Local organizations created a mission statement for addressing the lack of child care in the county.
Central Missouri Community Action (CMCA) members reconvened with the local groups and businesses to discuss what to do moving forward for its "Show Me Strong Communities" conversation, a follow-up to its Data Walk event held in April.
During the CMCA's Data Walk, representatives from entities such as the California Police Department, Burgers Smokehouse, the Moniteau Regional Economic Development Council (MRED) and others evaluated variables related to Moniteau County.
In a previous Democrat article, CMCA Community Organizer Jenn Millard explained this is part of a process analyzing the area's growth as well as where it can make improvements.
"Every three years CMCA performs a community assessment within areas of Central Missouri -- focusing on housing, education, health and nutrition, employment, income and social characteristics," the Democrat wrote.
A consensus of attendees who participated in the Data Walk agreed the issue that requires the most attention from the county is the lack of available child care. Moniteau County is an area in need of 50 child care spots or more, otherwise known as a "child care desert." MRED first took note of this issue and alerted the CMCA of the problem as well.
Within the coming months, the CMCA will frequently come back to the area to plan out how the county can improve or resolve this issue. The goal of the organization is to create a flexible plan alongside local entities to establish measurable change.
CMCA presented a "General Timeline of the Project" including steps such as "data collection and analysis," "needs prioritization," "community planning" and "plan implementation" and a timeline of community planning meetings. The organization emphasized during these meetings attendees will create result statements, see what other entities the county can partner with to address this issue, evaluate data explaining why available child care is so low in the community, figure out what works and how to address the cause of the problem and outline a plan of action to implement a solution.
CMCA members stressed cohesion and collaboration in the community for its vision for the future. Although individuals may agree on a problem and a solution, moving from point A to point B might look different from one person to another.
Attendees were asked to each write a "result statement," a goal or mission for the community, with those seated at their respective tables. Participants wrote out three separate statements, each revolving around the subject of quality care.
"All persons zero to 100 in Moniteau County will have safe and reliable care available at all times."
"All children in Moniteau County have access to safe and affordable health care."
"All families in Moniteau County have access to affordable, reliable and safe child care."
Attendees then workshopped their statements into one. They discussed how families are facing difficulties receiving the required care for children during work hours. Ultimately, they decided on the statement, "All families in Moniteau have access to quality child care" as their mission statement.
CMCA director of research and data Melody Vieth emphasized this is part of its "Results Based Accountability" portion of the discussion. She said it is a structured way of moving from talking about the problem to taking action about the problem. According to Vieth, this allows for flexibility -- as every single piece of the plan is designed by participants from the community.
Another element of this process also refers to "data indicators," which are points that measure the community's progress toward reaching a solution or result to a given problem. In this discussion, the result is the condition of well-being for children, adults, families or communities.
Veith said CMCA's next meeting will evaluate which partners it can work with to help introduce available and quality child care into the county. This includes child care providers, families, employers and existing members involved with the CMCA.