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We Are ALX helps childcare providers grow amid rising demand

Massachusetts childcare owners are receiving free business training to help meet the growing demand for services as workers transition back to in-person work. Story Highlights We Are ALX Inc. created a free business program for childcare providers. Massachusetts fully funds a $475 million childcare grant program. Childcare seats in Massachusetts increased by 8,700 in the past year. More workers returning to the office means more childcare needs statewide — and a local business group is working to help childcare providers grow and expand to help meet that need. We Are ALX Inc., a statewide nonprofit focused on advancing Latino American prosperity and leadership representation, created a free business program for childcare business owners to grow earnings potential, manage costs and move beyond day-to-day business operations toward a profitable growth business. The program last year graduated 59 childcare providers, up from 29 the year earlier, representing over 140 jobs and over 600 families and children, according to Eneida Román, president and CEO of We Are ALX. The program has served 135 entrepreneurs over two years — all free. Childcare providers have struggled to find workers because of persistent low pay and the lack of growth opportunities, according to a report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation last fall. The average salary for childcare workers in Massachusetts last year was $43,000, per the MTF report, barely higher than the U.S. average of $39,370 per year, despite the high cost of living in the Bay State. The ALX program is aimed at helping childcare business owners learn how to access capital and resources, provide worker opportunities for additional certifications and professionalize their systems through better bookkeeping, website management and marketing. Dora Aguilar is CEO and owner of Bright Beginners Family Daycare LLC, a home-based family childcare provider in Randolph. She participated in the ALX program last year and said, 'They are great, fantastic coaches. Eneida ... is helping businesses, especially Latino businesses in the community, to grow up and is helping them in all the ways they need in order to be successful.' Sign up for the Business Journal's free daily newsletters, and download the free BBJ app for important news alerts on your phone. Bright Beginners was awarded the SBA Home-based Business of the Year for Massachusetts in 2023. Originally from Guatemala, Aguilar was a certified teacher for nearly a decade in her native country and has run her daycare program for 25 years, first in Hyde Park and more recently in Randolph. She said the ALX program provided a personal coach for eight weeks who help her sharpen her business plan, upgrade her social media presence, and better handle her business taxes. While she hasn't seen revenue grow yet since taking the program, the improved marketing could help that, she said. Aguilar is planning to expand her business from a home-based family childcare to a more formal daycare center, which would allow her to take on more children and employees." 'I'm talking to as many people as I can for help,' Aguilar said. 'Access and affordability' The lack of affordability and accessibility to early education and childcare is a pervasive drag on the regional economy overall. The local leadership of PNC Bank is hosting an event on April 30 with the Business Journal focused on early education and its impact on the region's workforce and the economy in an effort to address that challenge. "The commonwealth like every other state has a childcare challenge. It's about access and affordability for families, and that in turn is a barrier for people to participate in the labor force — and is a limiting factor for the Massachusetts economy," said Tom Weber, executive director of the Massachusetts Business Coalition for Early Childhood Education and a fellow of the Eastern Bank Foundation. The bank foundation contributed $100,000 to ALX to help expand its program last year. Román said other funding came from foundations at PNC Bank and TD Bank as well as from government grants. The per-participant cost is $3,000, but the return on the investment, Román said, is double that cost. "We currently have a waiting list for the next cohort," Román said. "Our vision for this program is to continue providing culturally relevant, strategic guidance that shifts mindsets from (entrepreneurs) seeing themselves as 'babysitters' to seeing themselves as business owners and educators." Weber describes childcare as a sector that has always been challenging for providers to make a profit. 'It's a sector that operates on exceedingly tight margins, and has been principally motivated and trained on the childcare and education components — but they aren't trained as well on the operation of the business of childcare.' Programs like ALX's and potential state funds aim to change that. Last month, the Healey administration released recommendations from a task force created last year on childcare affordability and accessibility that included focusing small-business resources offered by the state Executive Office of Education and its agencies. The report included exploring the expansion of small-business development programs for early education and childcare centers. Interestingly, Massachusetts is the only state that has continued to fully fund a pandemic-era childcare grant program after federal money was discontinued. The $475 million Commonwealth Cares for Children program provides grants to more than 7,500 childcare and early education programs in the state to help with operational costs. It has also helped increase pay for more than 45,000 educators, who were being paid just $30,000 a year before the pandemic. According to the state's Board of Early Education and Care, there's been an increase of 8,700 childcare seats for children in the past year, a 4% hike. That means every childcare program that received state money added an average of one new seat, and potentially thousands of workers who were previously unavailable to participate in the state's labor pool because of a lack of childcare options were able to do so. Nationally, a Business Journals report last year found that growth in childcare costs has outpaced other daily expenses — and the cost of child care keeps growing. The average national price for child care annually rose 3.7% between 2022 to 2023, to $11,582 per child, according to Child Care Aware of America. 'Some people will leave their jobs, some will reduce their work hours," Julie Kashen, senior fellow and director for women's economic justice at The Century Foundation, told the Business Journals. "But some people don't have that option and need to work to support those families." Employer Inclusivity Index - Small & Midsize Companies Percentage of total employees that are POC Rank Prior Rank Organization name/URL 1 1 Arka HR Solutions 2 2 Cruz Companies 3 3 Stop and Compare Supermarkets View this list