Soaring child care costs, exacerbated by the lingering effects of COVID-19, are forcing many of Hawaii’s entrepreneurs to choose between their life’s work and their children. We must urgently invest in ready, proven and affordable child care solutions to safeguard our small businesses and ensure a bright future for our youth.

Recent findings from the Small Business Majority underscore the severity of the issue: 59% of small business owners who are parents or have employees with children report that the lack of affordable child care negatively impacts their operations. Moreover, rising child care costs have forced 26% of these entrepreneurs to close their businesses and return to the workforce.

The Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii (BGCH) is at the forefront of the fight for affordable child care, serving more than 3,300 school-aged keiki in clubs and thousands more through various programs across nine locations on Oahu and Kauai. Nicole Pongasi of Kauai relies on the Lihue Clubhouse to provide her daughter “a safe environment through its afterschool, out-of-school and intersession programs, where they can continue to learn, grow and socialize with other members.” Pongasi adds that BGCH “supports our family by allowing my husband and I to continue to work full-time jobs, knowing that our child is safe at the club.”

The work extends far beyond basic child care. BGCH provides a safe place to go after school, where keiki can access meals they can count on, caring mentors who believe in them, and meaningful life experiences empowering them to discover their great futures. BGCH has the infrastructure and personnel in place and is ready and excited to sustain and expand our impact for small businesses and all those in need across Hawaii.

BGCH cannot do this work alone. We charge $25 per year in membership fees for keiki ages 7 to 12 and $10 per year for teens, yet it costs us at least $2,000 to serve each child annually. To sustain our efforts and expand to meet accelerating demand, we depend on robust public and private funding.

Ninety-five percent of families we serve fall into the low to extremely low-income category by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development standards. Just three percent of our annual budget is covered by fees paid by those we serve. BGCH is committed to ensuring a family’s financial situation is never an obstacle preventing a child from accessing our services.

The need for affordable child care has never been higher. We call on government officials to prioritize funding for BGCH and similar organizations through sustainable and manageable funding models, which would include creating direct budget lines for support and multi-year grants. In over 40 years of serving Hawaii’s youth, BGCH has witnessed how small investments made today can lead to enormous returns tomorrow and for years to come.

We also ask our community, businesses and leaders to step up and support affordable childcare by contribu- ting to the 30-day 3,000 Strong Challenge for our “Great Futures Day” campaign this month. We’re rallying 3,000 supporters to raise the funds we need to serve our keiki and empower them to create the future they deserve.

By supporting both our children and small businesses, we can foster a thriving ecosystem where families prosper, and our keiki reach their greatest potential. Let’s commit to a bright tomorrow by investing in our keiki and supporting our small businesses together today.

Paddy Kauhane is president/CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii; Sherry Menor-McNamara is president/CEO of Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.