Madison LammertAppleton Post-Crescent
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The popular children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" is often used to teach children cause and effect. If you give a mouse one thing, they’ll want another. It keeps going on and on.
When describing the vision for Encompass Early Care and Education’s new Oconto Falls location, the conversation takes on a similar tone.
Only in this case, unlike in the book, there aren’t unwanted consequences associated with the center’s arrival. Rather, there’s a long list of how its presence will bolster the larger community:
If you give a community child care, then parents will work in the community. If parents work in the community, then the economy will blossom. And if this happens, then the whole area will benefit, said those who brought the center to Oconto Falls.
“There’s acknowledgement from the community that child care is not just about raising healthy, well-educated children; it’s also a workforce development issue,” said Alexa Priddy, Encompass’ director of fund development. “If you want a good, thriving community and a thriving workforce, child care is essential.”
The new center opens Monday at 650 E. Jackson St. in Oconto Falls. It will be Encompass' eighth center, joining locations in Green Bay, De Pere, Allouez and Pulaski.
Child care desert in Oconto County leads to unfilled jobs, early retirements
In much of Oconto County, the estimated demand for child care is five times the supply, said Jayme Sellen, the executive director of Tourism and Economic Development Corp. for the Oconto Region (formerly the Oconto County Economic Development Corp.).
There are only a handful of group child care centers in the county, none of which are in Oconto Falls. With the city’s median age being one of the youngest in the county, it’s ripe with young families and people wanting to start them, Sellen said.
“You’re looking at the area with the greatest need having the fewest resources,” Priddy said. “It just made so much sense (for a new Encompass location)."
Here, the familiar refrain comes into play. If parents work, they need child care. If their community has few options, they’ll travel to get it. If they’re already traveling for child care, they might as well work near their child care.
Sellen drew this connection in Oconto County. It has about 20,000 working-age residents, and over half of them leave the county for work — leaving unfilled jobs in Oconto County.
Some parents turn to family and friends to fill care gaps. While this can keep parents in the workforce, Sellen sees other ramifications.
“A lot of grandparents were taking early retirement to take care of their grandkids,” Sellen said. “So you’re not only losing talent, you’re losing legacy talent that has a lot of knowledge.”
Sellen realized something needed to be done.
Related: The new Wisconsin family? 1.7 kids, no picket fence and child care costs more than college
At the same time, Encompass had about $1 million set aside for expansion, its executive director Missy Schmeling said, and Kaempfer and Associates was looking to sell its Jackson Street building.
The engineering firm lowered its price for Encompass, and Oconto County Public Health dedicated $250,000 in pandemic-relief funds to the cause. This, a grant of the same amount from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., and support from organizations and individuals in Brown and Oconto counties made the new center possible.
“All of these little conversations happened and developed into something,” Schmeling said. “I’m most proud of the collaboration within the community … and we’re going to network and build on those collaborations with partners so that we can be as effective as possible.”
New Oconto Falls Encompass location hopes to fix this, propel community growth
At its maximum capacity, the new Oconto Falls center can serve 140 children. This will increase the county’s child care supply by 67%, Sellen said.
The children’s book comes around again: If you give a community quality child care, good things happen, Encompass leadership and Sellen said.
More families will live and work in the area. Early retirements will be kept at bay. Instead of a commute lasting an hour to 1½ hours, families will have more time to engage with each other and their community, Sellen said.
It’s not just short-term benefits, Schmeling and Priddy said. High-quality early education has long been linked to positive life outcomes that span generations — from boosting earnings to better physical health.
Overall, it’s a launchpad for community growth, Priddy said.
“You can’t grow a community without core infrastructure, and one of those pieces, especially for economic development, is child care,” she said.
Such a wide range of impacts is why Wisconsin Rural Partners, Inc. named the center 2024’s Top Rural Development Initiative.
“Early care and education programs that provide safe, healthy places for children to learn and grow, guided by dedicated professionals, can set the stage for lifelong success. Programs like Encompass of Oconto Falls have the opportunity to make a lifetime of difference in the lives of children and their families, especially in our rural communities,” the award's committee said in a statement.
Encompass works to ensure child care is affordable
But these points are moot if nearby care is not accessible. In a time when average care prices in Wisconsin can top those of college tuition, unaffordability is a main barrier that can lead to tough decisions, Schmeling said.
That’s why Encompass has its tuition assistance program, which considers a family’s household income when determining how much they will pay for care. Families attending the Oconto Falls center will also have access to this program.
“Those families who have experienced that are tremendously grateful to have high-quality care at a rate that they can afford, and it doesn’t break the bank,” Schmeling said. “(They don’t have to question) ‘Am I going to have to forgo food today? Am I going to get to pay the mortgage?’”
Families at the new center will also have access to Encompass’ Child and Family Advocate Program. Priddy said advocates work both one-on-one with children and with their families to help with a variety of concerns, whether that's helping to meet basic needs or to address behavioral or developmental concerns.
“That’s the great thing about Encompass; it’s really about the whole family, not just taking care of a kid for nine to 10 hours a day,” Sellen said.
Related: Takeaways from new report on Wisconsin child care: It’s expensive, hard to find and politicians can’t agree on what to do
More: Child care in Wisconsin can cost more than college. Why is it so expensive?
Early education advocates have long stressed that high-quality child care is a community need, not just one of individual families. The Oconto County community gets the message, as evidenced by the large outpouring of support for the new center, Schmeling and Priddy said.
Schmeling hopes the momentum will continue. As Oconto County families witness first-hand what the center offers, she hopes it also shows other communities what’s possible.
“We’re really going to elevate the families, the children and the educational opportunities in this community. That’s what I believe is going to happen, and I’m excited to be a part of it and see what that looks like,” she said.
To inquire about enrollment and to see if you qualify for tuition assistance, call Encompass at 920-469-1236.
Madison Lammert covers child care and early education across Wisconsin as a Report for America corps memberbased at The Appleton Post-Crescent.To contact her, emailmlammert@gannett.comor call 920-993-7108.Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy withatax-deductible gift to Report for Americaby visitingpostcrescent.com/RFA.
