How many sleepless nights have you spent worrying about childcare? It's a struggle that Angel Berry, co-founder of the non-profit organization A Million Dreamz, knows all too well. As a single mother, she faced the daunting task of finding affordable, accessible childcare – a challenge that inspired her to revolutionize the industry.
In our recent conversation, Angel and her co-founder Nena Bemis share their innovative approach to childcare. They turn the traditional model on its head, offering flexible scheduling, payment options, and even nighttime care. But their work goes beyond just providing a service. They're making waves in the industry, pushing back against the "benefit cliff" and the childcare crisis that leaves low-income families trapped in a cycle of poverty. By making childcare accessible and affordable, they're not just helping families – they're strengthening entire communities.
But what about the kids? Our guest, a director of an early childhood education center, reminds us that childcare isn't just about babysitting – it's about education. They debunk common misconceptions, highlighting the professionalism and qualifications of their staff. They also underscore the impact of early interactions on a child's language learning and brain development. Tune in and learn why we all need to be advocates for child care!
This episode was rerun as 1 of the top 3 BEST You Betcha She Did episodes in 2023.
How many sleepless nights have you spent worrying about childcare? It's a struggle that Angel Berry, co-founder of the non-profit organization A Million Dreamz, knows all too well. As a single mother, she faced the daunting task of finding affordable, accessible childcare – a challenge that inspired her to revolutionize the industry.
In our recent conversation, Angel and her co-founder Nena Bemis share their innovative approach to childcare. They turn the traditional model on its head, offering flexible scheduling, payment options, and even nighttime care. But their work goes beyond just providing a service. They're making waves in the industry, pushing back against the "benefit cliff" and the childcare crisis that leaves low-income families trapped in a cycle of poverty. By making childcare accessible and affordable, they're not just helping families – they're strengthening entire communities.
But what about the kids? Our guest, a director of an early childhood education center, reminds us that childcare isn't just about babysitting – it's about education. They debunk common misconceptions, highlighting the professionalism and qualifications of their staff. They also underscore the impact of early interactions on a child's language learning and brain development. Tune in and learn why we all need to be advocates for child care!
This episode was rerun as 1 of the top 3 BEST You Betcha She Did episodes in 2023.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of you Betcha Sheeted.
Speaker 1:
The podcasts were really rad. Females, especially from the Midwest, share their wit and wisdom. I'm your host, raina Rikiki. We continue our series today of the all-time top three episodes from the you Betcha Sheeted archives. I am very, very excited about our guest. She is my newest, latest, greatest hero for all parents everywhere. I think after you hear the episode, you're going to feel the exact same way.
Speaker 1:
My guest today is Angel Berry, co-founder of the Daycare A Million Dreams, and before you start to shift your mind to what Daycare means, I want you to wipe that slate clean. What Angel Berry has in mind for Million Dreams is very different from the Daycare that you and I maybe grew up going to or were used to as parents. If you are a parent to be, you're definitely going to want to listen in. Angel Berry is revolutionizing the way we look at Daycare, and for all the right reasons. She is looking at childcare as a service to families. She is looking at providing Daycare 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is exactly what families need, not only to help them secure the jobs that they want, but to help them secure their economic future. I hope you're going to be as excited as I am.
Speaker 1:
So, without further ado, let's dive into today's episode. Did she really do that, you, betcha? She did. Hello, and welcome back to another episode of you, betcha, she Did. Where Wisconsin entrepreneurs, changemakers and women leaders come to share their wit and wisdom. I'm your host, reina Rikiki. Today, I'm honored to have Angel Berry here. She is one of the co-founders of A Million Dreams, an innovative Daycare Childcare Center in Sheboygan. Now you might have heard some of the hubbub about this Daycare Childcare place. It's not your usual daycare and it is exactly what working parents need. So, angel, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm so glad you're here. So let's start off just explaining what A Million Dreams is in terms of childcare and how it's different from what we might normally think of.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So we're doing things a little bit differently over A Million Dreams in regards to early childhood education. The system that was set up in the 70s is still the general system that's used today, but we've learned so much more about brain development and quality early childhood education that it really needs a big change. So at A Million Dreams, we have kind of flipped the script and we look at it as a service to families rather than a business model for a capitalist point of situation. So, as a non-profit, we look at what services the families need, how we can offer those, and then it's my job to figure out the money on the other end.
