Action Team 1
Access to Early Child Care
OBJECTIVE
Increase access to quality early child care education programming.
Team co-chairs
Leslie Hanson, Equally Created
Brandon White, United Way of Greater Nashville
Current team
Denise Costanza, Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Erica Coure, Martha O'Bryan Center
Whit Gardner, Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Brianna Healy, Boedecker Foundation
Jenny McFerron, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
Pat Lawson, Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee
Penny Payne, 15th Avenue North Learning Academy
Angela Williams, Metro Nashville Public Health Department
Fast facts
Focused age group: 0-5
Timeline: 18 months
DOMAIN FOCUS
High-Quality Birth-Through-Age-Eight Learning Environments
High Quality Early Care and Education
Summer Learning
Positive School Climate
Strategy 1
Develop a platform to publish public-facing, user-friendly data and information to better understand the child care landscape in Davidson County (i.e., number of child care seats; child care deserts; wants/needs of parents; alignment of TDHS, TDOE, Find Child Care, and Childcare Nashville data; budget templates/projections, child care expansion process guide).
SUCCESS METRIC:
Publication of early care and education data that includes information regarding the state of child care in Davidson County, value of child care, links to resources, and other information to support those working to increase access to child care
Strategy 2
Create a process guide that outlines steps to license new and existing spaces for child care, documenting policy or regulatory challenges/barriers and short- and long-term implications of such an undertaking.
SUCCESS METRICS:
Development and publication of child care expansion process guide
Strategy 3
Expand access to child care by supporting providers to reimagine their existing space, maximizing square footage to serve more children.
SUCCESS METRICS:
Number of licensed providers engaged in conversations
Number of licensed providers that have re-imagined use of space
Number of additional seats created