Posted on March 22nd, 2026 in Grant Impact, NCRCRD News

The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development’s (NCRCRD) Fellow, Sarah Kennedy, an Extension Field Specialist at University of Missouri specializing in Early Childhood Impact, has developed a highly interactive, early child care boot camp for stakeholders who want to improve the child care system in their communities.

This new course, Transforming Early Child Care in Your Community Boot Camp is being offered for the first time this Spring at no cost for anyone from the 12-states of the North Central Region (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin). During this 8-week virtual program, participants will explore the Community Change process in terms of child care, and learn the skills to advocate and work with other stakeholders to lead early child care change in their communities.

Course Is Product of Kennedy’s Fellowship
The Boot Camp is the product of Kennedy’s NCRCRD Fellowship which sought to address the child care crisis in the North Central Region. Her project leveraged the results of the NCR-Stat: Childcare Survey by transforming the data into action through a toolkit of strategies and fostering communities of practice amongst the North Central Region states. Learn more about Kennedy’s and other NCRCRD Fellows’ projects.

NCRCRD Fellows collaborate with the Center (in person or virtually) to pursue research and/or outreach that benefits the North Central Region. NCRCRD supports approximately two Fellows each year. The program is open to faculty or staff from land grant institutions in the North Central Region. NCRCRD Fellows Program RFP

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The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is one of four Regional Rural Development Centers in the United States. NCRCRD’s work links the research and educational outreach capacity of our region’s 34 land-grant universities with rural communities to help address a wide range of development issues unique to our 12-state region.

This work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.