How can employers support child care?
Governor Maura Healey is investing $2 million to find out.
The funding comes from the Employer Child Care Innovation Fund (ECCIF) and it is being used for a pilot program that’s supporting “partnerships between employers, child care providers and community organizations” a press release says, in an effort to “expand access to affordable, reliable child care across Massachusetts.”
“Finding affordable, reliable child care shouldn’t stand between parents and a good job,” Healey says in the release. “These partnerships will help families access the care they need, help businesses recruit and retain talented employees, and make Massachusetts more affordable and competitive.”
This year’s grantees and grants are:
- Berkshire United Way: $400,000
- Community Day Care Center of Lawrence, Inc. (doing business as The Community Group): $550,000
- Seaport Orthodontics (doing business as Seaport Smiles): $150,000, and
- United Way of North Central Massachusetts: $800,000
Launched in 2024, the Innovation Fund “encourages employer-led solutions that expand child care capacity, support care during nontraditional work hours and develop new employer-supported child care models.”
This is part of the Healey administration’s work to make “Massachusetts more affordable while strengthening the state’s workforce and economy.”
The projects are also designed to provide useful feedback. For example, the United Way of North Central MA is working with Heywood Healthcare, the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, and Upwards to create a platform that will connect parents to “licensed child care providers based on location, schedule, and availability.” The platform will also gather data that will identify gaps in care so that providers can “expand services where they are needed most.”
In a Spectrum News article, Kat Deal of the United Way of North Central Massachusetts says, “This is a model and we hope that the model does so well that the state is looking to adopt it on a larger scale, which then would have larger consequences.”
These are consequences that could generate benefits for children, working parents, employers, and the state economy.