The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Launches Partnership with Delaware Business Community to Support Child Care Sector

For immediate release

Contact: Daneil Mazone, Senior Manager, Media Relations, 215-574-7163

Philadelphia, PA -The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia partnered with the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, Rodel, and the Delaware Department of Education to launch a Research in Action Lab to educate the business community in Delaware on the economic importance of the child care sector.

Research in Action Labs bring together public and private stakeholders to identify practical solutions to problems facing their communities and build upon existing efforts. Public-private partnerships like the Delaware Research in Action Lab help build an inclusive and equitable workforce recovery by removing barriers to employment, such as access to child care.

"COVID-19 has underscored the importance of affordable, quality care where it is most needed," said Ashley Putnam, director of the Economic Growth & Mobility Project at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. "There needs to be a shift in thinking about child care as a valuable and integral component of a strong economy, and we hope to equip stakeholders in Delaware with data and resources to meet the child care needs of their workforce."

According to a new briefby the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, child care providers have been at high risk of closure throughout the pandemic, threatening the permanent loss of nearly 4.5 million child care slots across the United States and 58 percent of Delaware's child care supply. Integrating child care into the workforce system may be especially impactful for Delaware's economy, given that a majority of Delaware's children live in households with working parents.

For more information about the Philadelphia Fed's Research in Action Labs, please visit here.

About the Delaware Child Care Mapping Tool

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has also partnered with PolicyMap, a data and mapping tool service, to create an interactive online mapping tool that identifies licensed child care facilities across the state of Delaware. The tool provides policymakers, nonprofits, child care providers, and local businesses with data to better understand the child care landscape in their communities. This information can help stakeholders advocate for investments in child care and consider opportunities to provide workers with quality child care options.

Stakeholders can use the tool to identify licensed child care facilities in Delaware by location, census tract, school district, metro area, and more. The mapping tool also provides data about the area near the facilities, including the predominant racial or ethnic groups; education, income, and poverty level; transportation; unemployment rates; and COVID-19 cases and deaths.

For more information about the child care mapping tool, please visit here.

About the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

The Research in Action Labs are created by the Economic Growth & Mobility Project, a strategic initiative of the Philadelphia Fed that works to advance entrepreneurial solutions to inclusive economic growth and create pathways out of poverty in communities across the Third District and our nation.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia helps formulate and implement monetary policy, supervises state member banks, bank holding companies, and savings and loan holding companies, and provides financial services to depository institutions and the federal government. It is one of the 12 regional Reserve Banks that, together with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia serves eastern and central Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware.

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