In this podcast, Nicole Riehl, president and CEO of Colorado Executives Partnering to Invest in Children (better known as EPIC), discusses a new Colorado law that will pay for 10 hours a week of preschool for all 4-year-olds, and what that means for child care providers and families.
Nicole was an early childhood teacher for five years and her background includes extensive work with Denver’s preschool programs as well as coordinating various early childhood quality improvement events, resource, and activities across Colorado. She was the CEO of Denver’s Early Childhood Council before taking over the helm of EPIC in 2019.
She discusses how this new state law was designed for flexibility to allow parents to choose what preschool their children can attend and still be eligible for those 10 hours of preschool, as well as the importance of making the program accessible and easy to use for providers and families.
To learn more about Colorado Epic, visits its website: www.coloradoepic.org.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the childcare business podcast
brought to you by ProCaresolutions.
This podcast is all about givingchildcare, preschool, daycare,
afterschool, and other earlyeducation professionals, a fun
and upbeat way to learn aboutstrategies and inspiration you
can use to thrive.
You'll hear from a variety ofchildcare thought leaders,
(00:30):
including educators, owners, andindustry experts on ways to
innovate, to meet the needs ofthe children you serve from
practical tips for managingoperations, to uplifting stories
of transformation and triumph.
This podcast will be chalk fullof insights.
You can use to fully realize thepotential of your childcare
business.
(00:50):
Let's jump in
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Good morning, everybody.
We are, uh, back with thechildcare business podcast and,
uh, excited as always to have aguest today that we think, uh,
is gonna be able to provide somereally valuable content, some
really interesting work that'sbeing done, uh, in this case, in
the state of Colorado.
And so I'm, I'm really excitedto introduce Nicole R uh, she's
(01:14):
the president and CEO ofColorado executives partnering
to invest in children, which isbetter known by its acronym of
epic, which I love for manyreasons.
Um, Nicole's gonna talk to usabout a new Colorado law that
will pay for 10 hours a week ofpreschool for all four year olds
and what that means forchildcare providers.
(01:36):
Um, and just by way of quickintro, and Nicole was an early
childhood teacher for fiveyears, and her background
includes extensive work withDenver's preschool programs, as
well as coordinating variousearly childhood quality
improvement, events, resources,and activities across the entire
state of Colorado.
Uh, she was formerly the CEO ofDenver's early childhood council
(01:56):
before taking over the helm ofepic in 2019.
Um, so we're super excited tohave you welcome Nicole.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thanks Ryan.
I'm so glad to be here today.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Absolutely.
We were just talking before, youknow, we started recording,
which is always fun.
You had an interview yesterdaywith somebody in Hawaii,
unfortunately we're in aColorado based company, just
like you are, but you areleaving later today, uh, for
some time in, in, in the sun inCalifornia.
So appreciate you squeezing in aconversation.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Of course, anytime, always happy to talk about early
childhood.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
So, so talk to me about, so early childhood,
obviously the reason weconnected, you know, our
marketing team is constantlylooking for, you know,
individuals and organizationsthat are, you know, in our
shared space, like we live andwork and everything we do is, is
in the early childhood space.
And so we're always looking tohave conversations with, uh, you
(02:51):
know, other individuals andcompanies that are, you know,
doing work in the same space forthe same, you know, kind of
common goal of investing in, inthe, the future of, of our
country and our economy.
And, and that starts, you know,with kids.
But talk to me before we jumpinto like epic.
Talk to me a little bit about ifyou would your story, I know
you, your native Colorado, andif I'm not, you know, if I'm not
(03:14):
wrong about that, I am.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Your first job were you, was your first job in, in
preschool?
Was it in childcare like comingoutta school or am I wrong on
that?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, my very first job was actually working for a
before and after school programfor the Metro Denver, Y M C a.
Um, but after that first job,um, I really entered the early
childhood field as an earlychildhood teacher working at an
employer onsite childcarefacility.
It was storage techs onsite, um,childcare facility for their
(03:45):
employees up in Louisville,Colorado.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You, it was okay.
And you were a teacher.
What do you, um, what do youremember just outta curiosity
very first day or first, likereflections on, um, I got
interviewed for this job.
I'm now a teacher.
Anything you remember about yourfirst day or first week or first
season working in a classroom?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, certainly, um, it's such an important and fun
job, but it's also exhausting.
So it did take me a while toadjust to being an early
childhood teacher and justunderstanding, you know, how
much, uh, how much work it takesto really put your full self
into supporting and caring forand educating young children for
a full day.
(04:27):
Um, but I also just loved thefact that, you know, we, we had
parents nearby at the facility Iworked at, and so we constantly
had parents coming in and out,you know, moms coming to
breastfeed parents coming tohave lunch with their children,
or just do a quick visit.
Um, it was so nice to have somuch family engagement there on
(04:48):
site as well.
So I really enjoyed that.
And I was always, you know, fondof working with children and
loved working with children ingeneral.
But when I started working withyounger children in early
childhood, I really was amazedby the amount of learning and
brain development and, and howquickly they advance and just
pick up on things that I thinkthat was the most amazing thing
(05:10):
to me is an early childhoodteacher.
And I loved, I loved the work.
Um, and in that particularprogram, we were able to move
teachers up and essentially kindof follow the children as they
aged up.
And so I also followed my classof children really, as they went
from toddlers to preschoolersand ultimately pre-kindergarten,
(05:31):
and then left, um, you know, fortheir own, uh, elementary
schools afterwards.
And I'm actually still Facebookfriends with some of the parents
and kids today, 20 years later,over 20 years later.
Um, so it's, it's amazing therelationships that you developed
with these children and familiesand really you become part of
their family in many cases.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.
I like, I actually like thatmodel.
I don't know if I've heard thatvery often where the teachers
actually progress with thechildren through those early
ages.
Um, and I love the idea too.
We do see a lot of like employersponsored childcare programs, a
lot of, you know, largeorganizations.
And I know this will get into alittle bit about what you guys
do there at epic.
(06:11):
Um, but was that particularcenter like with, um, storage
tech?
Was that, do you know, like theGenesis of it, was it a center
that was initiated because theorganization identified the need
and wanted to offer it as abenefit to their staff, to their
employees?
Or was it more like employee ledlike, Hey, we need this resource
on campus cuz there's a lot ofus in that boat or, or was it
(06:34):
there way before you startedworking there?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He was a little bit of both.
I think, you know, storage techwas obviously a technology
company really on the forefrontof innovation and um, and
technology development at thetime in Colorado in the late
eighties, early nineties.
And, you know, they knew thatthey really needed to be able to
recruit the very best talent.
Many of whom needed to berecruited really from the
(06:57):
coastal areas of our country.
And, you know, they were hearingfrom employees at the same time.
Well, you know, we've lookedaround, we can't find childcare
or this is gonna be a challengefor us to relocate.
Um, you know, both my, you know,both of our, our, uh,
individuals in our householdwork.
And so we need to be able tofind a, a good place for our
(07:17):
child to play, learn and becared for.
And so I think, you know, reallystemmed from both of those
things, but ultimately storagetech saw their onsite childcare
facility as not only a benefitfor their employees, but also a
really great recruiting tool,um, because they really needed
to be able to attract and retainthe best tech talent that was
(07:38):
out there at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And then do, do you know, like at the time, because
this, you know, just kind ofstarts to talk about the blend
for you between like, you know,private industry and business,
the, you know, the economics ofthat and how that, you know, has
this relationship with earlychildhood education and the, the
importance of that for families,not just for the children, but
(08:00):
for, for parents whose kids arein it.
Um, you know, at the time, doyou know how, um, storage tech
did they, did they subsidizechildcare for their, for the
families and actually cover thecost or a portion of it?
Or was it just the main benefitin that environment?
Was it just that, Hey, it'sonsite, we're gonna provide the
space and there's value in that?
Or was it a little bit of both,you know,
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Um, I think it was a little bit of both parents did
pay tuition for the onsitechildcare facility, but I
believe it was a little bitlower than market rate.
Um, I also know that just tomake the, the child care
business and high qualityoperation of that business,
sustainable storage tech didinvest money into that childcare
(08:44):
facility and operation eachyear.
So they saw that childcareprogram as a cost center versus,
you know, a benefit that wasessentially, um, designed to
kind of pay for itself or breakeven, um, got it.
So they re they recognized thatthey needed to invest in that
onsite childcare benefit, butthat they were also receiving a
return on that investment inother areas, some more
(09:07):
measurable than others, but theycertainly knew that.
Um, and it was also located inthe wellness center on the
storage check campus, but alsohad, um, you know, healthcare
services and, you know, aworkout facility, a swimming
pool, um, a dentist on site.
So they also had other servicesthey invested in on their campus
too.
So that employees really hadgreat access to, um, a wide
(09:29):
variety of family and wellnessbenefits.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah.
Which is AMA, I mean, becausenow, and I, and I think, you
know, this in Colorado probablyway better than I do, but the
whole challenge of the supply ofchildcare.
I mean, for employers torecognize that for our families
who actually need this resourcefor them to have to go out and
find it on their own is superchallenging where there's just
not enough spots.
So to, to actually take thatdecision out of the mix and that
(09:56):
challenge out of the mix is,like you said, may be hard to
measure for employers whoactually invest in onsite
childcare, but they wereobviously seeing a benefit to
it.
And it made a lot of sense forthem then after that for you,
like, um, after you left that,cause I just kind of wanna walk
your track a little bit, leadingup to what you're doing with
epic.
So you, you left, um, thechildcare center at that point
(10:19):
as a teacher.
And then I think you left theindustry for, for a little bit.
Am I right on that?
And then what brought you, whatbrought you back?
Was it the man, this is just inmy bones and it's where my
passion is.
Or was it some other event thatbrought you back?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, it was really, you know, I, I left early here
in education after I received mybusiness degree and went into
the private sector for severalyears.
Um, you know, which I enjoyedthat work, but at the end of the
day, I really missed having animpact on children and families.
I didn't necessarily want to goback into the classroom and
teach, but I did want to, um,get involved.
(10:57):
And I think, you know, work onmaybe more of a systemic level
around early childhood.
And so I was working in, in theprivate sector actually for a
large national home builder atthe time.
