Last Thursday, more than 400 people from 40+ states came together in person, and over 1000 people joined online (full summit link below!), for the first ever National Child Care Innovation Summit hosted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Together, we put child care front and center on the national economic agenda!
Issues like child care often seem intractable given their complexity, hyper-local nature and lack of one-size-fit-all solutions. But in this room, the common mission, cross-sectoral ingenuity, and openness to bipartisan, public-private and urban-rural partnerships was palpable.
Almost 60 diverse speakers (tagged in comments- follow their work!) addressed not just the child care crisis but really leaned in on practical solutions, including for the toughest use cases like mixed delivery options that parallel the 24/7, year-round realities of the labor force.
We had executives of large companies like Micron Technology, UPS, Suffolk Construction, Etsy, IBM, Accenture, Chobani, Corning Incorporated, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Tempur Sealy International and Intel Corporation (who announced some exciting new CHIPS investments!) alongside small businesses like Alson Farms and Red Rooster Coffee Roaster (whose coffee kept us running through the event), and the organizations who support them like Moms First, EPIC, Executives Partnering to Invest in Children, and local chambers and commerce authorities.
We heard from the White House National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council and Gender Policy Council, Members of Congress from across the aisle, and Governors, mayors and policymakers across communities.
We dove into the work of small local foundations and large philanthropies like Pivotal Ventures, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation (with exciting news - link below!).
And we learned from providers who do the work daily and innovators and advocates who support them, including organizations like the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), The National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), National Domestic Workers Alliance, Child Care Aware of America, SEIU and Opportunities Exchange.
Together, these leaders emphasized the importance of investment in care, shed light on promising policies, models and innovations occurring across the nation to address the child care crisis for families, businesses and our economy at large.
Incredibly grateful to work with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo whose leadership has cemented childcare as a core economic issue and Scott Jensen for his can-do attitude and support.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without dream team colleagues and partners Melinda Garrett, Ezra Kagan, Patrick Hobart, Caitlin Codella Low, Aaron Merchen and Sasha Nicholas.
Summit Recording: https://lnkd.in/edYdu-RA
Announcements: https://lnkd.in/estmAYrh
