Child Care Is Everyone’s Business: Planning for 2025 with Let’s Grow Kids

Join Let’s Grow Kids to learn what’s on the horizon in upcoming 2025 legislation session and opportunities to get – and stay – engaged!

Caregiving is the bedrock of Vermont’s economy and significantly impacts a business’s bottom line. Employees often face the tough choice of leaving their jobs for caregiving duties, while employers bear the high financial and cultural costs associated with employee turnover. This economic dynamic has a pronounced impact on gender equity as the majority of those leaving their careers to provide care are women. In Vermont, there's a notable 6% labor force participation gap between women and men.

The good news is the proof is in that public investment in child care is working! Through new public investment from Act 76, hundreds of child care spaces are being created, programs are increasing their ability to hire and retain staff, and families are gaining access to reduced child care costs. The Vermont Legislature's challenge in 2025 is to fulfill the commitment of Act 76, and expand workforce development pathways for early childhood educators. VBSR is committed to continuing its support and collaborative efforts with Let’s Grow Kids to achieve this goal.

In addition to a presentation from childcare advocates, we will conclude with a Q&A with forum participants. Thank you to our speakers!

• Sarah Kenney, Chief Policy Officer, Let's Grow Kids

• Emilie Tenenbaum, Chief of External Affairs and Strategy, Let's Grow Kids

• Beth Wallace, Associate Director Early Childhood Educator Engagement, Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children

Thank you to our sponsor!

Let’s Grow Kids is a nonprofit organization on a mission to ensure affordable access to high-quality child care for all Vermont families by 2025. With nearly 40,000 supporters from all walks of life, Let’s Grow Kids, in partnership with Let’s Grow Kids Action Network, is empowering Vermonters to advocate for sustainable child care policy change. Working together, we can build a child care system that meets the needs of Vermont children and families and supports a brighter future for us all.

Thank you to our speakers!

Sarah Kenney, Chief Policy Officer, Let's Grow Kids

Sarah grew up in a log home in the woods of Essex, VT. She went to St. Michael's College and then earned an MA from the University of Hawai’i. She returned to Vermont to work for then-Congressman Bernie Sanders before joining the movement to end domestic and sexual violence, working first at a sexual violence crisis center in Burlington and then doing statewide public policy regarding gender-based violence. She is a graduate of the Vermont Leadership Institute at the Snelling Center for Government. Sarah has served on a number of nonprofit boards and is active in local political campaigns, and served for ten years on the Burlington Police Commission. She lives in the Old North End of Burlington with her partner David, their teenaged son, and two cats who love to make surprise appearances in Zoom meetings.

Emilie Tenenbaum, Chief of External Affairs and Strategy, Let's Grow Kids

Emilie leads the campaign efforts for Let’s Grow Kids and the Let’s Grow Kids Action Network to secure access to high-quality, affordable child care for all Vermont families by 2025. Emilie grew up in Hartford, Vermont and recently returned home with her husband and two small children.

Emilie’s expertise focuses on creating and managing effective, results-driven fundraising operations and campaigns for state-wide initiatives and non-profit organizations with a strong emphasis on building coalitions with the public, non-profit and private sector. Emilie spent the past 14 years in New Orleans where she served as a senior consultant to Governor John Bel Edwards and to Rebuild Louisiana, a 501 (c)(4) focused on supporting the governor’s legislative agenda. Previously, she served as a director of investor relations for the New Orleans Business Alliance and director of development for the SBP, a non-profit disaster organization. Emilie worked with organizations as they recovered from Hurricane Katrina and learned firsthand the importance of taking bold action and making transformational investments in systems to build communities back better.

Outside of her work at LGK, Emilie hopes to get back to her love of cross-country skiing, hiking, and re-discovering the Green Mountain State through the eyes of her kids.

Beth Wallace, Associate Director Early Childhood Educator Engagement, Vermont Association for the Education of Young Children

Questions? If so, please contact Molly Rand at .

Host or Publisher Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR)