A ‘cyclical, community issue.’ How the childcare shortage is touching life in Northern Colorado

A national childcare shortage has its grip on Northern Colorado. It is affecting not only parents trying to hold down jobs, but also communities more broadly and local economies. The need is so great, in fact, that in February,  Larimer County had to freeze enrollment in its state-subsidized childcare program because it ran out of funds.

“Childcare is this cyclical, community issue, where we need a workforce for the childcare sector and we need the childcare sector for our workforce,” said Joy Sullivan, president of the United Way of Larimer County. “So it's this, mutually symbiotic relationship, so to speak, that we hear from employers all the time who cannot hire good staff because they can't find childcare.”

Sullivan is working to raise awareness about the cascading effects of the local childcare shortage and what needs to be done to ease the problem. In the first of a two-part series, Erin O’Toole sat down with Sullivan to get a better grasp on the issue.