ABOUT ANNETTE SOBICINSKI:
Annette Sobocinski serves as Executive Director of Child Care Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving access to affordable, high-quality childcare across multiple counties in Eastern and Southeast Michigan.
She leads initiatives that support families, strengthen early childhood educators, and build regional coalitions to address childcare shortages. Her work focuses on building partnerships across community to strengthen the childcare system so families can work and children can thrive.
She believes childcare is essential infrastructure for families, businesses, and communities.
RESOURCES:
Child Care Network on Facebook
Child Care Network on LinkedIn
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and I'm David Fair. Now, if you have children or grandchildren, then you know just how expensive quality child care has become. Affordability and accessibility--it's difficult under the best of circumstances. And sometimes, we can use some help and guidance in trying to find the right situation. Now, the good news is that help is available. The organizations, like Child Care Network, have had some great success in connecting people. Our guest today is Annette Sobocinski, and she's Executive Director of the Child Care Network. And thank you so much for making time for us! I appreciate it!
Annette Sobocinski: Yes, thank you so much for having me! I appreciate being able to be here!
David Fair: Well, I don't need to tell you the cost of living continues to go up at a higher rate than the wages that most people are being paid. Perhaps you can give me an estimate. On average, for a family or single parent that needs child care five days a week in order to keep working, what would the average cost for the care of one child be?
Annette Sobocinski: So, that varies significantly across different provider types, different areas of the state, cities versus rural, that kind of thing. But on average, what we tell people is anywhere from $12-15,000 a year.
David Fair: That is significant!
Annette Sobocinski: Yes.
David Fair: And we'll talk a little bit more about the potential hardships of that, but I want to kind of define what kind of child care we're talking about. Would you say there is a difference between babysitting and child care?
Annette Sobocinski: There is definitely a difference between babysitting and child care. What most people don't understand about formal child care is that licensed child care providers have to go through a pretty extensive process to become licensed and also have pretty strict requirements about the type of professional development that they receive, the things that they have to do to maintain their facilities, and that's true for all of their staff as well. So, even the basic requirements of licensing require pretty high levels of compliance for child care providers and ensuring that children are safe and healthy and well taken care of. They're also providing an enriching environment where children can learn. And so, babysitting is definitely valuable and a critical need, but formal child care is much more than just babysitting.
David Fair: $15,000 a year, and that's a pretty high percentage of some folks' income.
Annette Sobocinski: Yes.
David Fair: Is it fair to say, given the circumstances, we are in a child care crisis?
Annette Sobocinski: Oh, yes! And it's an ongoing one, made worse by the pandemic. And it's continuing to be an issue. I know people sometimes feel like the phrase child care crisis is overused, but that is truly where we are right now.
David Fair: There's an old adage: You get what you pay for. We know that when it comes to child care, it can be difficult to attract and even more difficult to retain good quality people because wages can be quite low. Are there enough qualified people to fill the demand in the child care sector?
Annette Sobocinski: Yeah, there are not. That is another large issue is that early educators don't make enough. They're one of the lowest paid professions in our country, which is unfortunate because it drastically underestimates the important nature of the work that they do, particularly with young children when the most significant brain development happens. So, a lot of people, even if they love working with kids, they care about working with kids, they're excellent at working with the kids, they can't afford to stay in the field and, oftentimes, will move into working for fast food or a gas station or in retail because the wages just don't compete with those other areas.
David Fair: Yeah, that tells you exactly where we're at. We're talking with Annette Sobocinski on 89.1 WEMU's Washtenaw United. She serves as Executive Director of Child Care Network. Now, let's discuss addressing these challenges. The Child Care Network has programs to connect people with care, scholarships, and the tools needed for a family to find its way. Additionally, you are helping child care businesses and their employees achieve the certification necessary. How do these programs work?
Annette Sobocinski: Yeah. So, there's a few programs that we run that I would really like to highlight. One of them is our family support program, which is supported in part by United Way, several United Ways, but United Way for Southeastern Michigan in Washtenaw County. And that program is just a program where we provide child care tuition scholarships for families, so families who can't afford the cost of care for a variety of reasons. They may qualify for state assistance or they may not, and they still are struggling to afford care. So, our scholarships help them to cover that cost. Another cost sharing program is the tri-share child care program. That is a program that we use to help families afford care, where the cost of care is split three ways. The state of Michigan pays one-third of the cost, an employer pays one third of the cost and the employee paid pays one-third of the cost. So, if you think about that $15,000, reducing down to $5,000 it's a pretty significant, important program.
