Buffalo Child Care Means Business: Full Study Report

Excerpt] Buffalo Child Care Means Business presents the economic and business case for making Buffalo's children the focus of economic development. The 2006 survey of 117 businesses located in downtown Buffalo, New York, documents the business sector's present and projected reliance upon high quality child care services as a necessary component to optimum workplace recruitment, productivity and stability. This promising study highlights research specific to the Buffalo region measuring the cost the community bears as a result of low quality child care and early education. It draws upon nationally recognized economic development strategies to offer recommendations for a strategic child care plan integral to the City of Buffalo's overall strategic initiatives to strengthen downtown's attractiveness to successful enterprises. The early development needs of Buffalo's children must be front and center if the potential economic power of broadly successful education is to be realized. With business, government, education and child care leaders at the table, Buffalo's economic renaissance can be built on individual and social foundations that last a lifetime.