Foundations Community Childcare non-profit to open childcare center in 2023

Local developer and entrepreneur Jerry Baker donated the land for the center. 

The impetus for the childcare center came from the Ashland County Community Foundation Women's Fund, which conducted a childcare study in May 2021 to assess community needs. The study included respondents working at businesses located at or near industrial park and overall found they wanted more accessible and affordable child, infant and toddler care beyond traditional work hours. 

In addition to meeting childcare needs for people currently employed, the nonprofit intends to also help those who are currently unemployed due to childcare needs, who were not captured in survey results.

With the help of the Women’s Fund, Foundations Community Childcare has begun and will continue raising funds through 2022, with the intention of starting construction on the center in early 2023 and being operational by that year’s end, chief program officer of the Ashland County Community Foundation Kristin Aspin said.

“Preferably, if the timing would work out, to be open when school starts,” Aspin said. 

Foundations Community Childcare’s goal is to raise $4.5 million to cover initial costs, with an estimated $3.5 million for construction and start-up costs and a $1 million endowment. Foundations Community Childcare intends to open the campaign to the public in late May, Aspin said. 

The Women’s Fund steering committee has been helping guide initial planning and fundraising, but the committee will phase out and the ultimate goal is for Foundations Community Childcare to be a separate entity, Aspin said. 

This type of collaborative effort — starting with assessing community needs and progressing with support from multiple sectors of the community (non-profit, business, faith-based organizations and government) — appears to be the first of its kind for childcare in the state, Aspin said.

"I have had several calls from inside our county and neighboring counties interested in the model and framework we are using, as they’re seeking childcare solutions for their communities as well," Aspin said. 

One of those interested parties is the Council for a Strong America. CSA is the umbrella nonprofit for five membership organizations involved in business, military, law enforcement, faith and sports to prepare youth for success.

"I think this will be a model prototype for not only Ohio but for the nation," said CSA state director Cyndy Rees, who first spoke with those initiating Ashland's childcare effort last spring. 

When Rees refers to Ashland as a model, she does not suggest its childcare center offerings should be copied and pasted in other areas. Rather, others can take note of how and why Ashland went about making its childcare decisions.  

"Everybody has their own unique challenges, which is why community thinking, group thinking like this is so critical because they're really addressing what is on the ground happening," Rees said. 

While Rees sees potential for Ashland's effort to be a model elsewhere, the operational success of the nonprofit will not be seen for a few more years.  

Attorney at Kick & Gilman, Erin Kick, who is on the Women's Fund steering committee and the Foundations Community Childcare board, served as the attorney filing the paperwork for nonprofit status. 

"The nonprofit has been formed, as far as being recognized as an entity with the state," Kick said. "And the next step then is to get nonprofit status from the (Internal Revenue Service), which is in the works right now."

Kick is hopeful to get an answer about IRS tax exempt status within six months, but there is no definitive timeline, especially because of back-ups due to COVID-19, she said. 

Who’s involved?

The Women’s Fund steering committee selected board members with the intention to include multiple areas of expertise, Aspin said. 

The board comprises the following volunteer members in addition to Kick:

• Brandy Barone, operations director Appleseed Community Mental Health Center

• Tim Bartholomew, operations manager SJE Rhombus

• Shannon Donelson, teacher/director Ashland Co.-W. Holmes Career Center

• Dennis Dyer, retired director of Ashland County Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse

• Dawn Forbes, coordinator of Womens & Childrens Ministries for Trinity Lutheran Church

• Marilyn Harshman, retired social worker

• Barbie Lange, realtor NextHome Next Stepp

• Nicole Mann, early childhood mental health consultant for Catholic Charities in Ashland

• Peter Stefaniuk, director Ashland County Department of Job & Family Services

• Tammy Stevens, assistant superintendent of Ashland City Schools

• Brenda Uselton, CFO/treasurer BCU Electric, Inc.

• Jody Watson, retired seminary, professor and pastor.