David Fair: And now, it doesn't seem quite so overwhelming.
Annette Sobocinski: Right! Exactly! $5,000 is a lot more manageable than $15,000. So, we work to recruit employers to participate in that program. We also have a couple of other programs. One is we work in regional child care coalitions. So, we bring together partners from business and governments and school districts and early educators and families, and we bring them together to kind of really on figure out some strategies that we can implement on a local level on to address the child care crisis in our community. And then, finally, we have a project right now going on, which is wage stipend. We talked about early educator wages a little earlier, and this is a project funded through the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education Advancement and Potential, MiLEAP, and GOISD. That allows us to pay stipends to early educators. And we also run a registered apprenticeship program, which helps to get them credentialed in the field, so they can earn higher wages. So, these are just a few of the programs that we run to support the field.
David Fair: And as you work collectively and in partnership with others in this realm, there's a huge financial and human resource time investment it takes to create and maintain these programs. And it feels like, in the current climate, it's a bit like intentionally funding instability. Am I looking at it wrong?
Annette Sobocinski: I totally agree. Right. So, many of the things that we're doing right now are band-aids, right? A little bit here, a project here, project there. They're temporary. They only last for a certain time, right? What we really need is robust public investment in the overall system. That is what will solve this crisis because, right now, like you said, we're patching together things. We have employers participating here and contributing. We have other funders, philanthropic funders, participating by funding certain things. But we really need that strong public investment to strengthen this system overall.
David Fair: Once again, WEMU's Washtenaw United Conversation continues with Child Care Network Executive Director Annette Sobocinski. And, Annette, sometimes I make myself uncomfortable in talking about such important issues because I feel like I may get too far away from what this is really about, and that's the people. We have systems issues. We have legislative and community change and challenges. But every morning, a family or a single parent gets up and has to worry. Is today the day I can no longer make this work? How are all of you at Child Care Network engaging those you serve, so that there's a real relationship and trust can be fostered?
Annette Sobocinski: Yeah. We work hard to engage the people that we serve in helping to figure out how we can better serve them and how they can participate. One of the things that we do is advocacy at Child Care Network. So, we not only advocate on behalf of those we serve, but we also work to try to help them learn how to advocate effectively on their own behalf. We really want the voices of those that we serve to be in conversations around how to affect these changes and how to impact the systems that we're working in. So, we do that through a variety of things. I mentioned earlier the regional child care coalitions. One of the ways that we make sure that we can have robust participation from the providers and the families that the system is impacting is that we compensate them for attending meetings and participating in the work. We regularly survey or listen to informal feedback through our regular conversations with the people that we serve. We have had board members on our board of directors at Child Care Network that directs all that we do that have been served by our programs, so that they can have a voice in how we go about serving the populations that we're meant to be supporting. So, those are just a few of the ways that we engage the voices of those we serve.
David Fair: If I do decide to reach out my hand for that help and support, what should my first step be and what process are you going to take me through?
Annette Sobocinski: So, at Child Care Network, just mainly to call us. For some of those programs, there's, for our family support program, the Child Care Scholarship. Families can just go to our website. There's a form--a really quick and easy form--they can fill out right then. And then, our staff will call them back. But always call us. Reach out to us on social media. That's another really great way to get in contact with us.
David Fair: And they'll get a personalized response.
Annette Sobocinski: Yes. Yes, they will.
David Fair: Annette, I'd like to thank you for taking time out and making for our conversation today. I certainly appreciate it. And again, a child care crisis is underway, but there are good organizations and good people working to get us through to the other side--Child Care Network among them. Thank you so much!
Annette Sobocinski: Thank you!
David Fair: That is Annette Sobocinski, Executive Director of Child Care Network. She's been our guest on Washtenaw United. For more information on the work of the network and links to additional information, stop by our website at WEMU.org. We'll get you linked up everywhere you need to go. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. I'm David Fair. This is your community NPR station. It's 89.1 WEMU Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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