Champions of Child Care; Child Action Supports Working Parents and Employers Alike.

Adonai Mack: [00:00:00] Families are making decisions. They're making decisions about what their costs look like. They're making decisions about what is feasible for them. And if you're really as a business, if you're really looking to retain employees a certain way or provide a certain culture, then examining a variety of different options, and I think that child care is one of those.

Jeff Holden: Hi, I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the nonprofit podcast network. Our purpose and passion is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode, giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story, in their words, to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve, as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to [00:01:00] constituents and donors.

Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local non profit organizations through podcasting. Thanks to our founding partners for their foresight in helping us transform the way conversations start. CAP Trust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations.

Runyon Saltzman Incorporated, RSE, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations Creating Integrated Communications Committed to Improving Lives, and Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. Before the episode begins, I want to take a minute to share that we now have a website where you can sign up to get our weekly email updates on the latest episodes, transcripts to prior episodes, and see what else we have going on.

Please be sure to register so you never miss an episode or any other important information we may have to share in the nonprofit space. You can find us now at non prof pod. [00:02:00] com. That's non prof pod. com. You'll also notice on the website, a microphone in the lower right hand corner. By clicking on it, you'll be able to leave me voicemail messages, maybe a question you'd like me to ask our guests, or just to comment on the program.

I may even play your message in an upcoming episode. I look forward to more engagement with you as we continue to grow and better serve our non profit community. Thanks. Strong, local, big businesses around town tend to get attention when they serve a need that actually creates a workforce, provides for parents to be able to go to work because they don't have to worry about child care, or supports the workplace with the necessary resources to then help the employee with child care.

That's an organization we all have right on the tip of our tongues. Of course we know who does that. Or do we? We're going to hear from the CEO of an organization that is determined to become a household name for employers and [00:03:00] employees with children, as that is who they serve. And they're big. Hundreds of employees, over a hundred million dollar budget, yes, you heard me right, and they serve all of Sacramento County.

The conversation today with Adonay Mack is going to open your eyes. If you're an employer with a fair number of employees, you need to be aware of child action. If you're a parent struggling with child care, you need to be aware of child action. If you provide child care independently or at the workplace, you need to be aware of child action.

And if you know people struggling to find child care, needing support with child care, needing child care in order to work but unable to afford it. You need to be aware of child action to share what it is they do that can allow a parent the ability to get to work and not end up paying as much in child care as they are in earning.

Child care is a huge issue in the workplace and child action needs to be known. And that's exactly [00:04:00] what we're helping do in this episode. Audenay Mack, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate it. Um, it's wonderful to be here. We are going to have an interesting conversation today.

I promise. So you're a self professed policy wonk. You, you went from legislative advocate for education advocacy programs into running a very large nonprofit agency. How did that happen first? And then secondly, why child action? 

Adonai Mack: Well, I would say this is, yeah, I've worked in education policy for a long time.

I think that maybe about 15 years ago, maybe just under that, I'm 53 now, so it's probably in my 40s. In my 40s, I was doing some legislative work for the Association of California School Administrators. And what I began to realize was that, you You know, I really [00:05:00] wanted to lead something. I wanted to be the leader.

I wanted to be the boss. I wanted to make decisions. And I think that I kind of grew from being a lobbyist on a regular basis to more senior level positions. I had opportunities to lead political work, right? So I was a director of a political action committee and I had my own staff. And so I was able to lead some of that work and lead work for a membership association.

I was able to do some federal advocacy again. I had, you know, at least one or two employees that I worked with. And then I did some equity work and I was able to lead. Maybe it wasn't staff as much, but it was certainly members along the path of equity and deliver, deliver certain professional development and create programs.

And I just knew through all of that experience. Sitting in a cabinet position Watching how my executive directors operated. I think that I just [00:06:00] realized Man, I can do this. Not only can I do it. I Want to do it and I began to really develop Sort of my perspective about what it meant to be a leader what it meant to support employees And I was looking for a chance and I have to give it to I I was in a leadership program in Sacramento that's called the Nehemiah Emerging Leaders Program.

Jeff Holden: NELP. Yeah, NELP. Very familiar. 

Adonai Mack: And NELP, for NELP, it just built a community for me, right? A community of other leaders, folks who are in different positions, made a lot of different friendships, and that's what really brought me to Child Action. Two of my colleagues, I think they actually called me about something else, but they decided to ask me the question anyway.

Child action was looking for a new either executive director or CEO. And two of my colleagues called me and were like, Hey, you know, I think initially they [00:07:00] were, they were thinking, Hey, do you think this other person would be interested? And then they asked me if I might be interested. And I basically only had maybe a couple of requirements that I needed to check out.

One, I wasn't sure how big the organization was at the time, and so Could be a little 

Jeff Holden: intimidating. That's a, that's a big organization. Yeah, 

Adonai Mack: yeah, and this is, I mean, this is also part of all, everything I think about is, is that I wasn't trying to make a lateral move financially. If, why would I take on more responsibility if I'm just gonna be paid the same salary?