And a friend of mine called meand said, Hey, Denver just
passed this voter initiativethat creates universal preschool
in Denver, and we're gonna needsome help designing this
program, rolling it out, workingwith childcare providers,
(11:19):
getting them onboarded andactually designing a quality
improvement program and model tooffer them grants and support
them in this effort too.
And said, you know, would you beinterested in coming back to
early childhood?
And I said, yes,.
Um, so, you know, I had reallymissed it and was yearning for
another opportunity andsomething a little bit different
than what I had done, but alsoreally making a big impact.
(11:40):
And that's what eventuallybrought me back to early
childhood.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And then for that work, just cuz this will be kind
of the building blocks about,you know, I, I keep saying this,
but about what we're doing atepic, but in designing that
preschool program that wasspecifically for the Denver
Metro area.
Uh, can you talk a little bitabout what that entailed it was?
Was it universal preschool andwas it the mechanics for you?
Was it figuring out how are wegonna fund this?
(12:05):
How are we gonna distribute thefunds?
Or was it more like the programarchitecture, what it looked
like in the actual classrooms?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, it was more about the program architecture
and how the program actuallyinteracted and supported with
the childcare providers becausethe voter ordinance had been
passed and the funding wasavailable for families to
access, which was a slidingscale of hours and, and a
tuition credit that wasavailable to all families across
Denver.
(12:33):
But then we also had to havethe, the childcare providers
across Denver participating inthat program.
And so there really was a lot ofrecruitment, a lot of education,
a lot of engagement that had tohappen around launching that new
program, helping childcareproviders understand how it
worked, how they were gonna helpparents get approved for those
tuition credits and manage themon their end administratively,
(12:56):
and also the benefits that wouldcome to them as a result of
participating.
So for example, they would'veaccess to additional grants that
could support the purchase ofmaterials for classrooms or
support additional curricula inthe program or, um, support
additional professionaldevelopment for their teachers.
So part of it was really alsohelping to design what that
looked like from the very get go, you know, what was the value
(13:18):
proposition for childcareproviders and participating with
the Denver preschool program andhow did we make that program
work?
Both from the demand and thesupply side,
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Because, because in that case, cuz we hear a lot
about universal pre-K indifferent states all over the
country and, and specific inDenver at that time, when you
talk about the value propositionfor providers, because it, it,
it's not something that theywere mandated to participate in.
And so like if I was achildcare, an independent
childcare provider, I didn'thave to accept universal
(13:49):
preschool if I'm hearing youcorrectly.
So when you talk about having torecruit participation for a
preschool that was full or maybehad a waiting list and felt
like, Hey, that's not somethingwe need, you guys actually had
to kind of sell the benefits ofthe program.
And do you think the states do agood job of, of making it
(14:09):
attractive to providers?
Like you said, you have accessto different grants and funding.
Is that an accurate description?
If I'm a provider that has afull center or a full preschool
already, what's the benefit tome of opening up seats for
universal preschool?
If that's a fair question.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I think, you know, sopart of it comes down to of
course, making sure that ifparents have access to that
tuition credit and thatfinancial support that they feel
like they can access that whenand where and how they need to,
um, in a childcare program oftheir choice.
And I think Denver preschoolprogram was unique because it
(14:49):
really, it honored that forfamilies, it honored the parent
choice component and the factthat many parents were also
working parents and had a widevariety of programs that they
preferred for their children.
Um, and so for providers, weknew that we needed to make that
as, as easy as possible and alsomeet them where they were in
terms of quality, you know, partof administering public dollars.
(15:10):
As you wanna do thatresponsibly, you also wanna make
sure that public dollars arefunding quality, early childhood
experiences and care forchildren.
And so part of that program wassaying, Hey, you know, we'd like
you to participate in qualityimprovement initiatives and you
know, and really support thosecomponents of it.
But also the program needed tomeet people where they were.
(15:33):
So if they needed to invest inprofessional development for
their teachers, if they neededto buy new materials for the
classrooms, um, if they reallyneeded support in actually
reaching higher levels ofquality that they had access to
grants and funding support andcoaching and technical
assistance to do that as well.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
And you got, and you, you, soyou really got to be a part of
the formation of that.
It sounds like you were aroundfor rolling it out and
establishing it in hundreds of,of programs in the Denver Metro
area.
And then what was the next stepfor you?
How did you end up at epic maybekind of coming full circle a
little bit.
And when did you start at epicand, and what led you there?
(16:13):
What was the opening and, andwhat drew you to the
organization?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, so after I had, you know, I'd worked with the
Denver preschool program andeventually moved into more of a
grants management role and, um,ultimately then moved over to
Denver's early childhood councilat the time early childhood
councils were becoming thisreally robust and strong network
of organizations acrossColorado, 34 of them, um, that
(16:38):
were really created anddesignated to support childcare
providers.
So they provided a whole myriadof services and supports to make
sure that early care andeducation system and providers
from homes and centers andpublic preschools were all
supported in their efforts tosupport children and families.
Um, when I joined Denver's earlychildhood council, you know, we
(17:00):
were a small organization, astaff of three, a budget under a
million dollars.
By the time I had left in 2019,we were almost a$6 million
organization and had over 33staff members.
So there was a lot of growth inthat time, you know, race to the
top grants came out, um, acrossthe country, there was a huge
amount of focus and I thinksupport and all of a sudden
(17:22):
awareness around the importanceof early childhood care and
education.
And so it was a great time toreally see how a lot of these
new efforts were blossoming andhow we could really, um,
hopefully design programs tomeet the needs of not only
families and children, but meetthe needs of the childcare
providers as well because theyhave such a tough job, um, and
(17:42):
even administratively right,working in so many different
funding streams, oftentimes thatis a tough job as well.
Um, and so it was really fundoing all of that work in, in
2019, uh, I ended up at a happyhour and learned that Epic's
president, my predecessor wasretiring and that they were
going to be looking for a newpresident and CEO.
(18:05):
And, you know, were
Speaker 2 (18:06):
You familiar so sorry to interrupt, but were you
familiar with epic at that time?
So with your work at thechildhood council, had you
interacted with epic and knewabout the organization, so you
at least had that referencepoint?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Absolutely.
I, I knew about epic and my workand I had always been so
intrigued by the idea ofbusiness leaders and employers
really advocating for earlychildhood and getting involved
in addressing a lot of these,um, opportunities and challenges
that we had around early careand education for families.
(18:39):
So I knew about epic and reallyfor me, that was the co the
perfect combination of what Iwanted to do.
It was putting my passion forbusiness and my passion for
early childhood together.
Um, because I did, you know,sometimes miss working in the
private sector as well, andcertainly enjoyed that work when
I, when I worked there.
Um, and so when, when theprevious president retired, um,
(19:01):
you know, one thing led toanother, I ended up in
conversations and interviewswith their board members and,
um, ultimately joined epic astheir new president and CEO in
September of 2019.
So I had interesting a fewmonths right before the pandemic
hit yes, it was a, aninteresting first year on the
job to say the least.
(19:22):
Um, but it's an amazingorganization.
And I was just so excited aboutthe potential of working with
really influential businessleaders and employers and
private sector partners to liftup the importance of early care
and education and earlychildhood supports for families.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, that's a, I, I would imagine, and I, I could be
wrong on this, but coming fromwork at a state level where a
lot of government involvementand then being able to actually
work with private businessowners, like I would think in
some ways there's a freedom thatcomes with that where, Hey,
we're not tied to so much of thered tape that maybe, you know,
public dollars and publicinstitutions, you know, are tied
(20:01):
to.
I know you guys do a lot of workin that arena, but, but talk
about like, so, so our audiencecan kind of understand what epic
does, like from a missionstandpoint, Epic's role and how
they're structured.
Maybe if you could articulatethat for somebody who's never
heard of epic before, and iscurious about the mission of the
(20:22):
organization, how it'sstructured.
Can you, can you speak to that abit?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Sure.
So about 13 years ago, a groupof business leaders got together
at lunch and said, you know,early childhood is really
important for our workforcetoday and our workforce for
tomorrow.
And we wanna create anorganization that can serve as
the business community's voicein support of early childhood
policies and infrastructure andinvestments that help us make
(20:46):
sure, sure that we areattracting and retaining the
very best workforce today, butwe are also building and
developing a great workforce fortomorrow.
So that is why epic was founded.
That is why we exist.
And we really focus our effortson kind of four key areas.
So first of all, we focus onpolicy work.
We know that policies that areput into place, impact families
(21:11):
and children for decades andbeyond.
And it's incredibly important tomake sure that we not only have
the right policies, but thosepolicies are also created in a
way that are efficient andeffective and are ultimately
designed to serve our end usersof whatever it might be, our
(21:31):
preschool or childcare providersor our families and our children
first and foremost.
So we care deeply about that.
And our, our policy work is verybipartisan in nature.
Um, we work with legislators onboth sides of the aisle and
always make sure that we've gotperspectives from, you know, all
sorts of different industriesand points of view included in
(21:54):
our policy work.
Secondly, we work with thebusiness community to educate
our business leaders and ourprivate sector employers on the
importance of early childhoodand early care and education,
making sure that we really helpillustrate the impacts on the
economy related to, you know,families who maybe are, or
(22:15):
aren't able to enter and stay inthe workforce because they don't
have access to childcare.
Um, why is it important ofcourse, for the future
generation and the workforcethat companies are going to need
in 15 or 20 years from now tomake sure children are also
getting these excellent earlychildhood learning experiences
and that their development isfully supported.
(22:36):
So we work with a lot ofchambers of commerce, economic
development, corporations,groups like that.
Um, we also work directly withemployers who want to improve
their own benefits and look atways to support the needs that
their employees have.
Sometimes that's just askingemployees and helping them think
about how they assess the needsof their workforce related to
(22:58):
caregiving obligations and, andchildcare needs.
Sometimes that's actuallysupporting employers in building
onsite childcare facilities aswell when they get to the point
of saying, yep, we need this.
Um, oftentimes it's a verydaunting task and childcare is
not within their expertise andnot what they do as a day to day
(23:19):
business.
