There is a critical shortage of high quality, affordable child care in Santa Barbara—for every licensed child care space in the city, there are 3.2 children of working parents. In order to assess how parent employees are dealing with their child care issues and what impact this has on the workplace, the County of Santa Barbara, First 5 Santa Barbara County and other local employers have developed the Downtown Santa Barbara Employee Child Care Survey.

The information gathered from the online survey and employee focus groups, which will be conducted by an independent research organization, will be used to plan and develop future projects, and inform local businesses and policy makers about child care issues.

The survey results will detail the potential return on investment of addressing these issues through increased employee retention and productivity. Individualized survey reports will be created for each employer, along with a comprehensive, community-wide report including recommendations for next steps. Employer participation in the survey does not require involvement in future child care projects.

The Downtown Santa Barbara Employer Child Care Partnership invites you to participate in a project that will benefit all our community. Please see the Employer and Employee Involvement sections of this website for more information.

Click here to participate in the Parent Employee Focus Groups.

Project Timeline
Partnership Members
Current Participating Employers