Speaker 2:
So some of the things that we do differently start with our scheduling. We are working towards being open 24-7, 365. We will be the first of the state to do that, and it's really about meeting families where they're at and what their needs are as far as their hours. In addition to that, there are flexible schedules and you only pay for when your child is in school. So instead of having flat rates, full-time or part-time, and if you only need four hours on a Wednesday afternoon, you're paying for 20, we don't do that. We literally only charge for when your family is there.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that is amazing for real. That is crazy because I have two kiddos and at one point I was looking at childcare and it was very inflexible to what I needed. And it's not their fault, it's not the way the system was set up, but to be able to have like yeah, you're like I just need four hours on Wednesday night so I can go to this class or I have this training to do and I only need to pay for that, I mean that's awesome. That is exactly what families need. And you know, it's like we don't have anything like that and it's I mean, when you think about it, it's kind of amazing, like how come we don't have childcare like this? So I'm so glad you and your co-founder are working to make this a reality. Where did you come up with the idea? Like were you inspired by another childcare place or this is something like that is personal to you, and you're like we need to solve this problem.
Speaker 2:
I've always wanted to do childcare, ever since I was about 12 years old, and I've kind of come back to it and walked away from it for numerous reasons throughout my life.
Speaker 2:
But over 20 years ago I found myself with a forced single mom, and I had two kids, and then finding childcare was a real struggle, and so trying to balance going to school to better our family and working at the same time, I found myself in a situation that many families find themselves where I couldn't find accessible childcare.
Speaker 2:
My oldest son is on the autism spectrum, so it was really challenging to find a childcare location that would care for him and then work around my schedule, and so I was very, very fortunate because I had a wonderful woman who, ironically, came into my life and stuck around and helped me with my kids, and so I ended up with this extremely affordable nanny who just kind of moved in and loved on us and helped me make it through those years.
Speaker 2:
That's not a reality for most anybody, and so meeting the needs of families like mine is always something that even the nanny, rosie, and I talked about 20 years ago about how there's no nighttime care and to be affordable for families and for moms. So fast forward and I did childcare in my house for 10 years and so I did all of these things already on a smaller scale, with flexible schedules and just paying for the times that you were there and working with all of those, but I'm only one person, so I couldn't it couldn't possibly meet all the needs. My co-founder, nanna Pimas, was a client and then a friend, and she said I've got some dreams and you've got some dreams and I think we'll go really well together, so let's do this.
Speaker 1:
Let's make this happen. Let's make this a reality.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely so. The two of us put it all together. We had a corporate dinner, nonprofit, in 2019. We had a bit of a false start on a separate building and a separate plan. That didn't work out, and we started over with the former Chewbacca and Christian School on the North side and finally opened March North with this year.
Speaker 1:
Well, congratulations, I know. I mean not only was it your dream, but it's so many mothers and fathers' dreams, to have this option of a flexible, affordable childcare and that also caters to kids with special needs too. Because, like you said, if you have a child who has some different circumstances, it can be really challenging to find care and to care that's affordable, and at the same time you need to be able to work to pay bills, to make things happen. And if childcare is that obstacle in the way, that doesn't make it easier. You know it's like throughout the pandemic.
Speaker 1:
I was just listening to news story over news story, all about how mothers were leaving the workforce because kids weren't in school, because of COVID, or else people had to work from home and whatnot, and childcare was such a huge issue and so often people had to leave their jobs in order to take care of the children. And people are returning to work, which is good, but there is a lack of childcare. I mean, it's been in the news over and over again there's not enough childcare. It's not affordable enough. I was just doing a little research before we started talking and it talked about how the cost of childcare can run from 8% to 19% of a family's income and that's a huge chunk Depends if you're, you know where you're located, if it's a big city, a small city, but you know it can be up to $17,000 a year. I mean, that is not a lot of people have that much money. So this is a big, big step forward and a big relief for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:
What's been the reception so far? Have a lot of people jumped on board? Are you guys full already?
