The Moore County Chamber of Commerce and Partners for Children & Families recently announced that Moore County has been selected as one of three counties to lead North Carolina’s new Tri-Share Child Care pilot program.
Adopted and funded by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2023, Tri-Share is a public/private partnership that spreads the cost of child care equally among employers, employees and the State of North Carolina.
The goals of Tri-Share include making high-quality child care affordable and accessible for working families, helping employers retain and attract employees, and supporting the stabilization of child care businesses across the state.
The program will be administered in Moore County by Partners for Children & Families, Inc., a 30-year-old charity based in Moore County that serves as Moore County’s Smart Start agency. Partners for Children & Families will also administer the program in six adjacent counties: Chatham, Cumberland, Hoke, Montgomery, Richmond and Scotland.
“Partners for Children & Families was selected to lead a Tri-Share region because of their strong community ties, particularly regarding workforce relations; leadership within early care and education, and relationships with other Smart Start local partnerships,” says Amy Cubbage, president of the North Carolina Partnership for Children which is spearheading the Tri-Share pilot across the state.
Partners for Children & Families’ Tri-Share application was endorsed by the Moore County Chamber of Commerce, the Moore County government, the Northern Moore Family Resource Center and the Smart Start partnerships in the adjacent counties.
Since February 2022, the Moore County Chamber of Commerce has led a county-wide task force on child care. According to Linda Parsons, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce: “The goal of the Child Care Task Force is to provide resources to recruit and train child care workers and to increase the availability and accessibility of child care in Moore County. The Task Force has studied the development of the Tri-Share program since it was first introduced as a bill in the legislature. We are so pleased that Moore County was selected as a regional hub for Tri-Share.”
Stuart Mills, the executive director of Partners for Children and Families, said, “We wouldn’t have been selected for this new role without support from the Chamber and its Task Force. We look forward to working even more closely with the employers and child care providers in Moore County, but also with the Smart Start partnerships in each of these adjacent counties. This is an opportunity for all of us, but particularly for the children of these seven counties.”
Families that qualify for participation in Tri-Share will be:
Employed by a participating business;
Have a household income between 185% and 300% of the federal poverty level; and
Otherwise, ineligible for other subsidized child care.
Employers interested in participating in the Tri-Share program should contact Partners for Children & Families or their local Smart Start partnership. For a list of Smart Start Local Partnerships, go to www.smartstart.org/smart-start-in-your-community/.
Contributed/Courtesy photo.