And so epic does not operatechildcare facilities, but we do
help employers really get fromconcept to completion will help
them think about the facilityneeds, do some proforma,
financial modeling, and evenconnect them to potential
operators as well.
Um, cause there are a lot ofgreat operators out there who
could operate facilities foremployers as well.
(23:42):
Um, and then lastly, we alsorecognize that onsite childcare
is not a solution that actuallyworks for most employers, um,
and many employees.
Um, you know, some people preferfamily childcare homes, some,
you know, there's lots ofdifferent family preferences out
there.
And so we also just make surethat in our efforts, we're
trying to, as a whole support,the infrastructure needs for the
(24:04):
early care and educationcommunity, including building
the workforce and making surethat childcare programs have the
great teachers they need intheir programs, but also working
on things like facilities,because we know it's also a very
capital intensive business andstarting up a new childcare
facility is also quite the task.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, that's amazing.
It's amazing to me that 13people or business leaders, you
know, years ago sat down andrecognized the need for that.
Was that, do you think that wasbecause those business leaders,
like they were acutely aware of,like when we look at our
workforce there's actual data ormetrics that we can look to that
(24:43):
say individuals that came fromearly childhood programs are
more successful in the workforceor more prepared in the
workforce is, was that one ofthe things that they were seeing
like, Hey, we don't have thesame talent pool and they track
it all the way back to earlyeducation.
Is there data that exists thatkind of supports that, that,
(25:04):
that mission that you weretalking about?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah.
You know, 13 years ago there wasa lot more research coming out
about the long term impacts ofchildren having access to these
high quality early childhoodsupports and services and
education.
And so our founders arecertainly very data driven and
they were noticing, you know, ofcourse all this research coming
(25:26):
out, but also knew that even inColorado finding the talent that
they needed to keep theirbusinesses operating, but also
growing and globally competitivewas becoming more and more of a
challenge.
So part of that too, was justthinking about how do we become
the very best place to live andwork and raise a family and make
(25:50):
sure that we are competitivewhen it comes to recruiting and
retaining talent.
How do we make sure that insteadof importing so much talent into
our state and into our economyand businesses, we can actually
grow and build our own.
And so that was also I think, abig component of the
conversation.
They saw the data, they wereunderstanding the importance and
(26:10):
the greater return on investmentthat comes back to employers and
public sector leaders and, andreally the economy as a whole,
when we invest in children earlyin life.
But also of course saw thosedirect bottom line impacts and
benefits for their ownbusinesses as well.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah.
Some of, some of the, um, youguys have done such a good job,
some of the people in Coloradonatives might say, Hey, you guys
have done such a good job ofrecruiting people to our state.
It's gone nuts in the last 20years.
Everybody's moved to Colorado.
Do do you, of, of those, um,buckets that you were were
talking about earlier, uh, isthere one in particular, so like
working with local businesses,educating businesses on the need
(26:50):
of early, you know, childhoodeducation doing the, the work
with, you know, obviously thegovernment, is there one of
those buckets that takes more ofyour attention than others?
I know specifically the reason Iask that is, I know you guys
just recently did a lot of workaround, you know, providing
funding for, um, you know,tuition dollars to families in
(27:11):
Colorado.
I, is there one of those bucketsthat, that you index more
towards, or are they prettyequal efforts across the board?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I would say the two buckets we end up spending, um,
the lion share of our time inwould be policy.
And certainly that tends to bevery, very busy during
Colorado's part-time legislativeseason, which really goes from
January to may.
And then we also spend quite abit of time working directly
with employers and organizationsacross Colorado, um, around
(27:39):
feasibility studies and actuallylooking at implementing early
care and education benefits foremployers as well.
So that has become somethingthat as a result of the pandemic
employers have certainly becomemuch more focused on looking at
childcare benefits for theirworkforce and thinking about how
they can be a part of thesolution.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I think that is one of the, the, I don't know if you
guys have seen this, but I heardyou make a couple comments.
So I assume so that just as hardas the pandemic was, like you
said, you started in September,2019, and nobody expected what
2020 was gonna look like anddifficult to navigate it.
The change management thateverybody had to go through was
huge, but then coming out of it,it has shown a light on the
(28:23):
importance of this industry andthe segment.
And, and because of that, we'veseen government dollars flow
into the industry, which hascreated some new challenges
about how do we distributethings and do it, you know, in a
way that's equitable.
Um, but it sounds like you guyshave seen that too.
And in particular, I, I knowtalking about the work that you
guys are doing with thegovernment, with the state there
(28:44):
in Colorado, talk about this newlaw.
That seems to be like anexciting thing that I don't know
if it's unprecedented, but I, interms of working in all 50
states, haven't heard a lot ofstates that have gotten this
much momentum behind it.
Can you talk a little bit about,I don't know if that's 20, 22 or
2023, that it goes into effect,but it's the, um, you know, the
(29:04):
state's gonna pay for somechildcare hours, preschool hours
for families, right?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah.
As of August 20, 23, Coloradohas free universal preschool
available to all children intheir year before kindergarten.
And it guarantees a minimum of10 hours per week of free
preschool.
And some children and familieswould be eligible for more as
well.
And, you know, I think thisreally goes back to when
(29:29):
governor Jared POIs was electedin Colorado in 2018.
He is a tremendous champion fornot only children and families,
but young children and families,families early childhood was
something that he included inhis campaign language and has
had a real focus on.
He has, you know, two childrenof his own and certainly saw the
(29:52):
benefits of having access toearly care, um, and education
programs and supports for hisown children as well.
But when he, you know, came onas governor, um, I think there
were a lot of partners who weretalking about, well, how can we
really take the next step tosupport children, families in
Colorado?
And part of that conversation,which many of our epic business
(30:15):
leaders were part of was talkingabout, okay, let's make sure
that, you know, our children areprepared for school that we're
putting, you know, setting themup for success, um, and ready to
reach their full potential,whatever that might be later in
life.
And, you know, we had startedwith funding full day,
kindergarten in Colorado, andthat was passed.
And so we, you know, we had toget free full day kindergarten
(30:37):
in place first.
And then we moved down topreschool.
Um, and I think what was reallyimportant for epics business
leaders who were involved inthese conversations was saying,
you know, listen, we wanna honorfamily's choices and needs.
We know that, you know, a parentwho's working a third shift in
manufacturing is probably gonnahave a different childcare
(30:58):
choice and a different choicefor their child's preschool,
then another parent.
And so it was really importantthat as we thought about
implementing universal preschoolfor Colorado, that we did it in
a way that really allowedparents to access the preschool
programs that they wanted fortheir children and was flexible.
So that, uh, preschool providersand childcare providers could
(31:22):
also access those dollars reallyeasily.
And, you know, we ran areferendum, uh, through the
state legislature in 2020, whichwas passed with bipartisan votes
and then placed on the ballotfor Colorado voters in November
of 2020 and Colorado votersapproved an increase in taxes on
(31:43):
tobacco products here inColorado, and also for the first
time taxes on liquid nicotineand vaping products in Colorado.
And all of that funding would bededicated to supporting access
to universal preschool for thestate as a whole and all of that
,
Speaker 2 (32:00):
All of that funding.
So everything related to the taxon those products that you said,
so you guys did a lot of work tobuild that
Speaker 3 (32:06):
In.
Well, yeah, I, I should sayalmost all of the funding will
be dedicated to universalpreschool.
There are some very smallcomponents of the funding that
will go towards, um, educationaround vaping products and, you
know, and smoking cessation andthings like that as well.
Um, but for the most part, the,the, you know, the lion share of
(32:27):
the money is going to funduniversal preschool, um, which
is over 220 million a year.
So it's a significant amount ofmoney, um, that is being
invested in this universalpreschool system and voters, you
know, when it went to the votersacross Colorado, you know, red
and blue counties alike, uh,vote voted for this, uh, for
(32:49):
proposition EE and it passedoverwhelmingly with about a two
thirds vote of support inColorado, from voters as well.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That's amazing.
I'm, I'm curious, this is like acomplete side note on that
initiative, but like for youbeing as an organization,
heavily invested in thatlegislation and, and putting in
all the legwork to get it on theballot and then on election
night as it's rolling out, isthat like, is that a nervous
(33:18):
night for you guys watchinglike, Hey, how is the public
gonna respond?
Is all of this work gonnatranslate?
Do they understand the mission?
And then there's a lot ofstakeholders yourself and epic
and all the other organizationsthat worked on that was that, am
I right?
Is that like pins and needlesthat night?
Or was it like, Hey, you know,we did the work, whatever the
public says will live with andmove forward, or what's that
(33:41):
like for you?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, no, I think everyone was really nervous,
excited, nervous, right?
If it passed, it meant hugethings for Colorado.
If it didn't pass, it was, youknow, gonna be obviously a huge
disappointment.
There had been so many differentstakeholders and, and partners
and organizations who hadsupported proposition EE, you
(34:03):
know, I mean, organizations hadjust put so much time and effort
into it with, you know, cardchildren's campaign, leading a
lot of those policy efforts and,and discussions, you know,
parents and business leaders.
Um, it really had a lot ofsupport behind it.
And of course they do somepulling ahead of time with these
types of things too.
So I think we were generallyfeeling pretty good about it
(34:23):
because we knew that there waspretty broad support for
preschool, um, really acrossdifferent voter groups in
general, but you just neverknow.
Um, you know, there's alwaysopposition to these types of
things and plenty of, uh, of adsthat come out at the last
minute.
And so yeah, you are on pins andneedles until you start to see
(34:43):
the returns and the numberscoming back and, you know, you
can breathe a little bit of asigh of relief.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, no kidding.
That it passed.
And then, and then what, so whatdoes the, what does the future
look like for epic, like interms of, so that that's next
year, that was in a biginitiative and is a big part of
the messaging around like, Hey,providing families of every
economic status, access topreschool for that, you know,
those four year olds, three yearolds.
(35:09):
It's been a while since my kidswere that age, but in that, that
age group, um, what are you guysworking on now?
What, what, what has yourattention, I know broadly what
you guys are focused on, but anyspecific initiatives that are
going on in Colorado that, thatepic is focused on right now?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, we've still been focused on the
implementation of universalpreschool a little bit because
of course, proposition EE passedand then all of the hard work
around actually designing theprogram and how it looked and,
and how it was framed had to bedone as well.
