In this month's blog post, guest author Maureen Bjerke (coordinator for the Early Childhood Collaborative of the Greater Helena Area) shares her recent experience in our Community Child Care Capacity Building Cohort and outlines how the Helena coalition continues to identify community-driven and data-informed solutions to child care access in the area.
What motivated your community to engage in this work? What motivated you and your team to lead this initiative?
Child care has consistently surfaced as a significant challenge for families, providers, and employers in Lewis and Clark County. We were hearing the same concerns repeatedly: families struggling to find available and affordable care, providers having difficulty recruiting and retaining staff, and employers feeling the impact of unreliable child care on their workforce.
We wanted to better understand what was driving these issues and how they intersected across sectors. This cohort created space for us to step back, collect meaningful data, and develop a clearer, community-wide picture of the child care landscape.
For the Early Childhood Collaborative, participating in the cohort felt like a natural fit. While cohort participants differed slightly from our standing ECC membership, there was strong alignment in relationships, values, and focus areas. That alignment allowed us to integrate this work into existing meetings and structures rather than treating it as a separate effort, which made the work feel both manageable and intentional.
Are there partnerships on the team that you would like to share about?
We have a dedicated and passionate team, and each member played an important role in shaping our cohort work and data collection approach. Because we wanted to gather input from multiple sectors, partnerships were essential.
We partnered with the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce to connect with business owners and leaders. While some providers were already part of our team, we also worked with Spark Montana to broaden our reach and engage additional child care providers. All partners helped distribute the survey to their respective audiences, allowing us to reach parents, families, and community members.
We also included a team member from WestMont. Although their work is not exclusively focused on early childhood, their perspective was valuable in helping us better understand the experiences and challenges of business leaders and the broader workforce.
Why was data collection so important for your team? Were there any responses or findings that surprised you?
Data collection was critical because we wanted a deeper and more complete understanding of what was happening in the Helena area, beyond what we were hearing anecdotally.
One unexpected challenge was how difficult it was to gather data from unlicensed providers. This is a unique population, and we do not have easy access to contact information or a clear picture of where they are operating.
We were also pleasantly surprised by how many respondents expressed interest in staying involved in this work. Additionally, while we anticipated that public preschool would be impacting providers, seeing that impact clearly reflected in the data was both important and validating.
How do you plan to communicate the data to the broader community? Do you anticipate ongoing engagement after sharing the findings?
We plan to begin by sharing the findings at an upcoming community event, the Strengthening Support Services Summit. From there, we will expand outreach through targeted community conversations with different audiences and sectors.
We are actively thinking about how to engage people after the information is shared—essentially working through the “now what?” question—and how to turn shared understanding into continued engagement and action.
Do you feel your collaborative effort is stronger because of the foundational work you prioritized?
Yes. The relationships we have built in our community consistently help move this work forward. While progress may not always happen as quickly as we would like, strong relationships and shared understanding allow for clearer asks, more focused collaboration, and more productive next steps.
What might the future of this work look like?
The future of this work is still taking shape. We are continuing to reflect on the data and community input to identify meaningful pathways forward, with the goal of landing on approaches that genuinely support families, providers, and employers in our community.
Is there anything you would like to share with other communities looking to start similar work?
This work can feel daunting at first, but the support and technical assistance provided through the cohort—particularly from Shelby—was incredibly valuable. There is also great benefit in learning alongside other communities across the state, hearing about their challenges and successes, and realizing that you are not navigating these issues alone.
Maureen is part of the Population Health Team at St. Peter’s Health, where she focuses on preventative, systems-focused community health work. As the Early Childhood Collaborative (ECC) Coordinator, she is dedicated to ensuring families have the support, resources, and information they need to thrive.
