Business Innovation in Child Care Spotlight: Unified Early Learning System
Groundwork Ohio, in partnership with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, has released a new resource, Business Innovation in Child Care: Case Studies Across Ohio, highlighting how businesses across the state are advancing child care solutions for their employees and communities. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be spotlighting these efforts—sharing real examples of how employers are stepping up to support working families and strengthen Ohio’s workforce and economy.
The Unified Early Learning System is an extension of work by Akron area civic leaders dating back to 2017 to increase the number of children who start kindergarten fully ready to learn. When Akron Mayor Shammas Malik was elected in 2023, he wanted to build on those efforts, noting the critical importance of quality, affordable child care to economic development. Phase 1 of the initiative is a $950,000 effort and focuses on:
Business and leadership development aimed at helping child care providers improve their operations, and professional development designed to ensure early educators have the skills they need, particularly in literacy;
Improved wraparound support for families and children, especially early intervention services;
Evaluation around quality of early learning at the eight pilot child care programs, including home-based and center-based care from infants to entry to kindergarten.
Multiple community organizations are serving as system vendors, providing supportive services and training. They include the University of Akron, Akron Urban League, Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority, Summit County Developmental Disabilities Board, Summit Education Initiative, and United Way of Summit and Medina’s Center for Immersive Leadership.
Phase II of the initiative will begin in Fall 2026 and will involve additional child care programs.
Funders for Phase 1 include: the City of Akron ($300,000); the GAR Foundation ($200,000); the Akron Community Foundation ($100,000); and Summit County ($50,000). The Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce is soliciting donations from members. In February 2026, the City of Akron received a $10,000 grant from the U.S. Conference of Mayors along with matching funding from The Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce and the Early Childhood Resource Center to support building a Child Care Business Accelerator, the arm to scale business and technical support to child care programs.