And I think one really greatthing about the way Colorado did
this process is they, theylistened to parents and
childcare providers intently inthis process.
(35:48):
And I think what was interestingis childcare providers said, you
know, the system we have rightnow, which is managing all these
different funding, streams havehaving different reporting
methods, having differentapplications, different rules
and requirements for eachprogram is not working for us.
We need something better.
And parents said the same thingparents said, I'm going to three
(36:09):
different state departments toapply for programs and support,
filling out all these differentapplications.
Everything's confusing anddifferent.
I want something that's easierfor me.
And so part of implementinguniversal preschool has been
thinking about how we, um, howwe do a better job of that for
families and providers.
So we did implement a brand newcabinet level department of
(36:30):
early childhood in Colorado thisyear.
It is launching July 1st.
And so that has been a big deal.
And all of those differentfunding streams are being pulled
into the department of earlychildhood so that they can all
be administered by one entityrather than multiple
departments.
Um, and the parents will haveone single application they can
(36:51):
complete as well, which will bea game changer for families.
Um, on the provider side, youknow, providers will also have,
I think, a much more streamlinedexperience.
They're streamlining, you know,everything from rules and
regulations and requirements toalso, you know, the application
and fiscal process for providersand really trying to make that a
(37:11):
much more seamless experiencefor childcare programs as well.
Um, so lots of great work there.
Uh, the preschool programfunding itself is actually
flowing through the departmentof early childhood and not
necessarily, uh, schooldistricts directly, which a lot
of, you know, other states orareas in the country that have
implemented preschool have donethey've, you know, funded that
(37:33):
money through school districts.
Um, sometimes primarily.
And I think that can make itdifficult for community based
programs to participate.
And so we really didn't want tohave that barrier of entry in
this model and, you know, it's,it's gonna be, um, what I would
kind of consider level playingfield for family childcare
homes, family childcare centers,public preschool programs, to
(37:55):
all service families andchildren through that model with
this new department of earlychildhood.
And then we've also done a lotof work on, uh, really
facilities and workforce to makesure that as we are expanding
access to universal preschool inColorado, that, um, childcare
centers and programs who want toexpand or want to start up new
(38:16):
locations have access to fundingto do so.
So we have, um, the emerging andexpanding, uh, childcare
facility grant program inColorado that can provide access
to funding to support thoseendeavors.
We've made tremendousinvestments into our early
childhood workforce.
We have a brand new tax creditrefund, refundable tax credit
(38:36):
that was created this year.
So that early childhood teacherscan receive up to$1,500 each
year when they file their taxes,um, for being an early childhood
teacher and achieving certainlevels of credentials in their
own professional career.
So a lot of investments intothose other areas, knowing that
when you implement universalpreschool, you need to also make
(38:58):
sure that you have the greatteaching professionals in the
classrooms to support thatdemand and make sure that we
don't lose our infant andtoddler care.
And you also have the facilitiesin the classrooms where those
children can go.
And again, you're not losingthose infant and toddler
classrooms to provide preschoolcare.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Are, are some of those last initiatives like, so,
you know, one of the things thatwe keep hearing from, you know,
providers all over the countryand organizations that support
the industry is, you know, thechallenge of staffing right now
and finding quality.
So some of that work that youmentioned around the tax
credits, obviously that'ssomething that, you know, should
be, you know, it's a benefit topeople that are individuals that
(39:37):
are teaching in this space, butjust even recruiting people, um,
who have a passion for earlychildhood and for educating kids
and being involved, uh, is, arethose things that you guys get
involved in as well, continuingto partner with providers on how
do we recruit and how do we findteachers and, and what does that
look like to make this anattractive career path?
(39:59):
If that makes sense?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Uh, you know, I think we've got the early childhood
councils and a lot of reallygreat, um, you know, advocacy
groups who work directly withchildcare providers in Colorado,
who I think, do work moreclosely with them on strategies
and how to implement thosepieces.
You know, the, the beauty aboutepic though, is that, you know,
we have kind of the unusualsuspects advocating for these
(40:21):
early childhood policies andinvestments at the table.
So we have, you know, businessleaders of organizations who are
totally unaffiliated withchildcare, you know, calling
legislators or signing lettersof support saying this is really
important.
We need to make theseinvestments.
So we really try to stay on the,um, on the advocacy and the
policy side.
And we work closely with ourother stakeholder partners and
(40:44):
early childhood councils andadvocacy partners to actually
help implement those things, youknow, throughout the sector and
with childcare providersdirectly.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Do you guys, are you familiarlike, um, nationwide, I mean,
epic and all the work that wedo, it, it, it sounds like a
unique approach to problemsolving the challenges in early,
you know, early childhoodeducation.
Are you familiar with otherorganizations in other states
that are doing similar things,like, do you guys partner in
(41:13):
other states and collaborate, orare you, is this like cutting
edge, like Colorado is one ofthe first to have something like
epic where the business leadershave come together to establish
this, this purpose?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I would say Colorado probably has the more, the most
formalized and advanced versionof a business leaders
organization focused on earlychildhood.
Certainly other states do havebusiness leader, round tables
and other organizations thatthey've developed, uh, to
advocate for early childhood.
But of course we are a 5 0 1 Cthree nonprofit organization.
(41:48):
And, um, our are certainly muchmore robust in our capacity and
our strategic mission and visionand the work that we do.
Um, and so, you know, certainlywe speak to a lot of other
states and get a lot of phonecalls about epic to actually
help other states think abouthow they can do the same.
And, and, you know, it reallyall starts with, I think, a
(42:09):
really core group of businesschampions because it was the
business leaders who had theinfluence and the power and, you
know, really the, the passionbehind their voices that made
epic happen in Colorado.
And so if you can find the sametype of business leaders in
other states, you can dosomething similar as well.
(42:29):
Um, and of course we work with,we also partner with groups
like, you know, council forstrong America who put out a lot
of great research and reports,um, and also advocate through
their own network of businessleaders.
So we work with, you know,partners like that closely, um,
as well.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Got it.
So if you, if you, if, if Nicolewent to some other state and it
was like, there was nothing likethis at all established, it
really starts with finding some,you know, community business
leaders that are invested inthis cause starting there
because funding for you guys, isit, is it donation based?
Is it all grant based fundingthat actually gives you your
(43:06):
operating budget?
Or is it a combination?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
It's a combination.
So I would say the lifeblood ofepic is, is our membership and
our members contributefinancially to our mission each
year.
And that really gives us a corebase budget to operate off of
and make sure that we can doour, you know, our policy work
and everything else.
We also receive grantsthroughout the year from
foundations, family, foundations, um, things like that.
(43:32):
And then we also have revenuethat we bring in from
feasibility studies and actualconsulting and contracting work
that we do with employers aswell.
Um, so it's a little bit of acombination of all three of
those things that supports ourbudget.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Got it.
And then maybe one of my finalquestions.
So for membership, uh, ormembers of epic in terms of
like, is there are themembership benefits that you
have a voice at the table, orlike for you guys, as you kind
of present, like, Hey, this isthe benefit of being involved
with epic as a business inDenver or across Colorado.
(44:06):
Are there membership benefits ifa business leader is listening
about being involved in epic oris it more like, Hey, you're,
you're helping us on this causewhich is gonna be benefit all of
us kind of universally acrossthe state.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yeah.
So epic, you know, we do hostwebinars and different types of
learning experiences, um, whereour members can come and join
and learn more about certaintopics.
So for example, you know, knowconducting surveys with your
workforce around childcarebenefits or, um, participating
in a panel discussion aboutonsite childcare.
(44:40):
Um, we have an employer'stoolkit that we've developed and
we offer some technicalassistance to employers and our
members specifically aroundimplementing those types of, um,
of practices in their ownorganization.
And then our members also haveaccess to events and networking
events throughout the year.
Um, for example, our executivemembers oftentimes will have
(45:01):
round tables with the governorhere in Colorado to talk about
kind of the next hot earlychildhood effort that we're
gonna be working on, or, youknow, um, really just share
information about what they'rehearing or what's going on, um,
with their own workforce andwhat they feel like we should be
working on as a state.
(45:21):
Um, and we of course have anumber of business leaders who,
you know, like to just gettogether and make sure that we
can talk about early childhoodpolicy and talk about the
implications of the economy andwhat employers are seeing right
now as, um, maybe challenges fortheir working families too.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah, I bet.
I think that last piece isprobably super valuable to
businesses, just the communityof likemindedness and shared
initiatives.
Um, I, if people, a lot of ouraudience that would be
listening, I would imagineNicole are gonna be people in
Colorado, like childcare owners,directors, administrators.
So, and then, you know, probablynationwide individuals that
(45:58):
might listen and say, that's aninteresting model.
You we'd love to maybe find outa little bit more about it for,
for individuals who might beinterested in learning more
about epic.
Are there some simple placeswhere they can go find more
information about you guys?
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
So they can visit ourwebsite@coloradoepic.org.
And as soon as you visit ourwebsite, you'll get a popup to
join our newsletter.
So we always love it.
If people join our list, serveand receive our newsletters, we
try to keep everyone informed oneverything that's happening.
We'll share really, um, greatarticles, but also information
on policies that are beingdeveloped in Colorado.
(46:34):
Um, and sometimes, you know,even beyond.
So, um, we've been working on anew design lab this year with
employers, actually helpingemployers go through a full kind
of process and business modeldevelopment around onsite
childcare.
And we've gotten a lot ofinterest from other states on
that.
And so we're trying to developsome resources right now to
share that information as well.
(46:55):
So we've got lots of informationon our website, around our
policy work, um, the employerdesign lab, um, of course our
membership and everything elsethat we do too.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Amazing, super interesting stuffthat you guys are doing.
Nicole real, um, president andCEO of Colorado executives,
partnering to invest inchildren, better known, uh, as
epic.
It's been really fun talkingwith you, Nicole.
I know every time we have aguest on, you know, our show, I
know how busy you are.
We were talking before westarted recording how many
things that you have, uh, in thefire right now.
(47:28):
So, so thank you for carving outan hour with us and we will add
all of the information aboutepic and how people can find you
in our show notes.
