St. Clair County RESA awarded $300,000 for Michigan Tri-Share Child Care program

February 15, 2022

St. Clair County, MI –The Economic Development Alliance (EDA) is pleased to announce that St. Clair County RESA has been selected by Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) and Michigan Women’s Commission (MWC) as a recipient of the MI Tri-Share Care pilot program grant. This grant award provides up to $300,000 to lead regional program management of the MI Tri-Share Child Care program for the period covering January 24, 2022 to December 31, 2022.

The MI Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program (Tri-Share) is an innovative public/private partnership that shares the cost of child care equally between employers, eligible employees, and the state of Michigan. Through the Tri-Share program, child care expenses are shared by an employer, the employee, and the State of Michigan with each contributing up to one-third of the costs. For example, under this program, an employee paying $9,000 in annual child care services will now pay $3,000, the employer will cover $3,000, and the State of Michigan will cover $3,000.

“This grant program will help address the current childcare crisis, making childcare more affordable for many working families in St. Clair County,” said Becky Gorinac, Director of Early Childhood Services, St. Clair County RESA. “Our collaborative partnership with EDA, Michigan Works, and local business partners will ensure that more working families will have access to high-quality, affordable childcare. We are pleased that St. Clair County RESA was selected to be the Tri-Share ‘hub’ because we have a strong connection with county childcare providers through our Great Start Collaborative.”

RESA will be the grant fiduciary and provide coordination with local child care providers. The EDA will coordinate participation among area businesses interested in offering this program to their eligible employees, beginning with the businesses that provided letters of support for our application.

“Affordable child care continues to be a challenge for many St. Clair County residents, for both those working and those looking to rejoin the labor force,” says Bruce Seymore, EDA’s Vice President of Business Services. “This program, along with the support from participating businesses, will provide new support to qualified employees who have struggled the most with this issue. We are pleased to have so many St. Clair County businesses interested in participating in this program to benefit their employees, and are excited to be partnering with RESA on this effort.”

“Aludyne is thrilled to hear of the progression of the Michigan Tri-Share Child Care Program, says Gabrielle Satryb, Human Resources Generalist at Aludyne, one of the companies that supported the St. Clair County application. “Costs of child care along with the difficulty of finding quality child care facilities can be such a crippling barrier to employment for both companies and job seekers everywhere. Our support of this program is due to the promising notion that it will alleviate the financial and mental stressors of finding affordable and trustworthy childcare, so our employees with families can be able to come to work every day knowing their child is safe and that they can afford to come to work.”

Learn More about the MI Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program