot and see if there are businesses out there interested that can invest in their employees and partner with an agency to connect them with child care programs who need to fill those slots for those children.”
Spencer and Potts both commented about the high turnout for the event, including child care providers, business owners, administrators and individuals from the community.
But now the next step is coming up with ideas and working with the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to hone the project. The grant money is available through Dec. 31, 2026, but there is no deadline to apply. Invoices will be due Feb. 15, 2027, for reimbursement.
Pictured at top: Carol Holmes-Chambers, community solutions director for Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries Inc.