Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this February 16th, 2024.
Have your host, James G. Mailoff here.
And part two today, we are speaking with our good friend, Kelly Brochart,
executive director of Child Carrying in Kelly Good to Have You in Studio.
Good morning.
We appreciate you being here, especially.
We've been having trouble with our phones.
So we were supposed to talk with Packter, Senator Patrick Teston today.
We weren't able to because of our phone connections.
We apologize to the audience.
We're looking forward to talking with Senator Teston soon.
So it's great to have you in studio.
We can really make this happen.
And even more importantly than that, Kelly, and even bigger than you and I,
or anybody else out there, Child Care in the States.
Child Care in this country.
It's one of the biggest topics we are facing going forward,
not just in 2024, but in a period.
Child Care affects everything in society.
And it all ties into it.
It's an important topic, and I appreciate having somebody here
who is not only incredibly passionate about this,
but knows her stuff.
We appreciate that out of you, Kelly.
Thanks for being here, and thanks you for Child Care Inc.
We appreciate the gang over there, your team that you have.
Child Care is offering free startup information sessions.
And grants for anybody interested in providing Child Care.
Did you want to start there, Kelly?
Or did you have somewhere else you wanted to start?
Yeah, no, just a shout out to Senator Patrick Teston.
We were able to, I was one of the many, many people
that attended Central Wisconsin days this week.
And while I wasn't able to chat with him,
I'm certain that some people in our group were in Child Care.
Obviously, it was one of those topics
that greatly affects workforce and economic development.
So yeah, and in Talkie, do representatives Krueger,
Senator Teston, Gertrini Shankland, they all get it.
They hear from their constituents how important this is.
Keep talking to them.
Keep telling them these things.
That's how they want to represent you.
They want to represent our communities
through the best of their abilities.
And they can do that better.
They have the more data they have,
the better they can do that.
The more people telling them how important
this is, the more they're going to hear us.
Absolutely.
So about these grants that we're just discussing,
that the sessions and grants that are available
for anyone interested in providing childcare.
Yeah, so Child Careing has been really fortunate
to be able to offer sessions that we invite people
to participate in virtually.
And our next one is coming up on Tuesday, March 5th
from 1230 to 230, which sometimes is a nice time
for a mom who might have a namping child
or that the virtual option is really great during the day.
And so during those sessions, we talk about why do we
want to think about becoming a childcare provider?
What does it look like to become certified or licensed?
What are the advantages for coming into this field?
We talk about the process, we talk about all the great
resources that are available to someone
in starting a childcare business.
And then we talk about this great opportunity that we have
through Department of Children and Families funding
to offer startup grants to people.
So we often know that there's an expense
when you start up a business and that's just
like it would be for childcare.
And so there's funds that are available to help
with the cost of the regulation fees and the background checks
that need to happen of the provider
and anyone else in the household.
Sometimes a provider might need to purchase a fire extinguisher
or smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors,
safety gates, cribs, places, you know, for kids to sleep
and things for children to play with.
And so we have funding available to help with all of those costs
that are associated sometimes with the startup
of a childcare business.
You know, we've seen the data over the years even going back
to the pandemic and before the pandemic of most people
that want a small businesses or people
that want to start up a small business,
what usually holds them back is the startup cost
or what it might cost to be able to get this off the ground
and running.
And then you look at this on the childcare end of things
and it involves just a couple of more layers to it
and everything.
So with something like this being available to people,
you got to think just statistically alone
that some of the people that might have done this
now have a more incentive and more ability
to be able to do it.
Yes, we think it's a great time to come into this field.
You talked about the demand and the national crisis
that we're facing.
If you're a person that enjoys working with young kids
and you want to be able to work from home,
being a family childcare provider is an excellent option
for you.
To speak on that point, if I can piggyback off a Kelly,
I teach improv, acting and writing and stuff
and a lot of the students we have want to be, you know,
the next person on SNL or something.
