08/28/2026
We are SO incredibly proud of this. 💛
Child Care Aware of Kansas has shared the story of our Early Childcare Initiative and the work happening right here in our community to treat child care as the infrastructure it truly is.
But what makes us most proud about this story is WHO it belongs to.
It belongs to our child care providers — the people doing this work every single day, caring for our children, supporting our working families, growing their businesses and trusting us enough to let us walk alongside them.
It belongs to the partners who have helped move this work from conversations around a table into action — including the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce (Renee Duxler), EcoDevo (Mitch Robinson), the Earl Bane Foundation, Great Plains Manufacturing, ECIF Donors, our private donors, and so many others who have invested their time, resources and belief in this work!
And it belongs to the people who started having these conversations more than a decade ago — long before the Early Childcare Initiative Fund existed — and continued showing up because they knew our community needed a solution!
Salina Area United Way is incredibly proud to serve as the backbone organization for this work and to continue building on the foundation laid by so many people before us.
The work is far from finished. We’re still building.
But today, we're going to take a minute to celebrate.
Because providers feel seen. Families have more options. Businesses are recognizing child care as workforce infrastructure. And our community has decided that this matters. 💛
Thank you, Child Care Aware of Kansas, for telling this story — and thank you to every provider, partner, funder, business and community member who is part of it.
https://ks.childcareaware.org/businesses/case-studies/building-the-infrastructure-of-care-how-saline-county-is-reimagining-child-care-through-collaboration-trust-and-community-investment/?fbclid=IwY2xjawT-dKhwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAGJyaWQRMTI4end5Zkh5TWpkODdSeDVzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEekRckAdabUCB-WTPozq84oZDAaqcNgLB7_7JWg6POwCzEalNIfZjPBzBwO3I_aem_-Ojr0JyW3hvIMAD1vzg5_A