Um, but appreciate all thecontent and, and keep up the
good word.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
Awesome.
Thank you for having me today.
It was great to chat about this.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the
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So you never miss an episode.
And if you want even morechildcare business tips, tricks
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Welcome to the childcare business podcast
brought to you by ProCaresolutions.
This podcast is all about givingchildcare, preschool, daycare,
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and upbeat way to learn aboutstrategies and inspiration you
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You'll hear from a variety ofchildcare thought leaders,
(00:30):
including educators, owners, andindustry experts on ways to
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practical tips for managingoperations, to uplifting stories
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This podcast will be chalk fullof insights.
You can use to fully realize thepotential of your childcare
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(00:50):
Let's jump in
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Good morning, everybody.
We are, uh, back with thechildcare business podcast and,
uh, excited as always to have aguest today that we think, uh,
is gonna be able to provide somereally valuable content, some
really interesting work that'sbeing done, uh, in this case, in
the state of Colorado.
And so I'm, I'm really excitedto introduce Nicole R uh, she's
(01:14):
the president and CEO ofColorado executives partnering
to invest in children, which isbetter known by its acronym of
epic, which I love for manyreasons.
Um, Nicole's gonna talk to usabout a new Colorado law that
will pay for 10 hours a week ofpreschool for all four year olds
and what that means forchildcare providers.
(01:36):
Um, and just by way of quickintro, and Nicole was an early
childhood teacher for fiveyears, and her background
includes extensive work withDenver's preschool programs, as
well as coordinating variousearly childhood quality
improvement, events, resources,and activities across the entire
state of Colorado.
Uh, she was formerly the CEO ofDenver's early childhood council
(01:56):
before taking over the helm ofepic in 2019.
Um, so we're super excited tohave you welcome Nicole.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Thanks Ryan.
I'm so glad to be here today.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Absolutely.
We were just talking before, youknow, we started recording,
which is always fun.
You had an interview yesterdaywith somebody in Hawaii,
unfortunately we're in aColorado based company, just
like you are, but you areleaving later today, uh, for
some time in, in, in the sun inCalifornia.
So appreciate you squeezing in aconversation.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Of course, anytime, always happy to talk about early
childhood.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
So, so talk to me about, so early childhood,
obviously the reason weconnected, you know, our
marketing team is constantlylooking for, you know,
individuals and organizationsthat are, you know, in our
shared space, like we live andwork and everything we do is, is
in the early childhood space.
And so we're always looking tohave conversations with, uh, you
(02:51):
know, other individuals andcompanies that are, you know,
doing work in the same space forthe same, you know, kind of
common goal of investing in, inthe, the future of, of our
country and our economy.
And, and that starts, you know,with kids.
But talk to me before we jumpinto like epic.
Talk to me a little bit about ifyou would your story, I know
you, your native Colorado, andif I'm not, you know, if I'm not
(03:14):
wrong about that, I am.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
And
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Your first job were you, was your first job in, in
preschool?
Was it in childcare like comingoutta school or am I wrong on
that?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, my very first job was actually working for a
before and after school programfor the Metro Denver, Y M C a.
Um, but after that first job,um, I really entered the early
childhood field as an earlychildhood teacher working at an
employer onsite childcarefacility.
It was storage techs onsite, um,childcare facility for their
(03:45):
employees up in Louisville,Colorado.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
You, it was okay.
And you were a teacher.
What do you, um, what do youremember just outta curiosity
very first day or first, likereflections on, um, I got
interviewed for this job.
I'm now a teacher.
Anything you remember about yourfirst day or first week or first
season working in a classroom?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Well, certainly, um, it's such an important and fun
job, but it's also exhausting.
So it did take me a while toadjust to being an early
childhood teacher and justunderstanding, you know, how
much, uh, how much work it takesto really put your full self
into supporting and caring forand educating young children for
a full day.
(04:27):
Um, but I also just loved thefact that, you know, we, we had
parents nearby at the facility Iworked at, and so we constantly
had parents coming in and out,you know, moms coming to
breastfeed parents coming tohave lunch with their children,
or just do a quick visit.
Um, it was so nice to have somuch family engagement there on
(04:48):
site as well.
So I really enjoyed that.
And I was always, you know, fondof working with children and
loved working with children ingeneral.
But when I started working withyounger children in early
childhood, I really was amazedby the amount of learning and
brain development and, and howquickly they advance and just
pick up on things that I thinkthat was the most amazing thing
(05:10):
to me is an early childhoodteacher.
And I loved, I loved the work.
Um, and in that particularprogram, we were able to move
teachers up and essentially kindof follow the children as they
aged up.
And so I also followed my classof children really, as they went
from toddlers to preschoolersand ultimately pre-kindergarten,
(05:31):
and then left, um, you know, fortheir own, uh, elementary
schools afterwards.
And I'm actually still Facebookfriends with some of the parents
and kids today, 20 years later,over 20 years later.
Um, so it's, it's amazing therelationships that you developed
with these children and familiesand really you become part of
their family in many cases.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah.
I like, I actually like thatmodel.
I don't know if I've heard thatvery often where the teachers
actually progress with thechildren through those early
ages.
Um, and I love the idea too.
We do see a lot of like employersponsored childcare programs, a
lot of, you know, largeorganizations.
And I know this will get into alittle bit about what you guys
do there at epic.
(06:11):
Um, but was that particularcenter like with, um, storage
tech?
Was that, do you know, like theGenesis of it, was it a center
that was initiated because theorganization identified the need
and wanted to offer it as abenefit to their staff, to their
employees?
Or was it more like employee ledlike, Hey, we need this resource
on campus cuz there's a lot ofus in that boat or, or was it
(06:34):
there way before you startedworking there?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
He was a little bit of both.
I think, you know, storage techwas obviously a technology
company really on the forefrontof innovation and um, and
technology development at thetime in Colorado in the late
eighties, early nineties.
And, you know, they knew thatthey really needed to be able to
recruit the very best talent.
Many of whom needed to berecruited really from the
(06:57):
coastal areas of our country.
And, you know, they were hearingfrom employees at the same time.
Well, you know, we've lookedaround, we can't find childcare
or this is gonna be a challengefor us to relocate.
Um, you know, both my, you know,both of our, our, uh,
individuals in our householdwork.
And so we need to be able tofind a, a good place for our
(07:17):
child to play, learn and becared for.
And so I think, you know, reallystemmed from both of those
things, but ultimately storagetech saw their onsite childcare
facility as not only a benefitfor their employees, but also a
really great recruiting tool,um, because they really needed
to be able to attract and retainthe best tech talent that was
(07:38):
out there at the time.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And then do, do you know, like at the time, because
this, you know, just kind ofstarts to talk about the blend
for you between like, you know,private industry and business,
the, you know, the economics ofthat and how that, you know, has
this relationship with earlychildhood education and the, the
importance of that for families,not just for the children, but
(08:00):
for, for parents whose kids arein it.
Um, you know, at the time, doyou know how, um, storage tech
did they, did they subsidizechildcare for their, for the
families and actually cover thecost or a portion of it?
Or was it just the main benefitin that environment?
Was it just that, Hey, it'sonsite, we're gonna provide the
space and there's value in that?
Or was it a little bit of both,you know,
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Um, I think it was a little bit of both parents did
pay tuition for the onsitechildcare facility, but I
believe it was a little bitlower than market rate.
Um, I also know that just tomake the, the child care
business and high qualityoperation of that business,
sustainable storage tech didinvest money into that childcare
(08:44):
facility and operation eachyear.
So they saw that childcareprogram as a cost center versus,
you know, a benefit that wasessentially, um, designed to
kind of pay for itself or breakeven, um, got it.
So they re they recognized thatthey needed to invest in that
onsite childcare benefit, butthat they were also receiving a
return on that investment inother areas, some more
(09:07):
measurable than others, but theycertainly knew that.
Um, and it was also located inthe wellness center on the
storage check campus, but alsohad, um, you know, healthcare
services and, you know, aworkout facility, a swimming
pool, um, a dentist on site.
So they also had other servicesthey invested in on their campus
too.
So that employees really hadgreat access to, um, a wide
(09:29):
variety of family and wellnessbenefits.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah.
Which is AMA, I mean, becausenow, and I, and I think, you
know, this in Colorado probablyway better than I do, but the
whole challenge of the supply ofchildcare.
I mean, for employers torecognize that for our families
who actually need this resourcefor them to have to go out and
find it on their own is superchallenging where there's just
not enough spots.
So to, to actually take thatdecision out of the mix and that
(09:56):
challenge out of the mix is,like you said, may be hard to
measure for employers whoactually invest in onsite
childcare, but they wereobviously seeing a benefit to
it.
And it made a lot of sense forthem then after that for you,
like, um, after you left that,cause I just kind of wanna walk
your track a little bit, leadingup to what you're doing with
epic.
So you, you left, um, thechildcare center at that point
(10:19):
as a teacher.
And then I think you left theindustry for, for a little bit.
Am I right on that?
And then what brought you, whatbrought you back?
Was it the man, this is just inmy bones and it's where my
passion is.
Or was it some other event thatbrought you back?
Speaker 3 (10:33):
Yeah, it was really, you know, I, I left early here
in education after I received mybusiness degree and went into
the private sector for severalyears.
Um, you know, which I enjoyedthat work, but at the end of the
day, I really missed having animpact on children and families.
I didn't necessarily want to goback into the classroom and
teach, but I did want to, um,get involved.
(10:57):
And I think, you know, work onmaybe more of a systemic level
around early childhood.
And so I was working in, in theprivate sector actually for a
large national home builder atthe time.
And a friend of mine called meand said, Hey, Denver just
passed this voter initiativethat creates universal preschool
in Denver, and we're gonna needsome help designing this
program, rolling it out, workingwith childcare providers,
(11:19):
getting them onboarded andactually designing a quality
improvement program and model tooffer them grants and support
them in this effort too.
And said, you know, would you beinterested in coming back to
early childhood?
And I said, yes,
Um, so, you know, I had reallymissed it and was yearning for
another opportunity andsomething a little bit different
than what I had done, but alsoreally making a big impact.