But most of the, just as many of them,
we have attorneys and lawyers oftentimes joined
because they want to be better with public speaking
or feel more comfortable with it.
And we have other fields that join our teach our classes.
One of my students that I had, she's gone now,
but I had her last semester.
She was taking the class because she didn't feel comfortable
talking to people because she wanted,
she was starting up a childcare in business.
And she wanted to be more comfortable with parents
and she's great with kids.
Just wasn't as great with adults.
And this was something that kept her
from the childcare industry.
So she was doing a lot of our jobs, working retail.
Now with Ellen, this is taking place in Illinois.
Would they have some bills that they have passed
similar to Wisconsin's to, you know,
provide more incentive and more help towards people
that want to get into the childcare industry?
She saw this and she's taken the ball and running with it.
I don't know for certain, but I hope that she has got up
and running a little childcare business now.
And I have no doubt she'd be great at it.
But to your point, the reason she went into that field
was she wanted a career.
She wanted something that was reliable.
She wanted something, well, how do I know 20 years
from now this industry is still going to be around?
Oh, I'm pretty sure childcare is still going to be around
in 20 years, like you looking at an industry,
even my kids are in their mid 20s
and even I still worry about them having a career.
This is something that you can recommend
that you can bring up that should be brought up more.
I don't know if it was the case when we were kids
that it was, it was always a reliable industry,
but I don't know that it feels like growing up
we had people in this industry.
We were never for want of it.
And it's just kind of happened now
where we don't have as much as we used to.
I think with a lot of these bills that are being passed now,
we're going to be able to see more, hopefully,
a young blood into this industry.
Hopefully.
I certainly hope so, and I think the demand
is absolutely there.
I think there's a lot of people too,
especially young people out there
that are, you know, for everybody that knows what,
I knew what I wanted to do when I was seven, you know?
And I'm like one of a thousand.
Not many people have that.
For a lot of people, they're like,
well, I had this skill set.
I know I like this, this, and this,
but I don't know where to go with it.
Oftentimes, childcareing is sitting right there
under their nose and they don't even know.
I think with a lot of these grants
and a lot of this coming out,
it's in, and to be honest,
the conversation is much more in the public eye now.
There's going to be a lot more younger people
that I would think, again, statistically,
just by law of averages,
wanting to get into childcare.
Yeah, you're so open, right?
Right, like, and I'm like you,
I knew at a young age that I had,
I don't know if I would call it a gift,
but I certainly was super comfortable around kids, right?
Like, I'd be the person going to the family party
and I'd be hanging in with the kids
because that's where I felt comfortable
and they make me laugh, they make me happy.
And I think there are a lot of people out there
that have, you know, that desire
and maybe just aren't sure how do I,
how do I move with this?
Right, like, you know,
I'm not the one that wants to sit behind a computer.
I really want to be with kids and be active.
And I imagine that a lot of the people
that want to get into this industry very similar
to you with those feelings and the kind of person
that they are and the way that they learn
or collect information.
And that's why these sessions are so vital
and so really important and helpful.
If you're on the fence or you've just have questions
taking in this session, I think it'd be very informative.
Yes, and if you're not able to make this session,
don't let the dates scare you or not make you,
give us a call because we're certainly able to talk
through the information with you one-on-one
if that date and time is not available through.
And these start-up grants are available,
just remind everybody about that
and reach out to childcareing to find out more about them
or to attend the session.
We also know that most group childcare centers
are looking for staff right now
when to touch on that a little bit with you.
Absolutely.
I think that that's where we're seeing the largest.
So we know that we've had a decrease in the number
of family childcare programs,
but we also know that our group childcare centers
are struggling with staffing.
So if you're the person that maybe doesn't have quite
the right home to offer something in your home,
maybe you wanna be with other people a little bit more
and have more co-workers,
there are definitely group childcare programs
in our area that need staff.
They need teachers, they need assistant teachers.
If you're not quite sure,
you're ready to lead a group of children,
but maybe wanna get started and have fun playing with kids,
that will definitely be an opportunity as well.
