About Excel by Eight
Enabling Employers to Build a Thriving, Family-Friendly Workplace in Arkansas
Excel by Eight is a network of hundreds of individuals and organizations focused on increasing Arkansas children’s health and education outcomes. We are committed to strengthening resource grids statewide by building local models for change, identifying and resolving policy barriers, and enhancing public understanding of early childhood development.
At Excel by Eight, we partner with families and communities to improve health and education outcomes for Arkansas children prenatal to age 8. A strong start means education and health outcomes are not determined by barriers related to age, disability, gender, income, race/ethnicity, geography, or community resources.
Family, community, and policymakers play a vital role in ensuring a strong start is available for every child.
About the Toolkit
Since 2020, Excel by Eight has mobilized Arkansas businesses in the form a Business Coalition to identify workable solutions that address the three critical elements of the child care crisis – accessibility, affordability, and quality – and its impact on the state’s current and future workforce. Quality child care is essential to a thriving Arkansas economy and businesses can play a key role in expanding access to child care for employees.
Our strategic partners
Ingeborg Initiatives is on a mission to empower mothers in the state of Arkansas by improving maternal health, advancing women’s economic opportunity and expanding access to quality care and early learning opportunities for children. Ingeborg Initiatives partners with organizations that are reimagining the economics of childcare in order to increase access to care for families and to improve the quality of early learning opportunities in Arkansas.
Excel by 8 and its business coalition members, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce / Associated Industries of Arkansas and the Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, are part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Early Childhood and Business Advisory Council. This relationship allows Arkansas to draw on the Foundation’s thought partnership to address child care challenges in an Arkansas context.
Excel by 8 is grateful to the Alliance for Early Success, who funded Grace Reef of the Early Learning Policy Group, as part of its Responsive Support network, to develop the Arkansas Employer Toolkit, the predecessor to this resource hub. The Alliance is a national nonprofit that works with early childhood policy advocates at the state level to ensure that every child, birth through eight, has an equal opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.