8.4 Public-Private Partnerships

Lead Agencies must demonstrate how they encourage partnerships among other public agencies, Tribal organizations, private entities, faith-based organizations, businesses, or organizations that promote business involvement, and/or community-based organizations to leverage existing service delivery (i.e., cooperative agreement among providers to pool resources to pay for shared fixed costs and operation) to leverage existing child care and early education service delivery systems and to increase the supply and quality of child care services for children younger than age 13. 8.4.1 Lead Agency public-private partnerships Identify and describe any public-private partnerships encouraged by the Lead Agency to leverage public and private resources to further the goals of CCDF: The Lead Agency supports multiple private public partnerships, including Business Incentive Grants, Community Solutions Grants and efforts of the Iowa Women’s Foundation. Business Incentive Grants encourage employers to secure slots at local child care programs for their employees by matching funds that businesses allocate for this. The Community Solutions Grants encourage local communities to invest in their child care supply by creating a local fund. An organization such as a chamber of commerce or a local economic development board is the fund manager and they solicit donations from local employers or businesses which are then matched by the Lead Agency. Once the fund is established local child care programs can apply to the fund manager to receive funds to increase the wages of their staff. The Lead Agency also supports efforts of the Iowa Women’s Foundation to engage local business and communities in the above strategies. The Iowa Women’s Foundation provides technical assistance to businesses and communities to support understanding of their unique local child care needs as well as the solutions that might be best fitted to their needs.