CORALVILLE, IOWA (November 9, 2023) — The Iowa Women’s Foundation (IWF) is proud to host the 2023 Iowa Solutions Summit on December 6, 2023, 9AM-4:30PM at the Prairie Meadows Conference Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
The Solutions Summit will focus on child-care and feature six break-out sessions led by experts with tangible solutions to address child-care shortages, ranging from school district and business partnerships to wage-enhancement and on-site child-care programs.
In 2016, IWF identified access to child-care as the most crucial barrier to women’s self-sufficiency. There is a shortfall of 346,051 child-care spaces in Iowa at any given time, impacting local businesses, economies, and communities. Simply put, when parents can’t access child-care, they can’t go back to work.
IWF has received both state and national recognition for its efforts to combat the child-care desert and expand accessibility to affordable, quality child-care.
The upcoming Solutions Summit underscores and extends the IWF’s commitment to the child-care industry in past years, including:
- Partnering with business leaders across the state in 2018 to form the Iowa Business and Child Care Coalition (IBCCC).
- Spearheading the Building Community Child Care Solutions (BCCCS) collaborative.
- Serving a prominent role on Governor Kim Reynolds’ Child Care Task Force.
- Hiring a full-time Employer Engagement Director, Sheri Penney.
In her role, Penney has helped IWF reach more than 150 businesses and forty Economic Development/Chamber leaders across the state. This impact spans 70+ communities across 54 counties and continues to grow.
We know that child-care is critical to every community’s economic stability, so we encourage business and government leaders statewide to attend the 2023 Iowa Solutions Summit to hear from the experts, discover solutions that benefit all Iowans, and continue the momentum in creating a plan for your child-care needs.
To explore the agenda, see session details and register for early-bird tickets, visit iawf.org/summit.
About the Iowa Women’s Foundation:
The Iowa Women’s Foundation is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization committed to improving the lives of Iowa’s women and girls through a diversified mix of funding and action: research, grant-making, advocacy, education, and collaboration. To achieve its goals and make the most significant impact, IWF brings together and invests in organizations across Iowa that make women and girls more successful. IWF is the only statewide organization working to enhance and improve women’s economic self-sufficiency.
