Michelle Lawrie has spent the last 25 years working in economic development. In the last five of those, she has seen a distinct shift in focus from communities attracting employers to attracting employees.
“It’s all about attracting talent. That’s where everything is at,” says Lawrie, who has been executive director of Door County Economic Development Corporation since May 2022. “And when you talk about attracting workforce, all those other things come into play, like [lack of] housing and child care.”
In Door County, innovative endeavors are underway to solve both the county’s housing and child care shortages with the help of a $3.5 million Workforce Innovation Grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. United Way of Door County was awarded the grant in December 2021, and since then two child care centers have been able to expand.
Door Community Child Development Center in Sturgeon Bay was awarded $3 million of the grant funds to build a new 18,500-square-foot facility that will expand enrollment capacity by 45%. The center broke ground in March and will feature 10 classrooms with a capacity for 150 children, which should help put a dent in the center’s current waitlist of 100.
The new facility will be nearly three times the size of its current location and will include a commercial kitchen and leasable space. Amy Kohnle, Door County United Way executive director, says these amenities provide the center opportunities for alternative revenue streams.
“When we wrote that Workforce Innovation Grant, we really focused on the word ‘innovative’ and knowing that the child care business model was broken,” she says. “We wanted to figure out how we can create more revenue for these centers without putting the burden on the parents. The additional space at the new center could be rented to Head Start, for example.”
This is exactly the plan — the center will be adding Head Start, Early Head Start and a licensed school-age program for children ages 4 to 7. The center, which is slated to open January 2024, launched a capital campaign to raise the additional $3.3 million needed to complete the project.
Grant funds also helped Northern Door Children’s Center in Sister Bay expand with the addition of a retractable wall to create dedicated space for the 4K Community Collaborative Program and summer camps. The expansion enables the center to increase enrollment by about 40 children.
Kohnle says that the Door County Housing Partnership, which was a partner in the grant, purchased 10 lots from the village of Sister Bay for affordable housing adjacent to Northern Door Children’s Center.
The lots were purchased under a community land trust model.
“The first option to purchase will be for those early child care workers at Northern Door Children’s Center or our Gibraltar schoolteachers, because when we look at barriers to attracting workforce, housing is one of our big barriers,” Kohnle says. “We can pay our child care workers well and offer them benefits, but especially in Northern Door there’s nowhere for them to live. So building that affordable housing is really exciting.”
The creation of additional child care options is one piece of the puzzle; its affordability is another. In partnership with the Women’s Fund of Door County, Door County United Way is administering the Door County Child Care Benefit Pilot Program, which provides Door County employers the opportunity to offer a child care stipend to their income-eligible employees with matching funds provided by the Women’s Fund of Door County. The program is funded through a $100,000 grant the Women’s Fund received from the Ford Foundation. Full-time employees can receive up to a $300 monthly child care stipend.
Kohnle says the program has funding for 20 families each on a nine-month pilot and is targeting small, locally owned businesses.
“We are looking at our small, mom-and-pop businesses that typically do not offer a lot of benefits. This makes them feel really good to be able to support their employees,” she says. “We can start gathering that data to show employers that if there’s quality, consistent child care for employees, they will see better, consistent workers.”
Increasing youth engagement
Lawrie says youth engagement is a large focus of DCEDC’s 2023-25 strategic plan. The organization, along with the Northeast Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship program and CESA7, co-hosted the Door County High School Job Fair in March that featured 43 businesses and attracted more than 500 students.
In April, Kewaunee County Economic Development Corp. hosted its annual Ag Career Days, a hands-on opportunity for 7th and 8th grade students to explore agricultural careers. Approximately 950 students from Algoma, Denmark, Kewaunee, Luxemburg-Casco and Southern Door school districts participated in the event.
Agriculture is Kewaunee County’s largest industry sector, with a $669 million economic impact — $223 million of which comes from the dairy industry. Approximately 2,800 jobs in the county are tied to agriculture.
Ben Nelson, executive director of KCEDC, says one of the goals of the event is to demonstrate the vast array of agricultural careers that are available locally so that the community can retain young talent.
“When most people think of agriculture, they think of growing corn or growing cows. There’s a lot more to it in terms of the business and financials behind it,” Nelson says. “The technology that goes into it runs the gamut. A lot of our ag producers will say if you want a career in any field there’s an opportunity to do it in ag, and I don’t think students realize that.”