That was part of it, and so that was certainly something I was thinking about. And then first and foremost, actually, how'd my wife think about it? And that was a conversation I need to have. And that was probably two years ago, actually, because they called me during the holidays in December. And I went to my wife and I said, what do you think?

Like, do you think this is this will this work for us? [00:08:00] And, you know, over the holidays, we talked about it. And so come January, I called my friends back and I was like, okay, I'm interested. I'll throw my hat in the mix, I'll send all my stuff into the recruiter, and then we'll just see what happens and goes from there.

And that's kind of how I got into it. It's kind of like how everything, how I get into everything. It's, someone asks me a question, I kind of fall into it. I fell into my career, because someone asked me to come work for Governor Gray Davis, and I was just like, yeah, I could do that, I guess. And, next thing you know, I'm lobbying for 20 years.

And that's kind of how this came is, is I had friends reach out to me. They saw something in me that they thought was worthwhile of investing in. And I leaped at the opportunity. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and you've been so involved in education and advocacy programs for children anyhow. So you've got this background from the policy side of things.

Adonai Mack: Right. Really, 

Jeff Holden: it's just the business side of things. And implementing that into education. Um, uh, and actionable right [00:09:00] space, which you wanted to do, you wanted something you could control. Yeah, I mean, really get your arms and head around it. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, it was. I mean, I, I was looking at, you know, I'll, I'll be real honest, like maybe budgets and, and financial statements probably aren't my biggest strong suit, but it wasn't like I was unfamiliar.

I mean, if you handle a budget that's small, you can figure it out, right? You can just add some zeros, add a couple more columns in the spreadsheet. It's a different programs. You can kind of figure it out. I think, yeah. And I think too, from a leadership standpoint, I just always wanted to build a team. I want to build a team.

I'm really always interested in smart and talented people. And I think that when you really hire passionate, smart, intelligent individuals, you can get a lot done. Now I'll say it also, it's a challenge to manage all those folks, but it's what I wanted to do. I mean, I just really looked at it from the standpoint of, Let me be the decision maker.

It's nothing I was ever afraid of. [00:10:00] I've seen the mistakes that other leaders have made, that I've disagreed with their decisions, and I have people who disagree with me as well. But I have a very specific approach to what it means to lead a company, what it means to build culture a certain way, how I want us to serve families.

Like, it's very specific how I want to do that and how I want to grow our company. And I think that The team that I've built is, is getting on board with that. The employees are starting to get on board with that and hopefully, you know, we'll see some really super extreme and 

Jeff Holden: exciting success in the future.

So let's talk about what that is all tied to, which is child action. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Tell us a little bit about what child action is because if you're aware, you're aware you use it. It's a great resource. 

Adonai Mack: Right. 

Jeff Holden: If you are not, And you may be a parent. You're not right. It's, you know, I've been around town for 35 years, didn't know [00:11:00] anything about child action.

And here it is, this, this massive organization serving so many in the community. So walk us through the services. Yeah, 

Adonai Mack: certainly the best way to explain child action is that we are the contractor for childcare in the entire county of Sacramento. And so what that looks like is families that meet certain qualifications or individuals who have Children who meet certain qualifications.

We help you pay for childcare and I'll kind of talk about what those qualifications are in a minute. We help you pay for childcare. The other side of things are is we will help you find childcare. So regardless of your income will help you find childcare depending on whatever requirements that you're looking for and where in the county you're looking for.

Childcare will help you find that two. We help people become providers of You could be a center that's looking to locate something located in a building or open up a standalone building and we help you with that. We help you get [00:12:00] licensed, help you health and safety issues. We've done feasibility studies in the past.

Uh, so we do that. If you're in a home, we help you get licensed and pass all your health and safety requirements as well. And then also we have something that's called family, friend and neighbor. That's usually exactly what it sounds like. It means that you're a grandparent, you're an aunt of someone who qualifies for our program.

And instead of trying to go into a family child care home, you're just going to take care of a relative and we help you do that as well. And then I think we also do a lot of what I call professional development and training for child care providers in order for them to have a type of quality environment that can help Children grow.

And so we do a lot of work around that. 

Jeff Holden: That's a full 360. You start with the orientation of the service, where child care can be found. So I'm a parent looking, I need to know where to go, where can I find some place. Right. There, child action. Right. [00:13:00] Oh shoot, it's expensive, I have to pay for it. Mm hmm. We got you there too.

Yeah. We can support that. Exactly. And then in my neighborhood, oh jeez, there's nobody. Well, there is somebody, they're looking. We're helping them establish a center. Right. 

Adonai Mack: Right. 

Jeff Holden: So you are the entire. childcare circle. Yeah, we did orientation to to performance. 

Adonai Mack: Yes, all the way around. That's that's exactly what we do.

It's it's touching the families in a variety of different ways. It's giving them the opportunity to find someone that can care for their Children that will keep them safe, help them develop as Children and build that level of trust that's necessary for anyone to watch a child. 

Jeff Holden: Tell me about the, the qualifications.

How does somebody fit the criteria that you've got to be able to use the service? 

Adonai Mack: So in general, what that looks like is if you are, if your income is below 85 percent of the state medium income, then you qualify. [00:14:00] And then there's a whole host of other cat, like other qualifications that'll 

Jeff Holden: need, need.

Yeah, 

Adonai Mack: yeah. And so it's things like if you're. If you're involved in CPS, for example, you probably, you can be eligible for our program. If you get current aid from another program, which we call, I think it's called categorical eligibility. So maybe you receive cash aid, Medi Cal, CalFresh, Head Start, WIC. 

Jeff Holden: Is that an automatic qualification?

Automatic 

Adonai Mack: qualification. Oh, wow. If you just, if you can demonstrate that you received that, we don't even go through anything else. You're just automatically into our program. If you're homeless, you're automatically in our program as well. But there's also we only serve Children. So if you have the Children that you have, we only serve them up to 13.

So birth to 13 is is our range. And so that's sort of the rules that we have that we have to follow. Then also you have to reside in Sacramento County and that's that's sort of the other piece to it. So we our company, [00:15:00] there's similar companies to us throughout the entire state. Very few cross county boundaries.

And so right now, Child Action is the company that serves all of Sacramento County. So we don't go into West Sac because that's in Yolo County. We don't go into Roseville. That's in Placer County. We don't go to Eldorado because that's in Eldorado. We're the 

Jeff Holden: highest density county of all. We have the most population we do, and we have, I would imagine, the greatest need, you know, just fine.

virtue of the size of the county. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, I would say we do. We do have a huge need in our county. I wouldn't discount some of the other counties that surround us. I think that they probably have just as much need to tell you the truth, especially in like yellow county. 

Jeff Holden: It should be volume. Yeah, we're the largest number of people.

Yeah, we're 

Adonai Mack: the largest in northern California essentially. And matter of fact, we [00:16:00] Because of how we're situated and the size of Sacramento, it also being the capital, right, we actually do, we actually support some of the other counties around us in terms of, we've developed a program that, that a lot of other counties use to manage their cases for child care.

Jeff Holden: How many families do you serve? On average, if you were just 

Adonai Mack: So, I actually don't know the number of families. I know the number of children. Oh, 

Jeff Holden: that's 

Adonai Mack: probably a better answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, we serve about Right now, we serve about 15, 000 children. Uh, it's between 15, 000 and 13, 000, give or take. I think that oftentimes we have families that are come off of our 

Jeff Holden: Sure, they either age out or Yeah, they age out 

Adonai Mack: or they move.

Right. Or 

Jeff Holden: improve their situation. Right, 

Adonai Mack: right, right. They improve their situation so they're no longer eligible. So we have, we have about 15, 000 children that we serve. I think we serve just under 3, 000 [00:17:00] providers. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. I want to say it's either 2, 300 or 2, 500 or somewhere around that. That's a lot 

Jeff Holden: of people all the way around in every way, shape, and form.

Yeah. Yeah. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. It is a lot. And so I'm, I'm chuckling because we serve a lot and, and I probably drive my team crazy because I always tell them, I was like, Hey, we're doing a great job. But there's about 275, 000 children between birth and 13, right? Right. And while we're doing an excellent job, we can, we can get out there and do some more.

Yeah. Right? Like, there's still families that need us. You see it every, every Thanksgiving and every December when, when the holidays come around and, and, and people are thinking about giving and, like, I shop at Sprouts a lot, so I see the, the bags where you're giving families, you're buying a, a meal for a family.

There's still families that need us and need our help. And so really it's about us reaching out to them and trying to [00:18:00] find a way that we can help them. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. And part of that is, is the awareness that we started with. Right. What, who, who are some of the collaborators that you work with? Obviously the state is your biggest resource, but who else do you touch in the community tentacles that you get out to make people aware that the service exists?

Adonai Mack: It kind of depends on, um, It kind of varies, actually, I guess. It varies a lot. So, I think that we work with resource centers every once in a while, depending on what's, what events that they may be having. Mm hmm. We work with the city of Sacramento a lot, actually. We, we've been working with them on infant and toddler care.

We also have several different coalitions that we work with that are, some are based on a city wide initiative. So measure L. And so we're part of a child care task force. We work with a county wide task force on child care. That includes [00:19:00] like 1st 5 1st 5 Sacramento. Sure is one of our probably one of our greatest partners.

Jeff Holden: I can imagine 1st 

Adonai Mack: 5 Sacramento. Excellent collaboration between them. Sacramento County Office of Education. We work really closely within a matter of fact, we're trying to build that a little bit more. because we enjoy working with them. They do a lot of good work for us. The county of Sacramento. And so a lot of different departments within the county of Sacramento.

We have a really interesting program with CPS. CPS is doing some really great work changing their mindset about how to be preventative versus punitive. And so we doing some work with them. We participate on something called the prevention council. And so some of that work has that has generated the relationship that we have with CPS because they have some priorities zip codes which are focusing on black families in the in Sacramento County.

