Shared Services and Coalition Building

Advancing Child Care Efforts in the Indiana Uplands

Monroe Smart Start, a leadership initiative of the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County, is advancing child care efforts across Indiana’s south-central Uplands region. Through creation of a shared services model, a renewed focus on regional coalition building and projects that combine child care with community needs, Monroe Start Smart takes an innovative and thoughtful approach to developing long-term child care solutions.

Resources for Shared Service Alliance Members

Monroe Smart Start offers a variety of resources and benefits to child care programs through a shared services alliance. Highlights include:

Business Coaching

Monroe Smart Start partnered with Transform Consulting Group to offer business coaching to alliance members, focused on increasing business acumen, finding ways to streamline operations and save time and money by leveraging best practices. Providers can then focus on increasing staff wages and operating a sustainable business model.
Virtual Site Tours

Monroe Smart Start engaged a professional videographer to shoot high-quality footage of partner child care facilities and showcase each program’s highlights. Families can now view virtual tours on the Early Learning Marketplace as they are exploring options, joining wait lists and signing up for in-person tours. “It’s been a great recruitment tool for families,” Myers said, “and it’s also been a great recruitment tool for staff. Child care facilities can post open positions and send a link to the virtual tour so potential applicants have a better feel for the role.”
Staff Refresh Areas

Monroe Smart Start launched the HeART for Childcare program, commissioning a local artist to create meaningful artwork to beautify staff break areas. Other additions such as sound machines, comfortable chairs, soft lighting, soothing music, fresh fruit baskets and bottled water help outfit thoughtful, comfortable spaces for staff to take care of themselves in the midst of a busy day caring for others.

Coalition Building in the Region

Monroe County is one of 11 counties in the Indiana Uplands region, and as local child care efforts solidified, Monroe Smart Start staff began to take a broader view. Leveraging funding from Early Learning Indiana, IU Health and Regional Opportunity Initiatives, Monroe Smart Start launched Ready Early Learning to create early childhood coalitions in Morgan, Monroe, Martin, Orange and Lawrence counties and worked alongside local stakeholders and Transform Consulting Group to develop a strategic plan for each county.

Now, Monroe Smart Start is replicating that model in additional counties, kicking off engagement in areas newer to child care efforts and strategizing alongside counties that have existing plans. Monroe Smart Start also convened a quality cohort representing 22

programs and is developing a regional early learning strategy. “More to come, but we’re really excited about the potential impact for the Uplands region with a primary focus on employer engagement and increasing access to high-quality care,” Myers said.

Combining Child Care with Community Needs

Monroe Smart Start has evolved its approach to strategize alongside community organizations, securing funds for innovative projects that combine child care with other needed resources such as housing.

One highlight is the upcoming groundbreaking of Summit Hill Early Learning Center, a child care and housing combination project that Monroe Smart Start and other key stakeholders first envisioned in 2015. Summit Hill will offer one infant classroom and two toddler classrooms, managed by Early Head Start, along with three single-family dwelling units above the classrooms in partnership with the Bloomington Housing Authority.

“It took an army of partners and strategy, vision and funding locally, regionally and now statewide to get us to this point,” Myers said.

“It’s really exciting to see that we are moving into a new, more seasoned phase of innovation through child care access. It’s no longer about adding a seat here and there, but it’s about taking a long-term look at the most pressing needs and developing creative approaches.”

- Jennifer Myers Monroe Smart Start Director

Myers is optimistic about the future of child care efforts to support families in Monroe County and beyond. “We’ve seen the evolution of the child care landscape over the past 13 years, that ebb and flow of partners changing and the community stepping in to move the needle,” she said. “Right now, we’re seeing engagement at an employer level that we’ve never seen before. My hope is we continue to see stakeholders convening and developing innovative strategies, visions and pilot programs, and that we continue to acquire funding to build sustainable programs that impact children and families.”

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