Major partnership announces effort to tackle Sioux Falls child care crisis

Grant to foster business training program to get more entrepreneurs into industry

Corri Poore entered the child care field for the same reason many do: the birth of his own child.

“He was born, and it just seemed like the right thing to do to give him the best experience possible when it came to his early childhood years,” he said. “I was totally an amateur, but that was the vision behind it all.”

Then came his twins, “who are now 13, and I obviously wanted to provide the same thing for them,” he said.

Along the way, he has gone from an in-home child care provider to the owner of three Little Tykes University locations throughout Sioux Falls – and a vision for an even bigger presence.

“My original number for financial independence was I needed to see 100 children come through my doors,” Poore said. “I haven’t hit it yet, but we’re rushing at that goal and have all the capacity in the world to do that and then some.”

A group of community organizations and nonprofits is hoping the Sioux Falls area is filled with dozens more aspiring entrepreneurs such as Poore.

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After receiving a $31,500 planning grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development funded through federal pandemic-related relief money, the following entities are banding together to tackle new solutions for a persistent problem:

• Startup Sioux Falls

• Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota

• Helpline Center

• Sioux Falls Thrive/Childcare Collaborative

• City of Sioux Falls

• Sioux Falls Development Foundation

The request from GOED, which is positioned to fund an implementation phase for the group if approved, was “to partner with multiple agencies, brainstorm, come up with ideas, and as part of that, GOED said economic development organizations were the preferred applicant,” said Mike Gray, director of business development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

The partners are tackling multiple efforts such as programming to provide business training for entrepreneurs, including multilingual entrepreneurs, and improved technology to allow the Helpline Center to better monitor availability at existing child care providers.

The plans are based on some of the recommendations in a report produced by Sioux Falls Thrive and the area Childcare Collaborative.

Entrepreneurs would be able to participate in a specially designed version of the CO.STARTERS program offered by Startup Sioux Falls or a similar program that would be tailored through LSS to address the unique needs of multilingual founders.

“We think it really provides people with a foundation for starting a business,” said Sara Lum, vice president of Startup Sioux Falls, calling the training for child care founders “one of the missing pieces in our ecosystems.”

During both a shorter boot camp and the 10-week accelerator, entrepreneurs would learn business fundamentals in addition to the more specific guidance needed in child care – everything from state licensing to city regulations.