Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Childcare And Workforce topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
EDA highlights Guiding Light daycare launch and workforce gaps: 42 slots created, but child care and workers remain scarce
Summary
Hutchinson EDA helped fund Guiding Light daycare (42 new slots) via a mix of EDA funds, a $40,000 state grant and partner contributions; Seold said the community still faces a shortage of about 300 childcare slots and reported more than 100 open jobs in the city.
Miles Seold, the city’s economic development director, said the EDA played a lead role in launching Guiding Light early learning center in 2025 by coordinating fundraising and grants.
Seold said the project required about $80,000 to start and the EDA helped assemble those funds, including a $40,000 state grant and contributions from the Southwest Initiative Foundation and other partners. He said Guiding Light opened with 42 new child care slots and the EDA is now encouraging enrollment so the center reaches capacity.
The EDA also administers a slot‑based startup grant program designed to spur additional child care providers; Seold said the program awards up to $225 per child care slot created (capped at $15,000 per applicant). In 2025 the EDA awarded four grants that totaled over $16,000 to help create new slots in town.
On workforce, Seold emphasized a persistent local labor shortage: "Right now I have over a hundred jobs open that I cannot get filled," he said, and estimated the community needs roughly another 300 child care slots to meet demand. Seold highlighted the EDA’s Women to Workforce internship, which helped recruit more young women into career and technical education at Hutchinson High School and aims to build a pipeline to local employers.
Seold identified priorities for 2026 as continuing to develop skilled workforce pipelines, facilitating the creation of more child care businesses, and expanding housing availability to support job growth.
Next steps: continue grant awards and outreach to expand child care capacity, scale workforce internships and pursue grant writing to fund these initiatives.
