Child Care Is a Workforce Issue, and Ohio Employers Already Have a Local Partner

Child Care Resource & Referral (CCR&R) organizations like the Early Childhood Resource Center serve the business community by providing free, accurate, human support to help employees find reliable child care.

Across Ohio, the child care crisis shows up in every community. Fortunately, so does your local CCR&R.

The lack of affordable and accessible child care costs Ohio businesses an estimated $5.4 billion in lost revenue each year. When families can’t find licensed care, they turn to unreliable options that can cause them to miss work. Sometimes, parents are forced to reduce their hours or leave the workforce entirely. That instability slows business growth, limits talent pipelines, and drains local economies.

And yet, parents want to participate in the workforce. Caregivers want to provide for their families and give their children access to early education. The barrier isn’t motivation, it’s access to child care.

That’s where CCR&Rs come in.


What Can Your Local CCR&R Do for Your Business?

CCR&Rs are uniquely positioned to support employers because we understand child care at the community level. We know what care exists, where the gaps are, and how those gaps affect working families and employers alike.

Organizations like the Early Childhood Resource Center maintain the most current data on child care supply and availability in our service areas. We know which child care providers have extended hours, offer before and after school care, transportation, and have openings for high-demand age groups like infants and toddlers. This allows us to connect families to the care they need and help employers better understand how child care access is affecting their workforce.

Just as importantly, we don’t stop at data. CCR&Rs work directly with local child care providers and community partners to help identify solutions that reflect the realities of the region. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach—it’s grounded in local knowledge and real relationships.


Why Local Expertise Matters

Some national platforms and tech solutions claim to understand child care, but child care is deeply local. Availability, affordability, transportation, hours of operation, and provider capacity vary widely from one area to the next, and they change quickly.

CCR&Rs are already embedded in these communities. Our teams are made up of real people who live and work locally, who speak directly with families and providers every day, and who understand how child care intersects with workforce participation in real time.

If you want to understand what child care looks like for your employees, start locally. Call your CCR&R referral line and speak with a real person who understands your community.


Child Care Is Workforce Infrastructure

CCR&Rs do more than help families find care. We are strategic partners in conversations about workforce stability, talent retention, and economic growth.

Child care is essential infrastructure for a healthy business community. When it works, employees can show up consistently, remain engaged, and stay in the workforce. When it doesn’t, the ripple effects are felt across businesses, industries, and local economies. 

Supporting child care access is an economic imperative. To learn more about how the Early Childhood Resource Center can support your workforce needs, give us a call today at 1.877.691.8521.


Start Where Expertise Already Exists

Ohio’s CCR&Rs are already here. We’re local. We’re trusted. And, we have the most accurate child care data paired with real people who know how to use it to support employers and employees alike.

If your business is looking to strengthen workforce participation, support employees with young children, and better understand how child care affects your operations, your first call should be to your local CCR&R.

Call the Early Childhood Resource Center today at 1.877.691.8521 for FREE child care referral information.