You know, a lot of the people that I've talked to,
again, going back to that P word, the pandemic.
But since then, we saw during the pandemic
and from that, a great migration go on.
A lot of people going from jobs to careers,
a lot of people going from a job to a passion.
And the majority, the overall theme
that I heard from people was,
I basically, if I just could be blunt,
I want my life to mean something.
I want to leave this world better than I came into it.
And so many people feel that way.
And they're looking for an industry
that's gonna be rewarding, but also, you know,
financially able to make a living and everything.
That's childcare.
That's childcare.
It's right there for you.
It's something that the lasting impact you make
with one child, I can't even begin to imagine
the impact you make with that.
Let alone if you're, you know,
working at a facility in multiple children
and you work in the industry for many, many years,
like Kelly or somebody.
The amount of kids, the amount of lives you've impacted,
you just yourself, Kelly, let alone your staff
and other people out there listening
that work in our great childcare facilities
here in our local wood county.
I can't, that's an impact, man.
That's something.
And that's a career that every day,
I'm not saying it's gonna be easy
or anything like that by any means.
If you have a child, you know what this is like.
You know exactly what I'm talking about.
I got three of them, I know.
But heck, my kids are in their 20s,
and it's still that easy.
But that's the point.
It's part of it.
And nothing worth having is ever easy.
Everything takes a little bit of grime,
a little bit of work.
And that's okay.
And working in an industry like this,
the reward that you get from that,
there's no price tagging put on something like that.
Absolutely, there's nothing more fun for me
to go into a grocery store or be in an event
somewhere and see some of these kids that I had in care.
I won't tell you how many years ago.
It's been a long time.
But those kids are now having their own kids
and being in childcare.
But yeah, nothing more rewarding in the world.
I think to influence the minds of young lives,
because what those kids are learning,
before they even turn the age of three,
lasts a lifetime.
You're developing their brains,
you're helping them to understand the importance
of getting along with others
and how to use their social emotional skills.
And those are lifelong lasting impacts.
And a lot of people want things,
maybe you want the world to be better,
you want this to be better.
You have to make it better.
You can't just sit there and expect it to happen.
You have to put into your community.
You have to do certain things.
And certainly, we encourage people to get into this industry
and to give this field a real chance
and see how rewarding it could be.
But before we wrap up Kelly and I
are going to touch on volunteering.
And even if you already have a career,
you can still impact childcare.
You can still be a part of this industry
by volunteering or just spreading the word
about some of the things that Kelly and I are talking about today.
I wanted to talk about you being a CCR in our agency.
First off, Kelly, what does that mean?
And how can that help the quality of childcare
and people finding the good quality of childcare?
Yeah, that's a great question, James.
CCR in our childcare resource summary for our agency.
We've been around 30 plus years here in Wisconsin.
Our organization is one of nine covering all
of the state of Wisconsin through CCR in our services.
And what we do is we have a couple of different main programs
that we offer.
One being we help families find childcare.
So we give them resources and information
about choosing a great quality childcare for their children.
We also support area childcare programs, which, again,
is through some of that startup information
that we've talked about.
We offer continuing education for providers,
provide support and resources all along their journey
in being a childcare program.
And then we're out in communities.
You know, we talked about this advocacy piece.
We are a part of our staff are a part
of a lot of different community groups, task forces,
networking organizations that get out
and really help to explain to people
why we need good early childcare, you know,
quality childcare and how that impacts communities.
And so childcare resource summary for us,
support the workforce behind the workforce.
We like to say, right?
Also, I think it's noteworthy where our conversation started.
Mentioning the interacting with senators
in that childcare is very much on the front lines
of this topic and trying to get people's attention
to the topic, including our representatives.
And we appreciate that.
We appreciate that.
You've already got enough on your plate
to be able to add that onto it as a lot.
But we appreciate the work that you guys do in that.
That's not, that's certainly noteworthy as well.
