Partners, providers, and progress

Shawntel Gruba is well-versed in the joys and difficulties of child care in northeast Minnesota.

The native northeast Minnnesotan had two decades of experience in early childhood education before opening Iron Range Tykes Learning Center seven years ago. She knows her chosen profession is vitally important to a rural region where child care is tough to find. Yet, she says, this is an industry on the edge. Her Mountain Iron, MN, center has space for 90 children … and a perpetual two-year waiting list. This is the reality in most rural communities statewide. There is no two ways about it: access to affordable, quality child care is in crisis.

“The need is huge, my team is so dedicated, and families we serve are grateful to have quality care,” said Gruba. “It’s just really hard to make the math work. This is a highly regulated industry. We can’t cut corners to keep the lights on. Rising operating costs get passed on to families.”

Gruba and her business partner, Katie Mitrovich, both parents themselves, understand the plight of families, too. Federal affordability guidelines suggest child care should cap at about seven percent of household income. But, Gruba says, “I know people paying two, three, even four times that. People are being squeezed out of the workforce.”

Here for the Long Haul

For 20 years, the Northland Foundation has been at the forefront of early care and education in Northeast Minnesota, affording us and our many regional early childhood, economic development, and community partners with an inside view of the pain points. It has been a race of two steps forward, one step back, gaining new child care slots here, losing a center here or several family providers there. Nevertheless, we persist.

As Gruba asserts, the system is in perpetual struggle mode. Providers perform an essential service but profitability proves elusive. Families can’t find care; some are on years-long waiting lists trying to time pregnancies to coincide with an opening. Strides have been in educating stakeholders the seriousness of it, yet critical shifts in public policy and widespread private-sector support have not gained a permanent foothold.

Although the system is imperfect, progress is possible! The Northland Foundation’s comprehensive approach to supporting childcare providers has positively impacted two-thirds of northeast Minnesota’s 357 licensed programs, while building on quality of care with training and quality rating initiatives. That the shortage of child care is slightly less than it was three years ago is a testament to the people and partners who are working the problem from every angle.

“Without child care, our economy doesn’t work. We aren’t going to completely fix our region’s child care shortfall, but we are chipping away at it. It has made a significant difference,” said Northland Foundation President, Tony Sertich.

Six Strategies on Tap

There are a half dozen big buckets where efforts have focused, in concert with many partners, providers, and community members working to solve this challenge.

• Expansion and Retention: Aiming financing and funding to rural providers to start, grow, and sustain.

• Technical Assistance: Assembling a no-cost network of mentors and business advisors.

• Professional Development: Reducing barriers to accessing training and pursuing quality rating.

• Workforce Strategies: Supporting providers to implement practices to attract and keep staff.

• Community-led Planning: Facilitating a process in rural communities to find site-specific solutions.

• Systems Change: Advocating for public policy change and increased private sector investment.

Expansion and Retention

Since 2017, we’ve helped launch or grow 46 child care programs creating 1,765 new slots thanks to $1.2 million in state funding through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Although it is a modest amount of funding, it helped child care businesses to access nearly $18 million more in other investments to support their projects. Northland has also served in this role for county government, directing $750,000 in ARPA funds toward 23 child care programs.

Funding for expansion continues. Within the last year, $400,000 provided through DEED has boosted 16 child care start-up, retention, and expansion projects in the region so far. Another $240,000 recently awarded aims to help provide funding for up to 10 shovel-ready projects.

Technical Assistance

Workforce Strategies

Solving the crisis means finding ways to bring, and keep, more trained and caring people into the field with compensation and benefits that keep them there. Strategies include the Jump Into Child Care program which provides free training to help individuals explore and launch careers in child care, especially in the Duluth area. And, with funding from area partners, a Workforce Solutions pilot project distributed grants to 62 licensed programs to implement staff recruitment and retention efforts including bonuses, wellness activities, and professional development.

Community-Led Planning

We’re supporting planning cohorts led by our partner, Northspan, in places like Silver Bay, East Range, Hibbing-Chisholm, and now Cloquet. Northspan facilitates an organizing process that guides a local contingent to explore different child care ideas and create actionable plans based on the needs, assets, and gaps of that particular site. When a diverse group community members is involved, actively engaged, and guided by expert facilitators promising ideas emerge.

Systems Change

Real change requires systemic thinking. Northland brings experience and knowledge without any direct self-interest to the policy making table. We amplify voices from our region working toward shifting child care systems, pilot innovative ideas that demonstrate workable models, and serve as a connecting point for partners and providers.

Systems change work for early care and education takes many different forms, including:

• Increasing the number of Parent Aware rated programs in the region.
• Strengthening relationships and information exchange among all the different entities working to support child care including County/Tribal Licensors, DHS, First Children’s Finance, Child Care Aware, Economic Development efforts, Workforce Development, etc. to help people and programs get access to the support they need while maximizing resources and minimizing duplication.
• Piloting projects including Family Navigators and Family, Friend and Neighbor Child Care resources and supports.
• Hosting focus groups and gather survey input to give licensed family and center-based providers in our rural region a chance to be heard and provide feedback as the Department of Human Services drafts improvements to the licensing standards.
• Offering no- and low-cost cultural learning opportunities for people working with young children and families.
• Sharing data and stories from our region at statewide meetings and, when asked, testifying at the state legislature. 

Providers including Shawntel Gruba are doing their own advocacy work, too, pushing for change. Says Gruba, “These are our children. What better investment is there? I speak out in northern Minnesota and in St. Paul because we want the people elected to serve our communities to understand the realities we face, be inspired by our stories, and use their legislative power to support this critical industry.”

The Northland Foundation will keep working on child care from different angles, think outside the box, and be a collaborator in the work to stabilize child care.

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To connect with us on supports and opportunities for child care, please contact Program Officer, Taylor Holm.