Speaker 2:
It has been great. We have gotten a lot of support, particularly from families who understand this. We, like I said, we opened on March 1st and we started with our first four classrooms. Our building is still in construction, so we're actually opening a second section of one this month. Oh, congratulations, thank you. That'll bring three more classrooms and eventually we'll have 12 classrooms, and so we are pretty cool. We have a little bit more staff than we need and we are still hiring because we're expanding, so that hasn't gone to big places that we thought it would be hiring additional staff, and we actually still have 328 children on our waitlist today. The kids are there. The kids are definitely in need of somewhere to go. I don't think we're going to run out of children that are going to need care for a quite long time.
Speaker 1:
I don't think so either. I know You're solving a lot of people's problem, a big problem.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, the affordability that you talked about. I'd love to know where you got that stat. I know that the program with the State of Wisconsin called Wisconsin Stairs that helps share the cost of child care for low-income families. They maintain the cost at about 20% or just below 20% of a family's income, but that only goes up to 200% of federal poverty level, so it's not enough For anybody who has access to benefits from the state.
Speaker 2:
You will be familiar with the term the benefit cliff, and this is where you suddenly get a raise $0.10 an hour, $0.25 an hour and you make too much money and you fall off this benefit cliff and suddenly you get nothing. And so a family with a couple of kids may be paying $3, $4 an hour and maybe only they're paying $14 for the two kids because they got a 10-point raise. It's tragic and it's terrifying for families that are on benefits to attempt to do better, and I lived there when my kids were little. I actually took a job at one point in time while I was in college and I said I would love to take this job, but you're gonna need $2 less in all. I couldn't afford to lose my benefits.
Speaker 1:
Do you know, is there any I don't know like legislation in the works or attempts to make legislation to bridge that gap where it's like you either get benefits or, if you just make over that, like there should be another step within that. Like, okay, you get paid a little more, but you still get benefits, but maybe a little less, instead of like now there's no benefits, good luck.
Speaker 2:
Well, I absolutely agree with you. Isn't anything in legislature that I'm aware of that's addressing this benefit cliff? But in a million dreams we are. We have a flex rate program and it is intended for families that cannot access Wisconsin shares because they make a little bit too much money. And so we pick up with the same algorithm. We keep it at about, or just below, 20% of your income, so it's not really really cheap childcare, but it's affordable.
Speaker 2:
And we pick up about 2.1% of the federal poverty level and we go all the way up to 675%, and so we are building that bridge towards financial independence that the state hasn't built yet so far. We have a family on there, a mother with three kids, who took her part-time job and turned it into a full-time job and she worked overtime, and so they're getting out of the kind of the bubble of poverty that they were stuck in. I have another family that was able to take a managerial position that she had to turn down before because occasionally she needs to work extra hours and that wasn't available for her in childcare. It's neat to see people already, in just the short three months, who will take advantage of that program to work to better their family and get off of all of that state help which really helps everybody Definitely the economy, the tax base.
Speaker 1:
Exactly that family's economic future too, because as they can start earning more money over the years it just grows exponentially or adds up into your retirement or whatever benefits you might have. But it's like the sooner you can do that because you have access to childcare, the better off you're gonna be later on, and I think that's man. I'm so glad you're bringing this up, because these are the issues that maybe aren't talked about enough and that really holds especially women back from earning what they could be earning, because they do make sacrifices for their family.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. I continue to talk with people and when you brought up earlier the pandemic, bringing the childcare crisis to the forefront, I continue to ask people to keep talking about it, because it wasn't new with COVID and it hasn't gone away, and normally what we're seeing is a lot of support for early childhood education in the fact that people say this is needed but nobody's really doing anything about it, and the people who have their fingers in the industry are still working with bandits. They're trying to fix a very broken system and it's just not working. So I really think that it needs to be dramatically different from what it has been for the past 40 years and we need to turn it into something that, as a community, we can all get behind and support, because it is a community issue. Even if you don't have children, the person next to you at work who can't make it half the time that affects you, you know. So it's definitely a community issue that we all need to get behind.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, I love how you stated that, because it's I don't know 100% correct. It does affect everyone. It affects the people you work with. When you go to a store and you need services or a shop or you're getting your car repaired, it's like, well, they might not be able to work because they don't have the childcare they're dealing with an issue right now. So, in order to make our society function and to get people out of poverty, instead of trying to keep them in there by punishing them, it's like we need to do this. We need to have childcare that solves those issues. Are you working with any other child care centers, like throughout Wisconsin or the US, to kind of push? I know I can only imagine that your hands are extremely busy right now and you're probably a little overwhelmed, but I'm just so excited about this idea that I was like, oh, we need you to keep talking to, you know more people and other centers so we can get this idea going. You know yes.
