UW Wyoming SBDC Network’s Costa-Cargill to Serve as Panelist at Harvard Growth Lab Event Oct. 26

Childcare access is a fundamental economic issue. Across the United States, childcare shortages are quietly constraining economic growth -- keeping workers, disproportionately women, out of the labor force. Wyoming offers an unusual case of a state tackling the problem not as social policy, but as economic infrastructure.

The Harvard Growth Lab's Development Talks series will explore real-world, business-focused solutions to help expand childcare supply and strengthen local communities across Wyoming Monday, Oct. 26.

Devan Costa-Cargill, a regional director for the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Network, will be one of the panelists for the online webinar, titled "Growth Lab: Wyoming's Childcare Shortage" from 2:30-3:30 p.m. MT. To register, go here. Registration is free.

The Wyoming SBDC Network offers business expertise to help Wyoming residents think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The Wyoming SBDC Network is hosted by the University of Wyoming with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The Harvard Growth Lab's Development Talks is a series of conversations with policymakers and academics working on economic growth and development in countries, regions, states and cities in the U.S. and around the world. The series provides a platform for practitioners and researchers to discuss both economic growth and development and analytical work centered on policy.

Since 2023, the Wyoming Business Council has led an interagency effort that treats childcare the way states treat roads or broadband: as a precondition for workforce participation. The results, thus far, include startup grants for new providers in underserved areas; regulatory reform to unlock home-based operations; and a data system that maps supply gaps at the community level -- all in a state where provider supply had collapsed by more than 25 percent in a decade.

During the webinar, panelists will discuss what it takes to build childcare as economic infrastructure; what the business case looks like when you reframe the problem; and what other states and countries grappling with labor force participation gaps can learn from Wyoming's approach.

Costa-Cargill is the Wyoming SBDC Network regional director for Big Horn, Hot Springs, Park and Washakie counties. She launched her consulting career in the public school system, specifically in special education. For the past 10 years, Costa-Cargill has operated her own small business, providing consultation and enrichment to families and early educators. Her work with the Wyoming SBDC Network began in April 2021, advising small-business startups through the first important steps of their journey.

Other panelists are Kristin Fong, northwest regional director of the Wyoming Business Council; Feliciana Turner, manager of the Wyoming Maternal and Child Health Unit in the Wyoming Department of Health; and Roxanne O'Connor, administrator for the Wyoming Department of Family Services Support Services Division.

For more information, call Tyler Schanck, marketing, communications and database manager for the Wyoming SBDC Network, at (307) 343-0925 or email [email protected].