And so we do a lot of work with CPS and making sure that the families that they're identifying in the black community, [00:20:00] we're helping them find care. Right. And so if there's a family that for some reason is involved in CPS We have that connection to be able to work with them to make sure that their children are taken care of.

Jeff Holden: Well, I know before we started the actual conversation, we were even talking about the opportunities that still exist to get into the community for awareness. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. Yeah. Sac 

Jeff Holden: State with the programs that they've gotten and students who are parents and can't go to school if you're worried about child care.

Oh, man. Perfect. 

Adonai Mack: Jeff, I mean, like, as we were talking, like, my stomach actually, like, I get butterflies about the opportunities that exist. We have so many that my, my team and I, sometimes I'm like, okay, look, I get it. We see this, let's just wait. Like, we can't get to everything all at once. Prioritize, 

Jeff Holden: right?

Adonai Mack: We have to prioritize. So it's things like Sac State, their early childhood development program, Los Rios Community Colleges. They have a wonderful workforce program and, and early childhood development. Matter of fact, that's where my, my [00:21:00] mom did some work there. And when she was at headstart workforce development stuff, right.

With, with either Los Rios or Seta, we can work with them as well. So we're, 

Jeff Holden: we're pushing this stuff out through the program. I know they're going to hear this and come out to you. And then we, she's keep going. We talked about the food banks and the need there. We see it in line. You know, it's like those people, if we can get them jobs or 

Adonai Mack: better jobs.

Our businesses community, I mean, there's, there's just, there's, there is opportunity after opportunity after opportunity, not to mention all of the school districts, right? We haven't even scratched the surface of what it means to work with school districts or with all the seven cities in the county of Sacramento.

We right now do work with the city of Sacramento, but I'm in Rancho Cordova. We're working on doing something with the city of Rancho Cordova. We'd love to reach out to Galt, Isleton, Folsom, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, like every, we're really interested in working with the cities and how they want to help families because that's [00:22:00] our, that's where we're strong at.

We can help families and I think there's tons of possibility. 

Jeff Holden: We'll be back with more stories and ways to take advantage of the incredible services of child action Right after these few messages from the businesses who care deeply about supporting the non profit community. I was in the media business for over 35 years and had the great privilege of working with Runyon Saltzman, RSE, Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations.

We collaborated on many different campaigns, but their commitment to the non profit sector hasn't changed since their founder, Gene Runyon, started the agency. Over many years and many campaigns, Runyon Saltzman has been committed to improving lives by tackling California's most challenging issues.

Guided by research informed strategies and insightful creative solutions, RSE develops innovative communications campaigns that raise awareness, educate, and reduce stigma in diverse communities throughout our state and beyond. To learn more about RSE, visit rs [00:23:00] e. com. 

Scott Thomas: Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CAP Trust in our Sacramento office.

I specialize in working with local non profits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public non profit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment. In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments.

If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, scottthomasatcaptrust. com. 

Jeff Holden: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many non profit agencies in our community. As a truly local health plan, you'll find individual and family options, employer options, plans for CalPERS and Medicare Advantage.

From medical services to pharmacy, health and wellness support, as well as behavioral health care. Western Health Advantage has a plan that fits what you need. As an employer, for profit or non [00:24:00] profit business, individual or family, you can find more at westernhealth. com. And we're going to get to the business side in just a minute, but before we do, let's talk about the, the funding.

How is the agency funded? 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, so we have, the majority of our funding comes from the state. So we have, I'd say maybe three or four basic contracts. Um, and we have a contract with the California Department of Social Services. We handle the CalWORKs stage 2 and 3 child care. We also handle the alternative payment program.

That's our voucher system to help pay for child care. We also have a contract for resource and referrals. That also comes from the state. Those are sort of our four main contracts that pay us most of the resources that we use in order to administer the program. 

Jeff Holden: So more than anything, it looks, it's a fee for service agency where the state.

you provide. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. Yeah. That's probably, that's actually a good explanation of it. [00:25:00] Yeah. It's 

Jeff Holden: a business. Yeah, it is. People get confused. What's a nonprofit? No, that's a business. No, no, we are a business. Yeah. 

Adonai Mack: No, I have employees and I got to pay benefits and I got to make sure people are, our own employees are taken care of.

Yeah. Contracts, contracts, fulfillment. Yeah. Yeah. And then we have, so with local government, I would say that we have between local governance and for example, like opening doors as well. Yes. They provide resources to us. Our local government contracts, you must have like 20, maybe 25. Sure. I kind of lose track actually.

Jeff Holden: With more to come if you start to get the cities oriented the way you would like. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, yeah. I, I really, that's really where I think we're headed is, and we talk about this as well later, is look, child care is expensive. And in order for it to be affordable, in order for us to serve every single family, like we're not going to do it only with our state contract, right?

It's just an impossibility. It's, it's not even plausible that the [00:26:00] state is going to provide the resources that we need to serve all the families in, in our county. And if that's the case, then it's going to take work from local government. It's gonna take an investment from business. It just is. Like, there's just no way around it.