Speaker 2:
I agree, and the short answer to your question was not yet, you know, we have these ideas and we are fleshing them out and we're working with them and we'll be kind of solidifying how that works on a grander scale. Obviously, I've done a lot of these things in my home, but that was, you know, a handful of families, and so we are working towards making everything that we do duplicatable, because it's not about a million dreams being, you know, the best place and the only place we want to be the best place, but then we want to share that with everybody, and so a lot of the things that we're doing is intended to grow and expand and include more and more as we grow. I'm hoping that I will be called in to consult, to help other people do some of these things someday, and and we're starting local, because that's me, we're starting local and so, as we're expanding, one of the things that we're doing is everything that we can to get people to give this industry a trial. When you talk about teachers in early childhood education, the one thing that they will say, prime and time again, as the most aggravating part of their job is that they're not baby fathers, and so there's still this huge misunderstanding that the people working with your children, your most precious things in life, are just watching them for the day. But in an early childhood education center like a million dreams and like most of them out there, there are professionals, we have teachers with master's degrees and we have teachers that are working in the court time by us, that teach in the school district, and it's about the education that you get, even when you're six months old. I mean, that's really important, and the more we learn about brain development, the more we know that giving children quality early childhood education before their six years old is the most important part of brain development.
Speaker 2:
I use this example often. I learned something in a class and I called my mom and I thanked her for rolling her tongue at me when I was a child and making that sound, because I'm able to roll my Rs, so I could learn to speak Spanish fluently if I were good at picking up languages, which I'm not. But a lot of people can't do that and it's something that is because they were or were not exposed to it before they were six. So you can't learn it in high school if you didn't have that sound At a million dreams we have different languages, we have story time with different languages. My co-founder is actually from Croatia and so her children are all bilingual Excuse me, bilingual. So that's really exciting because we get to have that exchange of different sounds and languages and know to help. And I completely digressed.
Speaker 1:
No, I love it, though, just like things. It's true, a lot of people underestimate the value of early childhood interactions, how you need to interact with babies and toddlers, and there's so much science behind it. And the people who do watch your kids are professionals, like you said. They've been trained, they have countless hours, they got to keep getting training and they probably know more more than the parents do. Right in terms of like, what's a developmentally appropriate and what should we be working on at this stage and as a society we we definitely need to value that more.
Speaker 1:
Speaking of a million dreams, is there anything from the community that you might need in terms of support or resources or supplies?
Speaker 2:
What we are very grateful for our supporters. We actually just had one of the deep dive groups at the Chamber of Commerce had done some donation boxes around town and they just got delivered yesterday. That was really exciting toys and for babies, and blankets and bubbles and office supplies so those are always welcome. We are getting all of our wipes from Rockline, so I really appreciate that because that's something we don't have to have the family bring in and it's not an usual cost for us. We are working with baby to baby out of California and so we are able to supply all the diapers that our families need while they're in care, which is a huge expense, so we're super grateful for that.
Speaker 2:
What I most need from the community right now is financial support and that's for our capital campaign. As a business, we're gonna be okay. We have programs that we will continue to look for funding in the future as we expand them, obviously, but our capital campaign to finish our construction is still in need of almost a million dollars, and so I need those corporations that we get to send people to for jobs off shift and weekends. We're helping them get employees. We need them to help us have enough space to meet the needs of those 328 children on our week list.
