Grassroots effort bolsters child care in Mount Vernon, Lisbon

LISBON — A holiday bonus check arranged by a grassroots movement striving to support child care in Mount Vernon and Lisbon is providing caregiver Liz Fare a “cushion” while she takes up to eight weeks off to recover from knee surgery.

Fare is one of about 50 employees at the Lisbon Early Childhood Center — operated by the Lisbon Community School District — to each receive about a $400 retention bonus this month.

“It has a huge impact,” said Fare, who intends to take the time off starting in January. “I need to be healthy. I need to have a good knee to run around when working with kiddos.”

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In spring 2022, the League of Women Voters of Mount Vernon-Lisbon conducted a survey to determine the need for child care in the communities. It found that only 43 percent of the families who responded were able to find affordable, quality child care that met their families needs.

In reaction, a grassroots movement to find child care solutions was created, and it’s already making strides. In the fall, the group named Mount Vernon-Lisbon Child Care Solutions led a six-week fundraising effort.

The group raised about $31,000, resulting in a 2:1 match grant called the Child Care Solutions Fund Opportunity — also known as the wage enhancement program — from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. So far, the Lisbon Early Childhood Center has received $40,000 from the grant, which it is using to give employee bonuses. Two more bonuses will be given to employees throughout 2024.

“It’s finding the balance between accessible, affordable, quality child care and competitive wages,” said Renee Virlee, president of Mount Vernon-Lisbon Child Care Solutions. “There’s not an easy solution.”

Virlee said the $31,000 raised came from local businesses and individuals, many who committed to a three-year pledge to continue giving to fund child care in the area. The $63,000 in state grant funding, however, has to be used by September.

Virlee said the group will continue to fundraise and apply for new grants to create a reliable, continuous fund for child care centers and in-home providers.

Wage enhancement funds like this one also could be used to pay for in-home providers to get licensed — an expense that could be a barrier to some providers.

She encourages companies to think of it as any other benefit they would offer their employees, like health insurance and a retirement fund.

When companies provide child care benefits, employee absences decrease by up to 30 percent and job turnover declines by as much as 60 percent, according to data from the Iowa Women’s Foundation — an organization committed to improving the lives of women and girls by using research to uncover the biggest barriers to women’s success as well as their greatest needs and finding solutions.

Parents pay an average of $222 a week for infant care at a licensed child care center in Linn County. That’s about $10,600 a year. Across the state, Iowa families need improved access to affordable, quality child care, said Sheri Penney, an employer engagement director with the Iowa Women’s Foundation.

Fifty-six child care businesses have closed over the last 10 years in Iowa, according to the Iowa Women’s Foundation. There is a shortage of more than 300,000 child care spots.

The average starting wage of a child care worker in Iowa is $10.76 an hour, the third lowest paid profession behind locker room attendants and lifeguards, according to the Iowa Women’s Foundation. The average starting wage of a child care worker in Linn County is $12.42 an hour.

A new center opens in Lisbon

In December, the Lisbon Early Childhood Center also opened a second location called the Lisbon Early Childhood Center West. Superintendent Autumn Pino said the district was working on expanding the number of child care spots before receiving the grant. However, the grant gave the school district “a bit of breathing room” to attract and retain child care workers to staff the new site, Pino said.

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“I feel very grateful this grant exists and more importantly that our community cares enough to reflect on this issue and work hard to make something like this happen,” Pino said.

The Lisbon Early Childhood Center West adds about 50 new child care spots to the area, tackling some of the more than 100-children waiting list. The main campus location is licensed for an additional 200 kids and is at capacity.

“Although it doesn’t tackle all of our waiting list, it really does help address the need right now,” Pino said. “We’re always looking for great employees.”

Abbey Johnson, who will soon move from the Lisbon Early Childhood Center to the West location to be a lead teacher, said the retention bonus she received helped her “get everybody what they needed for Christmas for once.”

“It made me feel appreciated,” said Johnson, a mother of six. “We pour our hearts into what we do, and we love the children, and we see that respected back to us from the parents. Hearing it from the community really meant a lot.”

Stephanie Howe is using her retention bonus as a child care worker in Lisbon to help cover costs that come with moving into a new house. “Money’s really tight in the world right now. This bonus is super helpful,” she said.

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Kate Stanton, principal of Washington Elementary School in the Mount Vernon Community School District, said the Lisbon Early Childhood Center — which serves children as young as 6 weeks old — is a “gem” she would love to recreate in Mount Vernon. Building a new center for Kids Club, which is currently at the elementary school, would cost about $5 million, Stanton said.

For now, Kids Club provides before- and after-school care for preschoolers on up. It received about $4,500 from the wage enhancement grant that will be used as a hiring incentive and retention bonus for employees.

“When I have staff come to me excited to tell me they’re pregnant, their biggest concern is always ‘How am I going to find child care?’” Stanton said. “They’re not even 12 weeks pregnant and already so worried.”

Multiple centers in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon area have opened and closed over the last decade because of inadequate staffing, Stanton said.

The wage enhancement grant is a start to tackling the need for child care in Mount Vernon and Lisbon, providers say. The communities are among 11 in Iowa that raised a total of $1.5 million as part of this round of wage enhancement grants, Penney said.

The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Child Care Solutions group continues to work with the community to strengthen the child care system.

Linn County 4-H hosted a workshop in November for fourth, fifth and sixth-graders to help them develop their self-care skills to make good decisions while staying home alone. Iowa Child Care Resource & Referral hosted a local informational meeting in March geared toward in-home child care providers and people interested in starting their own in-home program.

“It is up to everyone — parents, business leaders, educators, political representatives and child care providers — to work together to find solutions that alleviate the child care barriers,” Virlee said.

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