Jeff Holden: And you're going right where we need to go. But give me one more, one more question. Because I want people to understand the size of this organization. And the opportunity they've got if they knew what the services are. It's almost a 150 million budget. That's correct. That, that goes back into the community for child care services.

Whether it's paying, you know. Right. Right. For the child care or supporting the process to become a child care provider, correct? So that that's a lot of money. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. Yeah, we spend so our budget in general is right It's right around 150 million and I'd probably say anywhere between 85 maybe 90 percent of that goes back into the Sacramento County, right?

Because we're either paying for for child care for families But we're paying [00:27:00] providers to become child care providers. 

Jeff Holden: But 

Adonai Mack: we're paying, you know, we're providing stipends to them in some way to improve their business model or to improve the environment in which they provide for children, so. 

Jeff Holden: Which is important, yeah.

The safety of those organization, or those child care centers is really significant. And you make sure that they are what they need to be per state regulation. 

Adonai Mack: Yes, exactly. I mean, we're making sure that they follow all the licensing rules. 

Jeff Holden: to the point of Well, I can just go to Craigslist and find somebody for my daycare, and it's right down the street.

Yeah. Any answers? Yes, 

Adonai Mack: you can. Yes, you can. But, why It's not that we would suggest that. 

Jeff Holden: Correct. Why would you not do it through an organization that vets and ensures that everything's the way it should be? 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, we have a really strong relationship with the state community licensing agency. Department and we work with anyone who wants to become a child provider to help them get licensed It's not like it's an easy task.

I mean you do have to follow certain rules [00:28:00] and certain regulations But we do help you do that. And matter of fact, we help it regardless of what language you speak we help you It doesn't matter you could be speaking farsi or mandarin or cantonese or vietnamese or russian, 

Jeff Holden: which is just another layer of You challenge.

Oh man, 

Adonai Mack: God, don't get me started. My staff complained to me all the time about forms not being in the right language. Hattery, how do we translate forms? You know, the costs around all of that hiring outside consultants to help us. Like it's it's there's so many languages spoken in Sacramento County. I think that sometimes we kind of forget that that we're we're truly a very diverse county and You know, our strategies are always around like how do we serve all the different people, 

Jeff Holden: right?

Adonai Mack: That's why my staff is so diverse. 

Jeff Holden: And, and speaking of your staff, how many 

Adonai Mack: of 

Jeff Holden: them are 

Adonai Mack: there? Ish? I think it's somewhere around 230, [00:29:00] 250. We did just hire some staff this week, and so that number's probably creeping up a little bit. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah. 

Adonai Mack: And it's funny too because I'm also doing, I'm trying to expand our office space, and it's taken kind of a while for us to get that done.

And so my lead, the leadership in my, in my leadership team were like, oh, they hurry up and get this lease done. Cause I got more people coming. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and the good news is that means more people are using the service, which is what the whole objective is. Because if more people are using the service, it's likely that more people able to go to work.

Yeah. And so let's bring that now around to the business side of things, because. It's our community at large that benefits because more people are working, more people are contributing. They're benefiting, you know, in an unemployment situation. They're able to actually work. We don't have that, you know, higher unemployment.

And businesses are able to find people to do the jobs they need to get done. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, exactly, exactly. And we 

Jeff Holden: know, even today, There's still a shortage of people to do all the work that needs to be done. There's people still looking for [00:30:00] people. 

Adonai Mack: Right, right. You know, Jeff, you probably have seen some of the data that, that I see too around our, the economics of our county and what it looks for, what it looks like to employ individuals in our county.

And then some of the narrative as well. You know, since the pandemic, businesses want folks to come back in the office. Yes. Right. They want them, they want them in their offices. You hear about sort of like our downtown sector where. There's a lot of empty office buildings that includes a lot of state off state offices, right?

But, you know, folks aren't gonna come in if their kids aren't taking care, 

Jeff Holden: right? 

Adonai Mack: Like, they'll just figure it out themselves. And that's really where, to some extent, that's where the business communities investment can come from. If you I think you have inherit interest and looking at how people's Children are taken care of.

It's no longer a personal issue because it can actually drive. the retention rate at your companies. If you're providing, I mean, just as an example, if you're [00:31:00] providing a benefit, for example, like you're actually helping people pay for care the same way you help them pay for medical benefits or insurance in some way.

If you provided something that was around providing for child care, that's an, that's something that is attractive to employees. 

Jeff Holden: Would I be correct in assuming that an employer could actually set up a child care Center in their facility. Yeah, that is sanctioned by you. 

Adonai Mack: Yeah, they could I know that there's there's been a couple of companies that I know that I've heard about that before I Think SMUD may have 

Jeff Holden: done that in the past But what a way to go.

Adonai Mack: Yeah, I mean that's to me. That's probably the That's probably a benefit that maybe companies don't think about as much that would go a long way to ensuring that employees are one coming into their office. That's probably one aspect of it, but also likely changes culture, employee satisfaction, [00:32:00] providing a benefit like that, where, I mean, I used to work at the Department of Education, and when my son was born, we were looking at the child care that was downstairs in the building.