Speaker 1:
Is there information about the capital campaign on your website? Because I'm just thinking of things I can link in the show notes for people.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely. There's a whole page on the capital campaign.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So yeah, I will definitely have that in the show notes for people to access. So please consider donating or talking to if you work at a business, that's larger or small. I mean that's something you can definitely bring up, especially even if you don't have kids. You know it's gonna help the community out it sure is.
Speaker 2:
I did think of us and I wanted to come back to a point that I was making about professionalism and education. So we're doing several things to bring people into the industry. We are the first in the area to offer ECE apprenticeships through LPC. So, working with Lakeshore Technical College and their early childhood education department, along with the Department of Workforce Development, we now have the ability to offer apprenticeships where you can get paid to go to school and have a job and run on the job while you're learning at school and getting into the business industry.
Speaker 2:
We also do everything that we can to offer those starter classes on the background check quickly. We have a local law firm that is responsible for having those background checks for us, and Olson Cloit and Gunderson, sorry to remember so we can get people into this industry if it's something that you think you might wanna try, without having a big financial outcry. And then, as we expand and as we grow, we're gonna offer continuing education to our staff for free. It's required legally, but for education means better quality here, and so once we get there, we wanna invite everybody else's employees and the county to come and get that education for free as well, because that means better education, better care for everybody in the county, regardless of which center you choose to go to.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. We already know you have a waiting list. But if families are interested in getting on that waiting list or joining at some point in the future, what steps should they take?
Speaker 2:
Absolutely the easiest way to get on the wait list is on our website at EmillianDreamsorg. On there you can fill out the information that we need to add you to the wait list. There's no free to do that. You can hold the wait list at any time, and when we get to your name then we will give you a call and start the enrollment process.
Speaker 1:
Well, it sounds really easy. It's like there's no reason not to get on that wait list, especially if you are in need of childcare. At EmillianDreams, it goes from ages zero to is it 17 years of age?
Speaker 2:
right, it is 17, and we are the only licensed center in the state that goes up to 17.
Speaker 2:
Prior to that, the older type of leave is 14.
Speaker 2:
The reason that we do that is because we are 100% inclusive, and so we try to meet the needs of every child, regardless of a disability or challenging behavior.
Speaker 2:
My oldest one, like I said earlier, is on the autism spectrum, my co-founders oldest and my most on the autism spectrum, so we really understand the challenge when you have kids with differing abilities to find quality care, and so we have set up EmillianDreams. To be accessible, we're currently right now building a way for the front door and then creating a space inside that's inclusive, so that each child, regardless of a disability or a challenging behavior, gets to have access to the same quality care as everybody else, which just makes sense, and so we do. We hire additional staff to support that Again, a program that will heavily need funding someday, but right now we're hanging in on it. But we do have about 30% of our pros right now have some level of extra need, and that can go anywhere from a food allergy up to a severe disability. So we're really happy to be able to have those pros come to the center as well.
Speaker 1:
I mean everybody's happy about that, especially the parents. Holy cow opens a lot of doors.
Speaker 2:
It sure does.
Speaker 1:
Is there anything else you'd like to mention or promote before we go today?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I would say keep talking about early childhood education, keep talking about potential solutions At a Million Dreams. We don't have all of the solutions. We're still not paying our staff enough. Nobody is, and they definitely deserve more. But keep the conversation going. Talk to people who are in positions to make a difference, whether it's your teacher for your two year old all the way up to the governor, who you've given on this conversation and keep it going. Don't let it die because it's not solved yet.
Speaker 1:
No, yeah, it's a long way from being solved. This is a really good step in the right direction, but I agree, the problem's not gonna go away anytime soon and the more we talk about it, the closer we're gonna get. Absolutely so, Angel, thank you again for being on the show. Thank you for pushing our way forward in the right direction for child care and supporting families, because this is exactly what we need. As I mentioned earlier, if you want to get in touch with Angel and learn more about a million dreams child care, please check the show notes. I'll have all of the relevant links there, as always. If you like the show, if you like what you're hearing, please share it. Please do not gatehold this episode. If you know someone who has a child care issue that needs to be solved, please send them this episode. Until next time, take care. And now a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1:
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