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April 7, 2025
FOX CITIES – Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) – a nonprofit that Executive Director Candy Hall said “exists to support families and childcare providers locally” – is teaming up with The Fox Valley Workforce Development Board (FVWDB) and Forward Service Corporation Career Center to help bolster the Northeast Wisconsin childcare workforce.
CCR&R and its partner organizations developed and recently launched the Road to Success program, which Hall said “is more inclusive” than other foundational childcare programs in the region.
“If you’re not going to go to a tech college (where you receive) credit-based learning (needed to work in a) childcare center or in a classroom – (then you need) to have what we call our foundational courses,” she said. “These courses were created by the Department of Children and Families in a way that makes it hard for everyone to participate sometimes, (because) there are barriers.”
Recognizing the barriers that existed within their own programs at the time, Hall said CCR&R’s team set out to make working in the childcare industry accessible to more people.
The main goal of the initiative, she said, is to provide participants with the education and support needed to begin careers in early childhood education – and in turn strengthening the early childhood education workforce.
Roadblocks: Training, retention
Right now, Hall said most foundational course programs offered – either at institutions of higher education or at one of the other eight “child care, resource and referral agencies” that exist across the state – are offered in a “blended” format.
“Some of the other (agencies) do in-person (programs), but that’s hard because they’re 50-hour courses, and there are three or four of them,” she said. “Fifty hours is a lot to do in person when you’re working full-time – things like that. So, most of us offer them blended, and that means they do most of it on the computer, then 15 hours of it is done either in-person face to face, or virtually face to face.”
Offering courses virtually, Hall said, removed roadblocks for some, but created new ones for others.
She said those who lack a stable internet connection or a computer rely on in-person instruction to complete the courses.
“Because these courses can’t be done on your phone, it makes it difficult for them to be a part of the courses that we currently offer,” she said. “Rural counties sometimes have unstable internet, which makes it hard to be a part of the (blended courses).”
Workforce retention, Hall said, has been another roadblock – in part due to a “huge increase in challenging behaviors.”
“Challenging behaviors have always been a thing with children,” she said. “It’s just part of working with children, but we have seen an increase in that – that’s the kind of feedback we’re getting from providers – that (it) is the hardest part of our job right now, and the main reason we are struggling to keep staff, other than wages are low, and things like that.”
Hall said existing childcare teachers have access to resources and trainings through the pyramid model – a framework used to promote social and emotional development; and with the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards – a framework used to help understand developmental expectations for children from birth to first grade.
“(But) by the time they’re asking for these trainings, they’re already frustrated,” she said.
With that in mind, Hall said CCR&R looked at how they could provide childcare teachers with foundational courses, add in those pyramid model ideas, early learning standards and some Strengthening Families (concepts).
Strengthening Families, Hall said, “is a prevention-type training that focuses on (the idea that) every family has strengths, regardless of what is happening in their life.”
One of the goals of the Road to Success program, Hall said, is to help future providers and teachers be prepared for the many challenges current regional childcare teachers report they are facing.
Program details
On top of rewriting the childcare education script, Hall said the Road to Success program is designed to be accessible to “providers who maybe don’t have access to our trainings any other way.”
On Tuesdays and Thursdays between April 15 and July 17, Hall said program participants will meet for eight-hour, in-person courses at Oshkosh Area United Way (located at 16 Washington Ave.).
“It’s (two) full days (a week) of getting to know each other, getting to know other people who are starting in the field, creating a cohort-type model in which they will get all of the courses that they need to work in a childcare center and hopefully have the skills to be successful,” she said.
Hall said participants will gain hands-on knowledge through courses including:
- CPR/AED
- Mandated reporter training
- Introduction to child care
- SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) training
- AHT (abusive head trauma) training
- Pyramid Model Strategies
- WMELS (Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards)
- Skills and strategies in child care
- Fundamentals of infant and toddler care
- Fundamentals of family child care
Additional support, such as child care and transportation assistance, Hall said, may also be available during the program.
“Also, if you decided that you wanted to start a family childcare (center), you could take this (program) and you would have (completed) the courses you would need to be able to start that licensing process,” she said.
Hall said for those looking to establish their own in-home center, the training portion of the process is the hardest to complete.
“Once (the training) is over, you would be able to start either (working in a) certified (facility) or go through the pre-licensing process if you wanted to do this in your home,” she said. “So, we’re really focusing on lower-income neighborhoods that have barriers – those with disabilities that might make working alone on a course online a little more difficult, or those who don’t speak English as their first language.”
To accommodate participants whose first language isn’t English, Hall said translation services will be made available.
Hall said all participants who complete the Road to Success program will be able to attend a graduation celebration – though an official date is not yet “set in stone” for this year’s ceremony.
“We’re hoping (to have) a mini job fair, if they’re looking to get into the field (right away),” she said. “We were (also hoping that), if they wanted to continue onto school, somebody from Fox Valley Tech(nical College) (or) Northwest Technical College (could be there) to be able to say, ‘Here’s your next steps.’”
At the time of her interview with The Business News, Hall said six people were in the Road to Success applicant process and 20 slots remained for the program.
“What we wanted to do was create something that filled their toolbox (and) created relationships with other people,” she said.
Those who complete the program also have access to a mentorship opportunity for up to six months of guidance and support from CCR&R’s Early Childhood Support Coordinator Emily Theiel.
To learn more about the program and its application process, visit ccrrfoxvalley.org.