I mean, on those long days where it's a tough day and you're maybe having some bad, like, for me, bad luck in the capital, like, there's nothing better than going downstairs and playing with my son. Yeah. What a benefit, right? Yeah, it's just a benefit. I think that there's a level of happiness and joy that can come from you spending time with your child that I mean, maybe there's no scientific evidence to that, but I'm pretty sure that you're going to return back to work feeling pretty good.

I don't think 

Jeff Holden: we need scientific common sense tells us that's right. That's a good one. 

Adonai Mack: Right, right. And I just think that you look at opportunities like that and I think it's, it's something that businesses can really consider and invest in as a way to improve their culture and improve employee satisfaction.

Jeff Holden: How do you think we can better help business community leaders understand the [00:33:00] opportunity and the Um, and I think it's really important for families to understand what their ability they have to help solve the child 

Adonai Mack: care crisis. I think part of that is looking at it from a collaborative standpoint. I think it's also just looking at maybe even their own metrics, their own data around employment.

I think it's kind of a combination of those things of recognizing that families are making decisions. They're making decisions about what their costs look like. They're making decisions about what is feasible for them. And if you're really as a business, if you're really looking to retain employees a certain way, or provide a certain culture, then examining a variety of different options.

And I think that child care is one of those. I think like it's either, you know, maybe helping pay for a stipend, or it's helping, helping employees find care, right? That's where collaboration comes in with us, right? You're. Maybe what the collaboration looks like, or partnership looks like, [00:34:00] is you're working with Child Action to help your employees find quality child care.

It could be something like that. It could be that you're thinking about a, a benefit for your employees that's helping them pay for child care, like a portion of the cost. It could be something like that. And again, you're collaborating with Child Action, that's what we do, we're good at it. We can manage programs like that.

And then it's again, putting something on in your building or in your office location. I think it's really looking at it from the standpoint of if a business wants to look at our entire economy as sort of as their role in the economy, then, you know, what pieces can they do that actually helps drive economic engines, right?

And people working and going to work and being employed helps drive. Helps drive that. And sort of what the case is. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah, and we hear so many times, Well, I can go to work, but the child care will [00:35:00] offset the income. Right. The cost of the child care offsets any benefit I get from the income. Yeah. And so, I might as well not go to work.

Adonai Mack: Yeah. And that's 

Jeff Holden: in every household. It is. That decision has to be made. And it's certainly exacerbated in some of the lower income situations. Right. Underserved communities. And then somebody's got to drive to get to where they have to go. Now you have the cost of gas and 

Adonai Mack: yeah, 

Jeff Holden: it just becomes unwieldy.

You can't do it. 

Adonai Mack: That's it. It's the affordability issue is something that I think in general, our society hasn't done a good job of trying to figure out, you know, our state provides amount of resources, but those resources aren't cost based. They're not based on how much it actually costs to provide care.

I think back to when my, my son was You know, between the time he was born and five years old and you know, I was blessed enough to have my, my parents around. They lived in Davis. So it was easy for me to drop my son off. But like when he started preschool, I was going, wait, who's going to [00:36:00] 125 a day, right?

Like you start looking at the cost and you're going, no, this is ridiculous. Right. And I think that since the system in and of itself hasn't figured out, you know, how are we going to. provide a rate that's a cost based approach to care, then we have to look at other ways. I mean, me as a company, I have to look at other ways to try to attack the issue of affordability.

And, and I don't know if there's a lot of answers for it right now. I just think that, you know, part of me was thinking, hey, if we could flood the market with quality childcare, then the economics say that, you know, the costs will go down. Right. But it's finding the people to do that. 

Jeff Holden: Right. 

Adonai Mack: If we could provide.

You know, twice the amount of spaces for care then Maybe there's competition in terms of I mean, that's just economic theory, right? Maybe there's competition in terms of space and then and then prices equalize a little bit 

Jeff Holden: Maybe lean on your legislative [00:37:00] side a little bit to say hey guys We got to back off some of this stuff some of it.

It's just it's impractical and I don't know that for a fact But i'm just assuming like every business we all look and go do we really need to do that? 

Adonai Mack: Right, you know that 

Jeff Holden: takes time and energy in some cases money But certainly in the security and safety of our Children, we want everything to be exactly as it needs to be.

Adonai Mack: Right. 

Jeff Holden: This is the fun question. So I don't know. No budget. Sky's the limit. What would child action look like? 

Adonai Mack: Oh, man, let's see. To answer that question, let me start with the company in and of itself before I talk about how we serve folks. So I think as a company, Well, what happened is we'd probably have offices all over the county.

Like right now, we just have one office in Rancho Cordova. I think I'd have offices in Del Paso Heights, Natomas, Citrus Heights, South Sacramento, Elk Grove, and Gulf, right? Like, [00:38:00] that's probably where I'd end up. 

Jeff Holden: Ease of access. 

Adonai Mack: Ease of access. I think that would be the, that'd be first and foremost. I think next, we would.

