Governor Announces $1,050,000 Award to Help Winneshiek County Employers Secure Child Care Slots
On Tuesday, Governor Kim Reynolds announced a grant award of $1,050,000 to help Decorah businesses secure child care slots for their employee’s children (6 weeks to 12 years old) at the new Sunflower Child Development and Discovery Center as soon as it is constructed. Winneshiek County Development and Tourism worked with the local businesses to develop the application, including Decorah Bank and Trust, Skyline Construction, Winneshiek Medical Center, Gundersen Health Systems, and Sunflower Child Care Center, to leverage the contributions the local employers were making to the new Sunflower Child Development and Discovery Center. John Schroeher, VP Business Banking at Decorah Bank and Trust, stated “We felt it was important to support this project not only for our employees, but for the community as well. We know Sunflower’s new facility will help address the need for childcare in our community and provide a safe learning space for children.”
The project is one of 23 projects funded and a portion of the $26.6 million in grant funding being invested across the State to help businesses jumpstart new child care opportunities and make it easier for Iowans to find child care options through their employer. It includes the formation of a Northeast Iowa Child Care Consortium whose members will each contribute $100,000 or more to the construction of Sunflower’s new child care center. These Child Care Consortium members will each secure a proportional number of a total of 30 child care slots for their employees at the new facility.
Stephanie Fromm, Executive Director of Winneshiek County Development and Tourism noted, “We know so many families and employers are still struggling to find available childcare in Winneshiek County. Just last week we were informed that three more in-home child care businesses closed. This severe child care shortage greatly impacts our workforce, so the grant was a good opportunity to pull together various business partners and get a jumpstart on maximizing the future use of the new facility to add 30 additional childcare slots.”
The Child Care Business Incentive Grant was established this year to enable businesses and employer consortiums to build on-site child care centers or partner with local child care providers to increase new child care slots for employees. This grant program advances one of the top recommendations of the Child Care Task Force - to incentivize business engagement in child care.
To date, with this award, Sunflower Child Care Center has raised $7,617,000 of their $8,500,000 fundraising goal.
Project Coordinator Lora Friest said, “Booyah! This project can’t happen fast enough. Thank the Lord that this funding was awarded :)!!!!
