February 1, 2022
All ribbon cuttings that The Chamber hosts are special, but the one celebrating the opening of The Lockhart Child Development Center was unique for many reasons!
Affordable, high-quality, and available childcare in Cabarrus County is difficult to find, so much that we are considered a childcare desert (the demand and need for childcare is greater than the supply.). While this was an availability problem prior to the pandemic, it has been greatly exacerbated by it. Strict COVID protocols forced childcare facilities to reduce class size and increase costs, all while facing a workforce shortage. This resulted in the closure or reduction of available childcare spaces.
To address these shortages and needs, Cabarrus County Commissioners established an Early Childhood Task Force Advisory Board whose mission was to evaluate existing childcare efforts, assess available resources, and identify actions that could be taken to develop an enhanced plan of support for childhood services and programs. One of the first steps was hiring Carla Brown to serve as the early childhood education coordinator for the county.
Brown and her task force identified affordability as a challenge in two ways – the costs families face for childcare tuition (averaging 25% of more of their take-home pay per month) and the need to pay childcare providers higher wages. The average wage for a childcare worker in our community is about $11.50/hour, and many times these educators do not have access to healthcare benefits.
The County forged a partnership with All Saints Episcopal Church and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College to open The Lockhart Child Development Center. This five-star development center, located at All Saints, is a public-private partnership that reserves half of the spaces for Cabarrus County employees’ children, and the County pays half of their tuition. What a great perk for their employees!
Rowan-Cabarrus College will operate a training lab onsite for their early childhood education students to learn from excellent teachers in a real-world setting giving them the skills they need as they begin their careers.
Your chamber is committed to helping with workforce challenges, including affordable childcare. Through our 2022 and 2023 Legislative Agendas, we’ll support public policy initiatives and ideas that offer short-term and long-term solutions. We invite you to join our Workforce Development Committee, whose first meeting will be on March 3, 8:00 a.m., at The Cabarrus Center. This committee will be examining the workforce challenges employers are facing and potential talent solutions. To sign up, please contact Kippi Laws at klaws@cabarrus.biz.
To learn more about childcare in Cabarrus County, watch this video with Carla Brown, and bless your day by meeting Lockhart Child Development Center Director Waynette Taylor here!