We would create some methodology or some process to serve every single child between birth and 13. I don't know exactly what that would look like, but we would do, we would have a way to do that. Whether that means that we, we enrolled every single child in quality child care, we would find some way to do that.

We would just enroll every single child. I mean, you would, probably what would happen is, is, We would know you when you were pregnant, right? Like when you're the relationship that we would have with the hospitals, the pediatric departments, that relationship would be so solid that if you needed care for your child, as soon as they were [00:39:00] born, you'd have it.

Jeff Holden: We got you. 

Adonai Mack: We got you. 

Jeff Holden: We 

Adonai Mack: already we've already vetted it. You've already vetted it. Your child could be born, you could have maternity leave for your six to eight months, and then as soon as you go back to work, we got a place for your child. I think the other piece would be that we would have multiple child development centers that were world class.

And what I mean by that is we would be on the forefront of brain development, early childhood development, using technology a certain way. improving literacy for every single child. We would have something, we'd have multiple of those, like partnership between Sac State, UC Davis, the mind Institute, like we would have something like that in multiple areas of our county.

I think the next piece would be We would have like such a strong apprenticeship [00:40:00] program that every single child care provider would have a Streamline of individuals knocking on their door for for work. 

Jeff Holden: So they're sustainable You don't have to worry about it going down and now you know a whole neighborhood.

Yeah We don't just 

Adonai Mack: have you have as many teachers as you need to work in your child care centers or in your homes I think too we would we would likely have a A combination of like philanthropy, research, business community, hospitals, food banks, K 12 schools. There'd be such a partnership between us and all of the entities that touch families that like no one would like, everyone would come see us because they'd be like, how'd you do that?

And then I think too, we would have, we'd be able to serve families like either through resource centers or some manner. We'd serve [00:41:00] families for anything that they needed. They needed housing. We got you. You needed, you need to enroll in Medicare. We got you. I mean, you need a nutrition program. We got it.

Something we're working on now, actually, that, that I would love to, do. Like you need to roll your kids in the Cal Kids program, which is like ScholarShare. We got, we can do that too. It wouldn't matter. One stop shop with us. Yep. And, and because of the partnerships and relationships that we have throughout the county, we'd make sure that you were taken care of.

And it doesn't matter what language you speak. It don't matter where you kind of came from in the world to relocate in Sacramento County. We'll serve you. It doesn't, for us, it doesn't matter. 

Jeff Holden: I love that visual. That was a, that was a great talk. All around envelopment of families and children from birth to 13 to be taken care of.

So yeah, good. Now it's back to reality.

What is [00:42:00] your greatest need today? What would you say, here's our biggest challenge? 

Adonai Mack: I think our biggest challenge is having Well, let me break it down like this. The biggest challenge is about visibility. I think that not enough families know who we are, not enough potential partners know who we are. The university systems are just getting to know who we are.

The school districts don't know who we are. I think it's about visibility. It's about knowledge. It's about our community understanding that we're resource. And so, uh, and that's what we're actually working on, right? Like, that's why you and I are talking. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Well, and what's beautiful about that, this is not saying, Oh, God, we need a bunch of money.

And, and understandably, a lot of organizations do. Money, they're funded differently. Yours is the, you've got the program. Right. And the program exists, and it's making people aware of the program to take advantage of the program to the benefit of their families. Yep. And to [00:43:00] the workforce, to the community.

Adonai Mack: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, don't get me wrong, obviously we need resources. It's not that it's not. That's always the case. But even with that, like, when it comes to resources, I'd say this, is everyone has a stake in it. Right? Our local government, our local community can't just act like the state's gonna take care of it.

They're not. They're not. So, You know, our local government officials are elected officials. They need to recognize our city council members. They need to recognize that there's a vested interest and investing in child care, right? And it could look like a variety of different things. But it's about coming to the table, coming to the table with ideas, being true collaborative partners with us and looking at how we can solve a variety of the problems around affordability and access.

There's a lot of research on what that can look like and the reality is, is like, let's get to the table and figure out what that looks like. 

Jeff Holden: And the [00:44:00] beauty of this is, this is a, an integration piece. Right. This is the ability for you, your team and your people to get out and for the community at large, all the organizations that need to be aware to simply listen.

Yeah. And that's a lot easier than saying I need a hundred thousand dollars. 

Adonai Mack: Right. You know, I mean, I do need a hundred thousand, 

Jeff Holden: but you wanted this leadership role. You said, I want to do it. I want 

Adonai Mack: to do it. And that means that we have to solve some problems a lot of different ways. And sometimes folks are not going to give us a hundred thousand dollars because they don't trust us yet, but we'll build that trust.

Jeff Holden: You're, you're on the treadmill now. I know that you're running cause you're all over the place. Tell us what's the best way to find out more about the organization and about the services. 

Adonai Mack: So I would say there's a couple of different ways. First and foremost, you can always go to our website. Which by the 

Jeff Holden: way, I was blown away by.