(11:40):
And that's what eventuallybrought me back to early
childhood.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
And then for that work, just cuz this will be kind
of the building blocks about,you know, I, I keep saying this,
but about what we're doing atepic, but in designing that
preschool program that wasspecifically for the Denver
Metro area.
Uh, can you talk a little bitabout what that entailed it was?
Was it universal preschool andwas it the mechanics for you?
Was it figuring out how are wegonna fund this?
(12:05):
How are we gonna distribute thefunds?
Or was it more like the programarchitecture, what it looked
like in the actual classrooms?
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Yeah, it was more about the program architecture
and how the program actuallyinteracted and supported with
the childcare providers becausethe voter ordinance had been
passed and the funding wasavailable for families to
access, which was a slidingscale of hours and, and a
tuition credit that wasavailable to all families across
Denver.
(12:33):
But then we also had to havethe, the childcare providers
across Denver participating inthat program.
And so there really was a lot ofrecruitment, a lot of education,
a lot of engagement that had tohappen around launching that new
program, helping childcareproviders understand how it
worked, how they were gonna helpparents get approved for those
tuition credits and manage themon their end administratively,
(12:56):
and also the benefits that wouldcome to them as a result of
participating.
So for example, they would'veaccess to additional grants that
could support the purchase ofmaterials for classrooms or
support additional curricula inthe program or, um, support
additional professionaldevelopment for their teachers.
So part of it was really alsohelping to design what that
looked like from the very get go, you know, what was the value
(13:18):
proposition for childcareproviders and participating with
the Denver preschool program andhow did we make that program
work?
Both from the demand and thesupply side,
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Because, because in that case, cuz we hear a lot
about universal pre-K indifferent states all over the
country and, and specific inDenver at that time, when you
talk about the value propositionfor providers, because it, it,
it's not something that theywere mandated to participate in.
And so like if I was achildcare, an independent
childcare provider, I didn'thave to accept universal
(13:49):
preschool if I'm hearing youcorrectly.
So when you talk about having torecruit participation for a
preschool that was full or maybehad a waiting list and felt
like, Hey, that's not somethingwe need, you guys actually had
to kind of sell the benefits ofthe program.
And do you think the states do agood job of, of making it
(14:09):
attractive to providers?
Like you said, you have accessto different grants and funding.
Is that an accurate description?
If I'm a provider that has afull center or a full preschool
already, what's the benefit tome of opening up seats for
universal preschool?
If that's a fair question.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, I think, you know, sopart of it comes down to of
course, making sure that ifparents have access to that
tuition credit and thatfinancial support that they feel
like they can access that whenand where and how they need to,
um, in a childcare program oftheir choice.
And I think Denver preschoolprogram was unique because it
(14:49):
really, it honored that forfamilies, it honored the parent
choice component and the factthat many parents were also
working parents and had a widevariety of programs that they
preferred for their children.
Um, and so for providers, weknew that we needed to make that
as, as easy as possible and alsomeet them where they were in
terms of quality, you know, partof administering public dollars.
(15:10):
As you wanna do thatresponsibly, you also wanna make
sure that public dollars arefunding quality, early childhood
experiences and care forchildren.
And so part of that program wassaying, Hey, you know, we'd like
you to participate in qualityimprovement initiatives and you
know, and really support thosecomponents of it.
But also the program needed tomeet people where they were.
(15:33):
So if they needed to invest inprofessional development for
their teachers, if they neededto buy new materials for the
classrooms, um, if they reallyneeded support in actually
reaching higher levels ofquality that they had access to
grants and funding support andcoaching and technical
assistance to do that as well.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
And you got, and you, you, soyou really got to be a part of
the formation of that.
It sounds like you were aroundfor rolling it out and
establishing it in hundreds of,of programs in the Denver Metro
area.
And then what was the next stepfor you?
How did you end up at epic maybekind of coming full circle a
little bit.
And when did you start at epicand, and what led you there?
(16:13):
What was the opening and, andwhat drew you to the
organization?
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, so after I had, you know, I'd worked with the
Denver preschool program andeventually moved into more of a
grants management role and, um,ultimately then moved over to
Denver's early childhood councilat the time early childhood
councils were becoming thisreally robust and strong network
of organizations acrossColorado, 34 of them, um, that
(16:38):
were really created anddesignated to support childcare
providers.
So they provided a whole myriadof services and supports to make
sure that early care andeducation system and providers
from homes and centers andpublic preschools were all
supported in their efforts tosupport children and families.
Um, when I joined Denver's earlychildhood council, you know, we
(17:00):
were a small organization, astaff of three, a budget under a
million dollars.
By the time I had left in 2019,we were almost a$6 million
organization and had over 33staff members.
So there was a lot of growth inthat time, you know, race to the
top grants came out, um, acrossthe country, there was a huge
amount of focus and I thinksupport and all of a sudden
(17:22):
awareness around the importanceof early childhood care and
education.
And so it was a great time toreally see how a lot of these
new efforts were blossoming andhow we could really, um,
hopefully design programs tomeet the needs of not only
families and children, but meetthe needs of the childcare
providers as well because theyhave such a tough job, um, and
(17:42):
even administratively right,working in so many different
funding streams, oftentimes thatis a tough job as well.
Um, and so it was really fundoing all of that work in, in
2019, uh, I ended up at a happyhour and learned that Epic's
president, my predecessor wasretiring and that they were
going to be looking for a newpresident and CEO.
(18:05):
And, you know, were
Speaker 2 (18:06):
You familiar so sorry to interrupt, but were you
familiar with epic at that time?
So with your work at thechildhood council, had you
interacted with epic and knewabout the organization, so you
at least had that referencepoint?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Absolutely.
I, I knew about epic and my workand I had always been so
intrigued by the idea ofbusiness leaders and employers
really advocating for earlychildhood and getting involved
in addressing a lot of these,um, opportunities and challenges
that we had around early careand education for families.
(18:39):
So I knew about epic and reallyfor me, that was the co the
perfect combination of what Iwanted to do.
It was putting my passion forbusiness and my passion for
early childhood together.
Um, because I did, you know,sometimes miss working in the
private sector as well, andcertainly enjoyed that work when
I, when I worked there.
Um, and so when, when theprevious president retired, um,
(19:01):
you know, one thing led toanother, I ended up in
conversations and interviewswith their board members and,
um, ultimately joined epic astheir new president and CEO in
September of 2019.
So I had interesting a fewmonths right before the pandemic
hit
job to say the least.
(19:22):
Um, but it's an amazingorganization.
And I was just so excited aboutthe potential of working with
really influential businessleaders and employers and
private sector partners to liftup the importance of early care
and education and earlychildhood supports for families.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, that's a, I, I would imagine, and I, I could be
wrong on this, but coming fromwork at a state level where a
lot of government involvementand then being able to actually
work with private businessowners, like I would think in
some ways there's a freedom thatcomes with that where, Hey,
we're not tied to so much of thered tape that maybe, you know,
public dollars and publicinstitutions, you know, are tied
(20:01):
to.
I know you guys do a lot of workin that arena, but, but talk
about like, so, so our audiencecan kind of understand what epic
does, like from a missionstandpoint, Epic's role and how
they're structured.
Maybe if you could articulatethat for somebody who's never
heard of epic before, and iscurious about the mission of the
(20:22):
organization, how it'sstructured.
Can you, can you speak to that abit?
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Sure.
So about 13 years ago, a groupof business leaders got together
at lunch and said, you know,early childhood is really
important for our workforcetoday and our workforce for
tomorrow.
And we wanna create anorganization that can serve as
the business community's voicein support of early childhood
policies and infrastructure andinvestments that help us make
(20:46):
sure, sure that we areattracting and retaining the
very best workforce today, butwe are also building and
developing a great workforce fortomorrow.
So that is why epic was founded.
That is why we exist.
And we really focus our effortson kind of four key areas.
So first of all, we focus onpolicy work.
We know that policies that areput into place, impact families
(21:11):
and children for decades andbeyond.
And it's incredibly important tomake sure that we not only have
the right policies, but thosepolicies are also created in a
way that are efficient andeffective and are ultimately
designed to serve our end usersof whatever it might be, our
(21:31):
preschool or childcare providersor our families and our children
first and foremost.
So we care deeply about that.
And our, our policy work is verybipartisan in nature.
Um, we work with legislators onboth sides of the aisle and
always make sure that we've gotperspectives from, you know, all
sorts of different industriesand points of view included in
(21:54):
our policy work.
Secondly, we work with thebusiness community to educate
our business leaders and ourprivate sector employers on the
importance of early childhoodand early care and education,
making sure that we really helpillustrate the impacts on the
economy related to, you know,families who maybe are, or
(22:15):
aren't able to enter and stay inthe workforce because they don't
have access to childcare.
Um, why is it important ofcourse, for the future
generation and the workforcethat companies are going to need
in 15 or 20 years from now tomake sure children are also
getting these excellent earlychildhood learning experiences
and that their development isfully supported.
(22:36):
So we work with a lot ofchambers of commerce, economic
development, corporations,groups like that.
Um, we also work directly withemployers who want to improve
their own benefits and look atways to support the needs that
their employees have.
Sometimes that's just askingemployees and helping them think
about how they assess the needsof their workforce related to
(22:58):
caregiving obligations and, andchildcare needs.
Sometimes that's actuallysupporting employers in building
onsite childcare facilities aswell when they get to the point
of saying, yep, we need this.
Um, oftentimes it's a verydaunting task and childcare is
not within their expertise andnot what they do as a day to day
(23:19):
business.
And so epic does not operatechildcare facilities, but we do
help employers really get fromconcept to completion will help
them think about the facilityneeds, do some proforma,
financial modeling, and evenconnect them to potential
operators as well.
Um, cause there are a lot ofgreat operators out there who
could operate facilities foremployers as well.
(23:42):
Um, and then lastly, we alsorecognize that onsite childcare
is not a solution that actuallyworks for most employers, um,
and many employees.
Um, you know, some people preferfamily childcare homes, some,
you know, there's lots ofdifferent family preferences out
there.
And so we also just make surethat in our efforts, we're
trying to, as a whole support,the infrastructure needs for the
(24:04):
early care and educationcommunity, including building
the workforce and making surethat childcare programs have the
great teachers they need intheir programs, but also working
on things like facilities,because we know it's also a very
capital intensive business andstarting up a new childcare
facility is also quite the task.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, that's amazing.
