TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) – Local and state leaders gathered in Manhattan for the occasion: The Flint Hills Community Accelerator and Child Care Business Initiative is ready to go after nearly a year of work.
“It’s the first of its kind in Kansas, for the incubator project,” CCBI Outreach Coordinator Lacey Brothwick said.
Approximately 55 percent of Kansas families in need of childcare could be left without an option, according to ChildCare Aware’s most recent point-in-time data. It’s a crisis leaders say won’t be fixed by any one body.
“The way that we do that is by forming public-private partnerships,” Gov. Laura Kelly explained. “The state can’t do it by themselves, neither can the private sector.”
This accelerator represents a big piece of a potential path forward. The accelerator will provide training and support to get qualified childcare providers up and running quickly, to fill a gap in available care seen across the state.
“What we’re standing in today is really the vision come true,” Gov. Kelly continued. “We’re standing in the workforce development office, around the corner is a childcare incubator where providers will be able to learn the trade and create lots of new early childhood or childcare slots all around.”
“Providers will be here for a year to a year-and-a-half,” Brothwick said. “They’re licensed as in-home providers. Then we will actually send them out into the community either into different homes or other commercial spaces.”
And when it’s all said and done?
“Every year there will be a new round of 96 childcare slots that can be open.”
Grand Opening of the Childcare Business Initiative Facility
The Flint Hills Community Accelerator and Child Care Business Initiative is located on Kimball Ave., just across from the Ascension Via Christi parking lot.
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