Child care summit scheduled in La Crosse on Thursday

Providing good child care for families can be one way to help improve neighborhoods and communities. 

The 7 Rivers Alliance, along with Competitive Wisconsin, Inc., is co-sponsoring a summit meeting on Thursday to identify ways to increase early childhood care, that can get parents back into the workforce. 

Chris Hardie, the CEO of the Alliance, says businesses are important to offering more child care.

“They play a vital role in the solution, because we’re so short of workers,” Hardie tells WIZM’s La Crosse Talk. “All the surveys and polls that we’ve done indicate there’s a significant number of people who are sitting on the sidelines, not working because they can’t find the child care.”

Hardie also says available child care can help many families within a neighborhood, especially in La Crosse, “and we want strong neighborhoods. Hardly a better way to get a good neighborhood than to have some child care right in your own block.”

The Wisconsin Tomorrow summit meeting goes from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Lunda Center in La Crosse. People can also attend on-line through the 7 Rivers Alliance.