It's amazing to me that 13people or business leaders, you
know, years ago sat down andrecognized the need for that.
Was that, do you think that wasbecause those business leaders,
like they were acutely aware of,like when we look at our
workforce there's actual data ormetrics that we can look to that
(24:43):
say individuals that came fromearly childhood programs are
more successful in the workforceor more prepared in the
workforce is, was that one ofthe things that they were seeing
like, Hey, we don't have thesame talent pool and they track
it all the way back to earlyeducation.
Is there data that exists thatkind of supports that, that,
(25:04):
that mission that you weretalking about?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah.
You know, 13 years ago there wasa lot more research coming out
about the long term impacts ofchildren having access to these
high quality early childhoodsupports and services and
education.
And so our founders arecertainly very data driven and
they were noticing, you know, ofcourse all this research coming
(25:26):
out, but also knew that even inColorado finding the talent that
they needed to keep theirbusinesses operating, but also
growing and globally competitivewas becoming more and more of a
challenge.
So part of that too, was justthinking about how do we become
the very best place to live andwork and raise a family and make
(25:50):
sure that we are competitivewhen it comes to recruiting and
retaining talent.
How do we make sure that insteadof importing so much talent into
our state and into our economyand businesses, we can actually
grow and build our own.
And so that was also I think, abig component of the
conversation.
They saw the data, they wereunderstanding the importance and
(26:10):
the greater return on investmentthat comes back to employers and
public sector leaders and, andreally the economy as a whole,
when we invest in children earlyin life.
But also of course saw thosedirect bottom line impacts and
benefits for their ownbusinesses as well.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
Yeah.
Some of, some of the, um, youguys have done such a good job,
some of the people in Coloradonatives might say, Hey, you guys
have done such a good job ofrecruiting people to our state.
It's gone nuts in the last 20years.
Everybody's moved to Colorado.
Do do you, of, of those, um,buckets that you were were
talking about earlier, uh, isthere one in particular, so like
working with local businesses,educating businesses on the need
(26:50):
of early, you know, childhoodeducation doing the, the work
with, you know, obviously thegovernment, is there one of
those buckets that takes more ofyour attention than others?
I know specifically the reason Iask that is, I know you guys
just recently did a lot of workaround, you know, providing
funding for, um, you know,tuition dollars to families in
(27:11):
Colorado.
I, is there one of those bucketsthat, that you index more
towards, or are they prettyequal efforts across the board?
Speaker 3 (27:17):
I would say the two buckets we end up spending, um,
the lion share of our time inwould be policy.
And certainly that tends to bevery, very busy during
Colorado's part-time legislativeseason, which really goes from
January to may.
And then we also spend quite abit of time working directly
with employers and organizationsacross Colorado, um, around
(27:39):
feasibility studies and actuallylooking at implementing early
care and education benefits foremployers as well.
So that has become somethingthat as a result of the pandemic
employers have certainly becomemuch more focused on looking at
childcare benefits for theirworkforce and thinking about how
they can be a part of thesolution.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
I think that is one of the, the, I don't know if you
guys have seen this, but I heardyou make a couple comments.
So I assume so that just as hardas the pandemic was, like you
said, you started in September,2019, and nobody expected what
2020 was gonna look like anddifficult to navigate it.
The change management thateverybody had to go through was
huge, but then coming out of it,it has shown a light on the
(28:23):
importance of this industry andthe segment.
And, and because of that, we'veseen government dollars flow
into the industry, which hascreated some new challenges
about how do we distributethings and do it, you know, in a
way that's equitable.
Um, but it sounds like you guyshave seen that too.
And in particular, I, I knowtalking about the work that you
guys are doing with thegovernment, with the state there
(28:44):
in Colorado, talk about this newlaw.
That seems to be like anexciting thing that I don't know
if it's unprecedented, but I, interms of working in all 50
states, haven't heard a lot ofstates that have gotten this
much momentum behind it.
Can you talk a little bit about,I don't know if that's 20, 22 or
2023, that it goes into effect,but it's the, um, you know, the
(29:04):
state's gonna pay for somechildcare hours, preschool hours
for families, right?
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah.
As of August 20, 23, Coloradohas free universal preschool
available to all children intheir year before kindergarten.
And it guarantees a minimum of10 hours per week of free
preschool.
And some children and familieswould be eligible for more as
well.
And, you know, I think thisreally goes back to when
(29:29):
governor Jared POIs was electedin Colorado in 2018.
He is a tremendous champion fornot only children and families,
but young children and families,families early childhood was
something that he included inhis campaign language and has
had a real focus on.
He has, you know, two childrenof his own and certainly saw the
(29:52):
benefits of having access toearly care, um, and education
programs and supports for hisown children as well.
But when he, you know, came onas governor, um, I think there
were a lot of partners who weretalking about, well, how can we
really take the next step tosupport children, families in
Colorado?
And part of that conversation,which many of our epic business
(30:15):
leaders were part of was talkingabout, okay, let's make sure
that, you know, our children areprepared for school that we're
putting, you know, setting themup for success, um, and ready to
reach their full potential,whatever that might be later in
life.
And, you know, we had startedwith funding full day,
kindergarten in Colorado, andthat was passed.
And so we, you know, we had toget free full day kindergarten
(30:37):
in place first.
And then we moved down topreschool.
Um, and I think what was reallyimportant for epics business
leaders who were involved inthese conversations was saying,
you know, listen, we wanna honorfamily's choices and needs.
We know that, you know, a parentwho's working a third shift in
manufacturing is probably gonnahave a different childcare
(30:58):
choice and a different choicefor their child's preschool,
then another parent.
And so it was really importantthat as we thought about
implementing universal preschoolfor Colorado, that we did it in
a way that really allowedparents to access the preschool
programs that they wanted fortheir children and was flexible.
So that, uh, preschool providersand childcare providers could
(31:22):
also access those dollars reallyeasily.
And, you know, we ran areferendum, uh, through the
state legislature in 2020, whichwas passed with bipartisan votes
and then placed on the ballotfor Colorado voters in November
of 2020 and Colorado votersapproved an increase in taxes on
(31:43):
tobacco products here inColorado, and also for the first
time taxes on liquid nicotineand vaping products in Colorado.
And all of that funding would bededicated to supporting access
to universal preschool for thestate as a whole and all of that
,
Speaker 2 (32:00):
All of that funding.
So everything related to the taxon those products that you said,
so you guys did a lot of work tobuild that
Speaker 3 (32:06):
In.
Well, yeah, I, I should sayalmost all of the funding will
be dedicated to universalpreschool.
There are some very smallcomponents of the funding that
will go towards, um, educationaround vaping products and, you
know, and smoking cessation andthings like that as well.
Um, but for the most part, the,the, you know, the lion share of
(32:27):
the money is going to funduniversal preschool, um, which
is over 220 million a year.
So it's a significant amount ofmoney, um, that is being
invested in this universalpreschool system and voters, you
know, when it went to the votersacross Colorado, you know, red
and blue counties alike, uh,vote voted for this, uh, for
(32:49):
proposition EE and it passedoverwhelmingly with about a two
thirds vote of support inColorado, from voters as well.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
That's amazing.
I'm, I'm curious, this is like acomplete side note on that
initiative, but like for youbeing as an organization,
heavily invested in thatlegislation and, and putting in
all the legwork to get it on theballot and then on election
night as it's rolling out, isthat like, is that a nervous
(33:18):
night for you guys watchinglike, Hey, how is the public
gonna respond?
Is all of this work gonnatranslate?
Do they understand the mission?
And then there's a lot ofstakeholders yourself and epic
and all the other organizationsthat worked on that was that, am
I right?
Is that like pins and needlesthat night?
Or was it like, Hey, you know,we did the work, whatever the
public says will live with andmove forward, or what's that
(33:41):
like for you?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah, no, I think everyone was really nervous,
excited, nervous, right?
If it passed, it meant hugethings for Colorado.
If it didn't pass, it was, youknow, gonna be obviously a huge
disappointment.
There had been so many differentstakeholders and, and partners
and organizations who hadsupported proposition EE, you
(34:03):
know, I mean, organizations hadjust put so much time and effort
into it with, you know, cardchildren's campaign, leading a
lot of those policy efforts and,and discussions, you know,
parents and business leaders.
Um, it really had a lot ofsupport behind it.
And of course they do somepulling ahead of time with these
types of things too.
So I think we were generallyfeeling pretty good about it
(34:23):
because we knew that there waspretty broad support for
preschool, um, really acrossdifferent voter groups in
general, but you just neverknow.
Um, you know, there's alwaysopposition to these types of
things and plenty of, uh, of adsthat come out at the last
minute.
And so yeah, you are on pins andneedles until you start to see
(34:43):
the returns and the numberscoming back and, you know, you
can breathe a little bit of asigh of relief.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Yeah, no kidding.
That it passed.
And then, and then what, so whatdoes the, what does the future
look like for epic, like interms of, so that that's next
year, that was in a biginitiative and is a big part of
the messaging around like, Hey,providing families of every
economic status, access topreschool for that, you know,
those four year olds, three yearolds.
(35:09):
It's been a while since my kidswere that age, but in that, that
age group, um, what are you guysworking on now?
What, what, what has yourattention, I know broadly what
you guys are focused on, but anyspecific initiatives that are
going on in Colorado that, thatepic is focused on right now?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Well, we've still been focused on the
implementation of universalpreschool a little bit because
of course, proposition EE passedand then all of the hard work
around actually designing theprogram and how it looked and,
and how it was framed had to bedone as well.
And I think one really greatthing about the way Colorado did
this process is they, theylistened to parents and
childcare providers intently inthis process.
(35:48):
And I think what was interestingis childcare providers said, you
know, the system we have rightnow, which is managing all these
different funding, streams havehaving different reporting
methods, having differentapplications, different rules
and requirements for eachprogram is not working for us.
We need something better.
And parents said the same thingparents said, I'm going to three
(36:09):
different state departments toapply for programs and support,
filling out all these differentapplications.
Everything's confusing anddifferent.
