Workforce Crisis Task Force asks parents to take child care survey

Local Business owners, educators and community leaders in Elizabethtown are working together on strategies to get more residents into the workforce as a way to strengthen and sustain their businesses.

Launched in 2017, the Workforce Crisis Task Force (WCTF) is a regional effort of the Lincoln Trail Workforce Development Board. The WCTF is working on multiple strategies to increase the number of area residents who seek work in local industries.

Task force members have identified the lack of affordable, accessible child care as a real barrier to finding and keeping a job for many potential workers. Given the significant challenges for businesses in finding workers, a group of leaders in the Elizabethtown industrial parks are exploring ways to improve availability to flexible, affordable child care in the area, from enhancing support of current options to potentially providing a new, 24-hour child care facility to serve their workers and others in the community.

“If we can solve the child care challenge, we can help many local residents move into the job they desire and need. And this supports the growth of our regional businesses,” said Jim Rachlin, chairman of the WCTF’s business investment committee. “It’s a win/win all around and essential for the health and vitality of our region.”

The committee is conducting market research to better understand the demand for child care among potential workers. The committee invites parents and guardians – employed and unemployed – to complete a brief survey here. All area employers can help by sending the survey link to their workforces and asking employees to share it with their networks.

Join the mailing list: Send an email with the subject line “subscribe” to info@strategymatters.org  to stay up to date about the meetings, activity and organizing to mobilize the next generation of workers in the Lincoln Trail Region.

About the Workforce Crisis Task Force: The Task Force is a group of concerned educators, business owners, residents and service providers who collectively understand that for our region to grow and thrive, we need to expand the number of people who are working, and ensure that their skills are up to date for the jobs in the region. For more information, email info@strategymatters.org.