“The first 13 people that were asked to serve all said yes,” Aspin said. 

Two people are on both the Women’s Fund steering committee and the Foundations Community Childcare board — Kick and Lange. 

The board’s first meeting will be April 11, which Aspin said will be focused on organization, such as setting committees. Eventually, the board will hire a director for the childcare center and staff, as well as decide the hours of operation, but the timeline for those decisions has not yet been set, she said. 

Previously, Trinity Lutheran Church had been considered as a non-profit partner of the childcare center. 

“To help prevent mission drift on behalf of this nonprofit or any other nonprofit that may have wanted to own and operate it, it just seemed that it was unique enough that it needed its own nonprofit,” Aspin said. 

Local developer and entrepreneur Jerry Baker, who gifted the land, has been building in Ashland County since the 1990s and currently owns approximately 1 million square feet of property in the city of Ashland. He said he intends to also support the center through future financial donations. 

What will the childcare center offer?

While the board is in the beginning stages of planning, the goal of Foundations Community Childcare will be to fill gaps in current childcare offerings. 

Currently available childcare options in the county often have waiting lists, and few offer infant and toddler care or care beyond traditional work hours. Brethren Care Village Child Care Center, which opened in February 2022, is the latest addition to the county.  

Foundations Community Childcare intends to offer non-traditional hours of operation to accommodate second and third shift workers, as well as offer infant and toddler care, Aspin said. 

Based on the Foundations Community Childcare draft operational budget, it is planning to have spaces for 23 infants, 33 toddlers, 39 preschool-aged children and 36 school-aged children. Foundations Community Childcare budgeted based on median capacity, so there is possibility for those spaces to increase, Aspin said. 

Foundations Community Childcare will go to bid at a later date to determine the project contractor, but these figures are based on a feasibility study done by Simonson Construction, which involved initial building design.

“We also reached out to some current and former child care directors,” Aspin said of design decisions, specifically adding they spoke with childcare leaders in Ashland, Richland and Wayne counties. 

The center, which will be 12,400 square-feet, can serve between 120-150 children. It is designed with three wings, which could be expanded upon at a later date based on needs, Aspin said. 

Affordability will also be a focus of center offerings, although tuition rates are to-be-determined. 

Center revenue will come from multiple streams. Tuition and an endowment fund will be part, but as a nonprofit, Foundations Community Childcare will also be eligible to apply for grants and public dollars through the Step Up To Quality program for families that meet certain income thresholds.

Additionally, Aspin said Foundations Community Childcare leadership has been talking with local businesses about providing childcare stipends for their employees.

“While we need to budget at market rate, the cost to individuals will likely be below market because of the endowment, grants, Step Up to Quality subsidies and the business subsidies, even contributions from the public as well,” Aspin said. 

Aspin also expects the location of the center to be a strategic advantage. There are 20-some businesses with more than 1,000 employees located in the industrial park where it will be situated, Aspin said. 

“There are so many businesses around there, but we will not exclude anybody who is not located in the industrial park,” Aspin said. 

Aspin said the intention is for the center to reevaluate needs as it operates, and there is potential to add a second childcare center in another part of Ashland County if the need is found.

How else will the non-profit impact the community?

Those heading the childcare center effort see its impact as twofold: supporting childcare needs and promoting economic development. 

One of the leaders who shares this view is board member Barbie Lange, who has served on the Women's Fund steering committee for almost six years and also has a background in finance and human resources for manufacturers.

“As the mayor and the commissioners and our economic development professionals are out trying to talk to businesses and encourage them to bring their good paying jobs to Ashland, we would have this ace in our pocket to say that we have a community childcare center right in the business park," Lange said. 

While board members are volunteers, the childcare center will need employees. 

Aspin estimates the center will create at minimum 20 full-time equivalent jobs to staff the center, as well as provide opportunities for student internships, volunteer positions and research. 

“If you lift up families and businesses, ultimately you're lifting up your entire community," Aspin said.