I want something that's easierfor me.
And so part of implementinguniversal preschool has been
thinking about how we, um, howwe do a better job of that for
families and providers.
So we did implement a brand newcabinet level department of
(36:30):
early childhood in Colorado thisyear.
It is launching July 1st
And so that has been a big deal.
And all of those differentfunding streams are being pulled
into the department of earlychildhood so that they can all
be administered by one entityrather than multiple
departments.
Um, and the parents will haveone single application they can
(36:51):
complete as well, which will bea game changer for families.
Um, on the provider side, youknow, providers will also have,
I think, a much more streamlinedexperience.
They're streamlining, you know,everything from rules and
regulations and requirements toalso, you know, the application
and fiscal process for providersand really trying to make that a
(37:11):
much more seamless experiencefor childcare programs as well.
Um, so lots of great work there.
Uh, the preschool programfunding itself is actually
flowing through the departmentof early childhood and not
necessarily, uh, schooldistricts directly, which a lot
of, you know, other states orareas in the country that have
implemented preschool have donethey've, you know, funded that
(37:33):
money through school districts.
Um, sometimes primarily.
And I think that can make itdifficult for community based
programs to participate.
And so we really didn't want tohave that barrier of entry in
this model and, you know, it's,it's gonna be, um, what I would
kind of consider level playingfield for family childcare
homes, family childcare centers,public preschool programs, to
(37:55):
all service families andchildren through that model with
this new department of earlychildhood.
And then we've also done a lotof work on, uh, really
facilities and workforce to makesure that as we are expanding
access to universal preschool inColorado, that, um, childcare
centers and programs who want toexpand or want to start up new
(38:16):
locations have access to fundingto do so.
So we have, um, the emerging andexpanding, uh, childcare
facility grant program inColorado that can provide access
to funding to support thoseendeavors.
We've made tremendousinvestments into our early
childhood workforce.
We have a brand new tax creditrefund, refundable tax credit
(38:36):
that was created this year.
So that early childhood teacherscan receive up to$1,500 each
year when they file their taxes,um, for being an early childhood
teacher and achieving certainlevels of credentials in their
own professional career.
So a lot of investments intothose other areas, knowing that
when you implement universalpreschool, you need to also make
(38:58):
sure that you have the greatteaching professionals in the
classrooms to support thatdemand and make sure that we
don't lose our infant andtoddler care.
And you also have the facilitiesin the classrooms where those
children can go.
And again, you're not losingthose infant and toddler
classrooms to provide preschoolcare.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Are, are some of those last initiatives like, so,
you know, one of the things thatwe keep hearing from, you know,
providers all over the countryand organizations that support
the industry is, you know, thechallenge of staffing right now
and finding quality.
So some of that work that youmentioned around the tax
credits, obviously that'ssomething that, you know, should
be, you know, it's a benefit topeople that are individuals that
(39:37):
are teaching in this space, butjust even recruiting people, um,
who have a passion for earlychildhood and for educating kids
and being involved, uh, is, arethose things that you guys get
involved in as well, continuingto partner with providers on how
do we recruit and how do we findteachers and, and what does that
look like to make this anattractive career path?
(39:59):
If that makes sense?
Speaker 3 (40:00):
Uh, you know, I think we've got the early childhood
councils and a lot of reallygreat, um, you know, advocacy
groups who work directly withchildcare providers in Colorado,
who I think, do work moreclosely with them on strategies
and how to implement thosepieces.
You know, the, the beauty aboutepic though, is that, you know,
we have kind of the unusualsuspects advocating for these
(40:21):
early childhood policies andinvestments at the table.
So we have, you know, businessleaders of organizations who are
totally unaffiliated withchildcare, you know, calling
legislators or signing lettersof support saying this is really
important.
We need to make theseinvestments.
So we really try to stay on the,um, on the advocacy and the
policy side.
And we work closely with ourother stakeholder partners and
(40:44):
early childhood councils andadvocacy partners to actually
help implement those things, youknow, throughout the sector and
with childcare providersdirectly.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Do you guys, are you familiarlike, um, nationwide, I mean,
epic and all the work that wedo, it, it, it sounds like a
unique approach to problemsolving the challenges in early,
you know, early childhoodeducation.
Are you familiar with otherorganizations in other states
that are doing similar things,like, do you guys partner in
(41:13):
other states and collaborate, orare you, is this like cutting
edge, like Colorado is one ofthe first to have something like
epic where the business leadershave come together to establish
this, this purpose?
Speaker 3 (41:26):
I would say Colorado probably has the more, the most
formalized and advanced versionof a business leaders
organization focused on earlychildhood.
Certainly other states do havebusiness leader, round tables
and other organizations thatthey've developed, uh, to
advocate for early childhood.
But of course we are a 5 0 1 Cthree nonprofit organization.
(41:48):
And, um, our are certainly muchmore robust in our capacity and
our strategic mission and visionand the work that we do.
Um, and so, you know, certainlywe speak to a lot of other
states and get a lot of phonecalls about epic to actually
help other states think abouthow they can do the same.
And, and, you know, it reallyall starts with, I think, a
(42:09):
really core group of businesschampions because it was the
business leaders who had theinfluence and the power and, you
know, really the, the passionbehind their voices that made
epic happen in Colorado.
And so if you can find the sametype of business leaders in
other states, you can dosomething similar as well.
(42:29):
Um, and of course we work with,we also partner with groups
like, you know, council forstrong America who put out a lot
of great research and reports,um, and also advocate through
their own network of businessleaders.
So we work with, you know,partners like that closely, um,
as well.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Got it.
So if you, if you, if, if Nicolewent to some other state and it
was like, there was nothing likethis at all established, it
really starts with finding some,you know, community business
leaders that are invested inthis cause starting there
because funding for you guys, isit, is it donation based?
Is it all grant based fundingthat actually gives you your
(43:06):
operating budget?
Or is it a combination?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
It's a combination.
So I would say the lifeblood ofepic is, is our membership and
our members contributefinancially to our mission each
year.
And that really gives us a corebase budget to operate off of
and make sure that we can doour, you know, our policy work
and everything else.
We also receive grantsthroughout the year from
foundations, family, foundations, um, things like that.
(43:32):
And then we also have revenuethat we bring in from
feasibility studies and actualconsulting and contracting work
that we do with employers aswell.
Um, so it's a little bit of acombination of all three of
those things that supports ourbudget.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Got it.
And then maybe one of my finalquestions.
So for membership, uh, ormembers of epic in terms of
like, is there are themembership benefits that you
have a voice at the table, orlike for you guys, as you kind
of present, like, Hey, this isthe benefit of being involved
with epic as a business inDenver or across Colorado.
(44:06):
Are there membership benefits ifa business leader is listening
about being involved in epic oris it more like, Hey, you're,
you're helping us on this causewhich is gonna be benefit all of
us kind of universally acrossthe state.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Yeah.
So epic, you know, we do hostwebinars and different types of
learning experiences, um, whereour members can come and join
and learn more about certaintopics.
So for example, you know, knowconducting surveys with your
workforce around childcarebenefits or, um, participating
in a panel discussion aboutonsite childcare.
(44:40):
Um, we have an employer'stoolkit that we've developed and
we offer some technicalassistance to employers and our
members specifically aroundimplementing those types of, um,
of practices in their ownorganization.
And then our members also haveaccess to events and networking
events throughout the year.
Um, for example, our executivemembers oftentimes will have
(45:01):
round tables with the governorhere in Colorado to talk about
kind of the next hot earlychildhood effort that we're
gonna be working on, or, youknow, um, really just share
information about what they'rehearing or what's going on, um,
with their own workforce andwhat they feel like we should be
working on as a state.
(45:21):
Um, and we of course have anumber of business leaders who,
you know, like to just gettogether and make sure that we
can talk about early childhoodpolicy and talk about the
implications of the economy andwhat employers are seeing right
now as, um, maybe challenges fortheir working families too.
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Yeah, I bet.
I think that last piece isprobably super valuable to
businesses, just the communityof likemindedness and shared
initiatives.
Um, I, if people, a lot of ouraudience that would be
listening, I would imagineNicole are gonna be people in
Colorado, like childcare owners,directors, administrators.
So, and then, you know, probablynationwide individuals that
(45:58):
might listen and say, that's aninteresting model.
You we'd love to maybe find outa little bit more about it for,
for individuals who might beinterested in learning more
about epic.
Are there some simple placeswhere they can go find more
information about you guys?
Speaker 3 (46:12):
Yeah.
So they can visit ourwebsite@coloradoepic.org.
And as soon as you visit ourwebsite, you'll get a popup to
join our newsletter.
So we always love it.
If people join our list, serveand receive our newsletters, we
try to keep everyone informed oneverything that's happening.
We'll share really, um, greatarticles, but also information
on policies that are beingdeveloped in Colorado.
(46:34):
Um, and sometimes, you know,even beyond.
So, um, we've been working on anew design lab this year with
employers, actually helpingemployers go through a full kind
of process and business modeldevelopment around onsite
childcare.
And we've gotten a lot ofinterest from other states on
that.
And so we're trying to developsome resources right now to
share that information as well.
(46:55):
So we've got lots of informationon our website, around our
policy work, um, the employerdesign lab, um, of course our
membership and everything elsethat we do too.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah.
Amazing, super interesting stuffthat you guys are doing.
Nicole real, um, president andCEO of Colorado executives,
partnering to invest inchildren, better known, uh, as
epic.
It's been really fun talkingwith you, Nicole.
I know every time we have aguest on, you know, our show, I
know how busy you are.
We were talking before westarted recording how many
things that you have, uh, in thefire right now.
(47:28):
So, so thank you for carving outan hour with us and we will add
all of the information aboutepic and how people can find you
in our show notes.
Um, but appreciate all thecontent and, and keep up the
good word.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
Awesome.
Thank you for having me today.
It was great to chat about this.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Thank you for listening to this episode of the
childcare business podcast, toget more insights on ways to
succeed in your childcarebusiness, make sure to hit
subscribe in your podcast app.
So you never miss an episode.
And if you want even morechildcare business tips, tricks
and strategies, head over to ourresource
center@procaresoftware.com untilnext time.
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