Testimonials

Hear From Our Partners

MACI LOCKE

Caterpillar Corner, Oklahoma

OK Shared Services and local coaching have impacted the work of child care in my state by giving me the resources in order to succeed. When I first started my child care business I wasn’t really sure of all the ins and outs. I had been doing child care for years, but never really dealt with the business side of things. Having the resources to put together my handbook and get my finances in order have been the best features!

When I began the process of expanding into a large home, I was struggling to find reliable, trustworthy teacher assistants to help me maintain ratio and keep up with all the craziness of working at a home daycare, especially with the cost of posting on sites like Indeed. My small Facebook post was not doing the work I needed. Using OK Shared Services, I was able to use their Acquire4Hire feature and create a job posting and received over 50 applicants for my open position! I ended up hiring a full time assistant and a part time assistant thanks to this feature alone.

 OK Shared Services is also a big help with keeping up my 5 Star Rating using helpful resources for engaging with parents. They also have a great guide in setting up parent teacher conferences which has been my biggest struggle with getting parents involved in their child’s education. There are many helpful tools that give me the resources to show parents their child’s progress and show why my program is not just babysitting, but beneficial to their child’s development.

MIKELLA RODRIGUEZ

Throughout my time as a coach, I have been able to provide assistance

to my providers who need to update their methods/recordkeeping. Handbooks, enrollment forms, job listings, etc. Having the Provider Resource Hub to help me find tools for my providers has been great and made me feel more prepared and equipped.

My hands on business coaching and the platform resources are changing so much for our providers. It's great to see the growth in confidence over time. Providers who were not enforcing their own policies and losing money, have grown to where they now are fully prepared to protect themselves and their time. Policy forms are now up to date and parents are well aware of the fees. The platform and coaching has given them the shield to protect themselves from anything that comes their way. Sometimes, as a small business, it can become easy to be too lenient and comfortable. Providers sometimes see themselves only as "helping hands" and not a business. Late pick-ups, parents not paying on time, short comings on payments. These things can easily slip through and be forgotten. Next thing you know, $500 in late fees are racked up or a parent's weekly tuition isn't collected and then too much time goes by to be collected. Coaching helps them become organized and prepared ahead of time and the Provider Resource Hub helps create professional forms to protect them (and much more).

JAMIE SIMPSON

Elise Epane was a newly licensed family child care business owner that moved from another country and needed assistance with boosting her enrollment and guidance on what to do after interviewing new families. After attending trainings and learning about the many resources on the Provider Resource Hub, she created a logo, using the free logo maker, customized her handbook using the Family Child Care Handbook Template and began marketing using social media. Since that time, she consistently enforces her policies in her handbook, uses social media and maintains  full enrollment.

SHELLEY SUMMER & LESLIE LATIMER

In response to a recent survey question asking, “What has Palmetto Shared Services Alliance (PSSA) done well this year,” a provider answered, “Just being there for us and offering support and resources is phenomenal! We know we have someone reputable to contact if we need something.”  We think this sums up what PSSA has become to providers in South Carolina, a trusted partner in a difficult space.

A large part of the respect and trust that the providers have placed in us is derived from the high-quality resources available on the Palmetto Shared Services Alliance resource platform. Over and over they tell us that they wish they had found us sooner.  Now with our new full partnership contract with South Carolina Child Care, our state licensing agency, making access to the platform free for providers, everyone will know to contact us on day 1! The PSSA story is one defined by patience. We waited patiently, and never stopped letting our partners know about our successes and now the payoff is HUGE!

BRIANNA CAMBRA

In Nevada, early care and education professionals are supported through a collaborative project, the Strong Start Child Care Services Centers (CCSC). The goal of the service centers is to create a one-stop-shop of resources and community partners that can assist early care and education professionals in opening their business, increasing their quality, applying for grants, and accessing professional development resources.

Nevada is proud to offer the platform and its suite of resources to our early care and education professionals at no cost. Two strategies we focused on to create platform engagement were to embed access to essential supply grants within the platform (creating a way for providers to access PPE products using grant funds – no waiting for reimbursement) and second, connecting child care providers who are in the process of becoming licensed with access to the site. Through our community partners, we were able to reach providers who are beginning their businesses. The shared service site allowed us a quick and easy way to connect these individuals with HR tools, including interview questions, employee handbooks, and our very popular job board. These strategies proved to be very successful and the majority of users that signed up for the platform are still actively engaged!

ROBIN JONES & DENIECE HONEYCUTT

From the beginning of Arkansas’s shared services platform, partnerships were an essential piece of the work. The license for the AR Resource Connections website was secured by Early Care and Education Projects (ECEP) in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas with funds from the Arkansas Department of Education, Office of Early Childhood (OEC).

In collaboration with the Office of Early Childhood, ECEP created the Licensing Best Practices Toolkit to be housed on the shared services site. The toolkit walks providers through each section of Arkansas’s minimum licensing requirements for child care centers and family homes to support programs with best practices. To maintain quality care for children, early childhood professionals must have easy access to tools, resources, and supporting materials. The guiding principle of AR Resource Connections is to support providers in providing quality care to children. The Licensing Best Practices Toolkit is a robust tool that supports the Arkansas workforce to provide the best care.