Join us for our September Benefits Breakfast Meeting!
Topic: Childcare Challenges and the Child Care Community of Exchange
This presentation highlights a collaborative effort among Community Partnership of the Ozarks, OACAC, CoxHealth, and several other Springfield-based organizations to address the growing shortage of affordable, high-quality child care and subsequently the impacts to organizations. In Springfield alone, we face a shortfall of over 1,500 infant and toddler care slots—an alarming gap that directly affects workforce participation in an already tight labor market.
To address this challenge, the collaborative is developing a Community of Exchange Child Care pilot program, modeled after Michigan’s successful Tri-Share initiative. This program distributes child care costs among three contributors: employees, employers, and state or philanthropic sources. We are currently working on the program’s framework, including employee eligibility, employer engagement and responsibilities, and advocacy for legislative budget amendments that would allow access to existing state childcare funds.
In addition to presenting this program and the facts facing employers today, this presentation will allow for conversation and brainstorming of ways to help collect this data to show the story of the Childcare Crisis in Springfield and how employers can help!
Learning Objectives:
• Exposure to facts regarding lack of childcare and the impacts on employers.
• Identify how lack of childcare affects attendance and retention
• Spark conversations around tracking mechanisms for childcare-related absences
Meet Our Speakers!
Amanda Coleman earned her bachelor’s in social work from Missouri State University in 2005. For the past 19 years Amanda has focused on working with families in a variety of ways, most notably with Community Partnership of the Ozarks for 12 of those years. Amanda is now the VP of the Early Childhood and Family Development at CPO, where she focuses on supporting and growing programs designed to help and support families with young children. Amanda lives in Springfield with her two children, Trenten and Jordan, and looks for every opportunity to go back to Canada, where is from to visit family.
Kimberlee Nevins is a Benefit Advisor at Employee Benefit Design LLC, where she supports over 60 employer groups in designing and managing benefits programs, while also providing leadership for more than 160 additional clients across the region. With more than a decade of experience, she specializes in strategic plan design, regulatory compliance, and employee communication.
A Springfield native and Missouri State University graduate, Kimberlee approaches her work with a focus on practical problem-solving and building trusted relationships. She helps employers navigate complex benefits decisions and translate them into solutions that employees can easily understand and value.
Kimberlee is actively involved with United Benefit Advisors (UBA), collaborating nationally on industry trends and compliance strategies. Locally, she serves as Board Secretary for Dynamic Strides Therapy and is a member of Springfield Southeast Rotary. As a wife and mother of four, Kimberlee draws on her own experiences to advocate for supportive workplaces and better healthcare outcomes for working families.
