Welcome to Peninsula Kids Now
Child care is essential. It supports working families, local businesses and our communities.
Right now, families across the Kenai Peninsula Borough find it hard to access child care. Programs are often full or unaffordable. Providers are closing or can’t find staff. The result? Parents are reducing work hours, leaving jobs or stepping away from the workforce entirely.
This shortage affects more than families. It impacts the entire region.
What It’s Costing Us
77%
of parents missed work in a recent three-month period due to child care issues.
$13m
in lost tax revenue.
$111m
in employer costs from absenteeism and turnover.
$165m
in lost economic potential statewide each year.
When parents can’t work, businesses can’t hire and communities lose energy and income.
Read data in a recent report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation to learn more.
A Community Problem Requires a Community Response
When families can’t access care, it limits who can work and how businesses operate. It also prevents young children from receiving quality care during their formative years.
Local voices — parents, providers, employers and civic leaders — are starting to talk about what it would take to build a system that works better.
Why now?
Without action, the gap in care will keep growing. Families will continue to leave jobs or leave the region. Businesses will keep struggling to find workers. And kids will miss out on key early learning.
The Kenai Peninsula is full of people who care deeply about where we’re headed. That’s why now is the time to have the conversation.
Peninsula Kids Now is here to share stories, local data and potential solutions. We’re creating opportunities for borough residents to learn, ask questions and explore what’s possible, together.