Excel by Eight (E8) has joined two national networks working to advance child care as an economic imperative, creating new opportunities to connect Arkansas’s business community with peers and partners across the country.
Through its Business Coalition, E8 has helped employers better understand how child care affects workforce participation and retention, while also identifying practical ways businesses can support working families. That work has now connected Excel by Eight to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Early Childhood and Business Advisory Council, an invite-only initiative that currently includes teams from just 13 states.
Arkansas’s team includes E8 and two members of its Business Coalition: the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas and the Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Excel by Eight has also become an affiliate of Moms First’s National Business Coalition for Child Care, a network of more than 200 companies and organizations working to expand employer-supported child care and elevate the issue as a business priority. These partnerships will allow E8 to share lessons from Arkansas, learn from other states, and strengthen the support it provides to employers through its Business Coalition.
“Our Business Coalition has shown that employers are ready to be part of the solution when they have the right information, tools, and connections,” said Alison Williams, E8’s coalition director. “These national partnerships will help us bring new ideas back to Arkansas while also sharing what our members are already learning and doing.”