It is so comprehensive. Yeah. Which maybe is [00:45:00] even overwhelming in some cases. But the fact that I saw it, and then I saw it in multiple languages. 

Adonai Mack: Yes. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: And I mean multiples, like five, six different languages in script. Right, right. Which has got to be so comforting for somebody who's new to the country.

Exactly. Who's looking for that sort of service. And what's interesting 

Adonai Mack: about it is we're actually redesigning our website right now, as you see. 

Jeff Holden: Wow. Well, the good news is for people who go there in the next month, two months, whatever it is, They're going to get a new experience. Yeah, 

Adonai Mack: they 

Jeff Holden: sure will.

Please don't wait. If you need childcare or services, what is the URL again? It's childaction. org. Okay. Yeah. So childaction. org to the website. 

Adonai Mack: To the website. And then of course you can always, uh, unfortunately I don't have our number in front of me, but it's on our website. 

Jeff Holden: I'll, I'll put it in the show notes.

Adonai Mack: Our social media handles, Facebook, Instagram. Those are probably our two biggest LinkedIn, either you're following me or child action, LinkedIn page. We're on X we've got all the social [00:46:00] media and matter of fact and I Would see what you're gonna see a lot more in the next couple of months because again, we're talking about visibility You're just gonna see a completely different shift in how we engage our community through social media through storytelling YouTube you'll probably see you'll see a lot of growth in that, you know, we're bringing on You We've just built our communications teams out a lot because we're being very purposeful and and I'm just really building them what that looks like.

My goal is to make us as visible as possible. 

Jeff Holden: When I can see those young parents, more likely than not, that's a place they're going to be hanging out. 

Adonai Mack: Right. 

Jeff Holden: And so let's catch them where they are so they're aware that this opportunity exists. Yeah. Yeah. You can have your Child care subsidized because we know it's expensive.

Did you know that? 

Adonai Mack: Yeah. Yeah. 

Jeff Holden: Yeah, which is wonderful 

Adonai Mack: and it's it's also I mean we We're really developing different partnerships with different organizations [00:47:00] And so, you know if you're an organization or a nonprofit company that serves a certain Clientele, I'm gonna challenge you to reach out to us We can find ways to You know If you're serving a clientele that meets our qualification and eligibility, we find ways to get folks enrolled.

Are there challenges? Of course there are. Like, do I have enough staff? No, I don't have enough staff, but as I tell my team, I'd rather, I'd rather folks be knocking on the door and ringing the phones off the hook. I'd rather have that problem. Yes, I don't mind having that problem and we can build in the capacity to be able to serve families the best that we can.

So yeah, does it take a minute sometimes? Yeah, it does. But that's not the way it's always going to be. Because we're going to build out, build out our team to serve the entire, entire region if we can. 

Jeff Holden: And I'll post those social handles on the show notes as well. Oh, perfect. I would love that. So that when anybody goes, they can just find it right there.

Yeah, perfect. And the website, like I said, is, is right there. really is as comprehensive as it is today. I'm sure [00:48:00] the new one will make it even more navigable. 

Adonai Mack: Yes, it won't be as complex and it's our current websites a little complex sometimes. But believe me, there's there's there's gonna be some ease of use coming very soon.

Good, good. How today 

Jeff Holden: I thank you for helping us recognize the incredible support that's out there for both families in need of child care for businesses looking for employees. Employees that in some cases need child care for our schools because that's important that they understand that there's a pass through, that this, this moves in the right direction.

So you're talking to the right places and we just got to get you to talk into more of them. And I think your, your plea there with other nonprofits and other organizations to engage with you is really valid because there's so much more that can be done if people know. 

Adonai Mack: Right. 

Jeff Holden: And looping people into the system is what it's really all about.

Hopefully, [00:49:00] we're going to be a part of that. So, while you're a large agency, it's amazing to me that so much still exists in terms of the opportunity and the headroom that we have in Sacramento. And as we continue to grow, you're always going to be chasing it to some degree. So, 

Adonai Mack: you know, 

Jeff Holden: that's another plus.

Well, I applaud your interest in committing to taking child action to another level of awareness and integration in the community, to your team, all 230, to 250, to 280, to 300, probably the next time we talk. Right. That, you know, what you're doing is so important in the benefit of what we do. I appreciate it.

So, thank you. 

Adonai Mack: Thank you, Jeff. Hey, it was great talking to you today. This was fun. I feel like we should do this more often. 

Jeff Holden: Well, we'll get you looped into some of the other organizations that I promise. I would 

Adonai Mack: love to. I would love to. Thank you very much for having me. And I look forward to us working together in the future.

Jeff Holden: Our pleasure. 

Adonai Mack: All right. Thanks.

Jeff Holden: Thank you for listening to the [00:50:00] nonprofit podcast network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help. If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local nonprofits, please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share.

If you're a nonprofit with an interest in participating in an episode, you can reach me at jeff at hear me now studio. com. If you have a need for the services or products, our sponsors offer, please reach out to them. Cap trust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations. Runyon Saltzman, Incorporated RSC.

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