Learn About the Coalition

About the Uplift Child Care Coalition

First 5 San Luis Obispo County is coordinating the Uplift Child Care Coalition, a regionwide effort to tackle one of the Central Coast’s most pressing challenges: affordable, accessible child care. The Coalition unites advocates from six counties—from Santa Cruz to Ventura—in a first-of-its-kind collaboration to strengthen the child care system as a driver of economic mobility.

The Coalition has teamed up with child care innovators throughout the six-county region to create a multi-sector network that includes early care and education leaders, families, resource and referral agencies, child care planning councils, cities and counties, chambers of commerce and employers, nonprofits and higher education. By bringing diverse voices to the table and turning conversation into coordinated action, the Coalition is paving the way for a stronger, more equitable child care system across the entire Central Coast.

The Coalition aims to:

Facilitate shared learning
Document & showcase promising best practices
Activate joint regional advocacy
Advance regionwide replication & scaling of best practices

Coalition Learning Communities

Thank you to all of our Session 1 participants, Session 2 details coming soon!

Missed Session 1 of the Learning Communities or unable to attend as many sessions as you would have liked? Join us on December 17th at 10 am for a Recap Session covering all topic areas! We will offer a brief overview of Session 1 for all five Learning Communities and the main takeaways to prepare for Session 2. Register for the December 17th Recap here.

The Coalition’s Learning Communities are based on Uplift's key focus areas that drive child care as an economic mobility strategy:

- - - Expand & Retain Child Care Workforce
    - Expand Child Care Facilities
    - Employer Supported & Subsidized Child Care
    - Centralized Resources & Families Navigating Child Care Options
    - Community Investment in Child Care

The Learning Communities launched in November of 2025 and will continue this winter, with two additional 90-minute Zoom sessions. The goal is for cross-sector and cross-county leaders to share, learn, and teach about impactful projects, strategies, and best practices in order to collectively work towards scaling, replication, and advocacy.

Learn more about each of the Learning Community focus areas.

Uplift Central Coast

The backbone funding for the Child Care Coalition was received from Uplift Central Coast (Uplift), which is a six-county coalition working to attract investment and expand opportunities for Central Coast residents. The mission of Uplift is “to uplift our residents as we uplift our regional economy, growing from within to create transformative opportunities for more than 2 million people across six Central Coast counties.”

Uplift's Regional Plans

Under California Jobs First, Uplift created a forward-thinking development plan to help the region thrive. Extensive research and close work with community members, employers, industry leaders, and organizations to better understand the Central Coast economy resulted in two regional plans: Uplift's Regional Plan Part I Report and Uplift's Regional Plan Part II Report.

The Regional Plan Part II identified child care as a key economic mobility strategy broken down into four key focus areas:

Expand and retain the child care workforce
Expand child care facilities
Encourage employer supported & subsidized child care
Improve centralized resources and support family navigation of child care options

Uplift's Catalyst Predevelopment Funding

After producing the Regional Plans, Uplift released a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Catalyst Predevelopment phase of work. Nearly $50 million in funding requests from more than 136 organizations were received for the $9 million that was available for distribution. 36 organizations who were committed to advancing economic resilience, environmental sustainability, and equitable growth across the Central Coast were awarded funding. These organizations, representing all six counties, span diverse industries and address critical needs in areas such as workforce development, aerospace, education and job training, child care and community development, and climate resilience and sustainable agriculture.

First 5 San Luis Obispo County was awarded a Catalyst Predevelopment grant to coordinate the Uplift Child Care Coalition.

Click here for more information on all of the applicants and grantees.

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