And being able to have a trusted source,
I know what this is like.
I think the majority of people out there do.
You're a new parent and there's so many things
you're unsure of and questioning.
And about yourself, let alone about your child
and about parenting, let alone all of those other things.
And to have a trusted resource to go to,
to like, hey, I'm honestly, I'm unsure
because there's another thing as a parent reaching out.
That can be difficult.
It can be really hard to just ask for help
or ask for questions.
The gang of child carrying, it could not be
kinder or better about this and more working with you.
There's nothing but positivity with them
and wanting to help you in your child.
Reaching out to them and knowing that not only
you can trust that information,
but that you can talk to them.
Like, I know that might sound silly,
but it can be tough as a young parent.
It can be hard to be able to just ask questions and stuff.
We're so worried about being judged by other parents.
And that's too much of a thing in society.
And that's a whole other topic.
But child carrying is not that.
They're not there to judge you.
They're there to help you.
Exactly.
So we support people that need childcare,
but we also have other resources that support you
in paying for childcare, other child development issues.
If we can't help you with that,
we can definitely point you in the right direction
to get the support that you need as a young parent
or even a parent of older children.
Yeah.
We're speaking with Kelly Bershart,
executive director of child carrying ink.
Kelly, the good start grants.
What are those?
Good start grants are funding that is funding
that's available to families who need help paying
for childcare.
So good start grants are primarily funded
in our communities through United Way,
which of course were a great supporter of United Way.
And it helps families pay the difference
between what quality child care costs
and what they can afford to pay.
And so these grants pay a portion of the cost
of child care for working families
or families going back to school.
And it complements the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy
that's available through our state.
And so if you just miss those cutoffs
and are still struggling to pay,
this is a program that can come in and help those families
that just sort of fall through the cracks.
Yeah.
It's something that our United Way does so great at.
They are so good at covering bases
that we often miss in society sometimes.
And a big shout out to our United Way
of Southwood and Ames counties.
And I'm not just saying that because Terry's
basically my big sister.
She, no, she backs, she deserves it.
They deserve it.
They got a great team over there.
And I think too, one of the things
that I've learned from this community,
when we see the United Way support something,
it brings not only attention to it,
but I think, oh, this is serious.
Or oh, maybe I need to take this topic
more seriously kind of thing.
So it goes a lot farther than I think we can word sometimes.
It's very appreciated.
And it adds to the benefit of our community.
Like many things the United Way does
and child care in ink is a part of,
this is a helping hand up,
not a not anything else.
It's supposed to be able to get people on their feet.
It's supposed to be able to get people,
look, we get the kid in good child caring
that adult can go work.
That adult is working in our community.
They are able to pay taxes.
This all adds up.
It, I always like to make sure
that we're trying to cover as much as we can
with these topics.
And with child care, it could be something
that we've learned in years past.
Like, well, my kids are out of school
or I don't have kids.
Why should I care?
Well, you pay taxes, don't you?
Yeah, you should care.
You are a part of the society, right?
You should care.
You're going to be a part of the future, aren't you?
We're hoping you are.
You're going to want these kids
to have the best childhoods they can have
so that they are great when they are in the future.
Future you is going to appreciate caring about child care.
This adds up, it touches on everything.
Absolutely, right?
Like we need good roads.
We need good healthcare.
All of these are potential futures
for young children.
Sure.
Kelly, as we're wrapping up,
I did want to touch on anything we haven't covered
that you wanted to.
Is there anything you wanted to get to?
Feel like we covered almost everything, I feel.
It's such a big topic that sometimes it's like,
wait, I had to miss something.
But as long as we have a second,
I would like to talk about you attended
center G's, center G's, central Wisconsin days.
Just a couple of days ago, you advocated for child care.
You were touching on this a little bit.
I wanted to make sure we covered a lot of the topics
you had today.
As long as we have a little time, how did that go
and how did you feel you were received?
Yeah, I think it was an excellent opportunity
to be among people that aren't the usual suspects
about talking about child care, right?
There were a lot of technical college staff,
business people, other community organizations
that came together to advocate.
One of the topics, of course, is housing
and transportation, rural bridges.
But of course, the one that I honed in on,
especially was around child care,
and being able to support some of the bills
that are being proposed around employers
and allowing them tax credits for supporting
their employees' child care.
Because I think it's going to take some public-private
partnerships and communities coming together
to really help solve the crisis that we're facing here.
Of course, not every legislator agrees
about how to do that.
Not everybody wants to simply subsidize
or provide funding to child care providers.
But I feel like we can all agree
that public-private partnerships
and bringing business into this conversation
is a really, really good idea.
And so we were very well received at the Capitol
around those issues.
It's really good to hear, especially
with how important this topic is.
And how, as we've touched on, this topic affects everybody.
And I know that in talking to some of the same representatives,
you and your team have talked to,
this can be one of those ones where some feels swamway
and some feel another way about it.
I do think that it's noteworthy for those that don't know.
Our government used to pay for child care.
Like, way, way back in the day,
we used to cover this kind of topic.
It used to be a thing that was understood.
Hey, this is something that's very important to our society.
We need to make sure that all bases are covered on this topic.
It's not far-fetched to imagine the government
having a bit of involve passing bills
or doing certain things to help this industry.
It wouldn't be the first time the US government has done that.
I think that is important to this topic.
And it's also noteworthy that, because I know that sometimes
you hear, well, the government does want to get involved
in your children, does want to tell you what to do
with your kids or something.
That's not this.
That is not what's going on here.
We're asking for help with this because our society needs it,
not an individual child.
Children need it plural.
This is in that big of a topic
where it's affecting that much of our society.
Right.
I think there are other industries and sectors
that we haven't hesitated to help out.
Yes.
Our great farmers is a really great example.
In my lifetime, we've bailed out the banks at least twice.
This is an industry that's certainly just as
vital, if not more important than that industry.
So yeah, I think that this is something that wherever you feel
about this, if you're a representative of a community
as a politician, you have to care about this topic.
If you want to stay in office, that is.
If you want to keep doing your job.
Because I've made this very clear,
and this is just me speaking, not Kelly, not anybody else.
I, when I talk to our representatives on air off air,
I'll tell them exactly what I'm hearing from communities.
Get the job done or we will replace you.
That's that.
If you want to keep doing this, then listen to your community.
That's your job.
And the community has spoken.
We care about this topic.
We want assistance with this.
And I think most politicians, as you've seen with some
of the bills passed and some of the things we've talked about,
we are seeing more traction on this front.
Hopefully.
I keep trying to spend this for myself as much as for you,
Eddie, what Kelly?
Because I am a little worried about it.
And I can't imagine, I am and I'm outside the industry.
I can't imagine for you and yours
how you guys feel about this.
It's important.
And not only do we appreciate the time from you and the work
that you do, not even just talking to us today,
but being there at the Capitol and that,
but this community, I believe that this community supports
the subject and is really appreciative of the work
that you guys are doing.
If people have follow up questions,
they want to know more about some of what we talked about
today, how can they reach you?
They should give our office a call.
We're in the office every day from 830 to 430 Monday through
Friday, 800, 628, 8534.
Visit our website, www.childcaring.org.
Find us on Facebook, LinkedIn.
Those are some of our social media platforms.
We'd be happy to talk with you
and we'd greatly appreciate the opportunity.
It's so easy to get in touch with you guys.
The website is another great way to do that, the phone,
whatever you got to do, get in touch
with our friends at ChildCaring Inc.
And Kelly, thanks again so much for what you do
and the time.
Say hi to the staff for us.
Yeah, thanks so much, James.
Thank you to everybody out there for listening.
We appreciate you and a big thank you to Pam Hilke.
Our great scheduler here, we appreciate you, Pam.
Have a good weekend.
We'll talk to you soon and later right here
at WFHR, locally grown radio.
