A parent’s ability to find dependable childcare can determine whether they accept a job, remain in the workforce or pursue additional training. For employers, that same challenge can affect hiring, retention and productivity. For children, quality early education can lay the foundation for lifelong success.

These connections are why childcare belongs in conversations about our region’s economic future—and why learning from other communities matters.

When the Savannah Area Chamber’s President’s Council created the Leadership Exchange and Development Series, known as LEADS, it gave regional leaders a way to examine complex challenges together, learn from other communities and bring those lessons home.

We can see that purpose taking shape in the connection between last year’s visit to Nashville and Clarksville, Tennessee, this year’s President’s Council programming and our upcoming LEADS trip to New Orleans.

During the 2025 trip, delegates explored childcare and education initiatives in Clarksville, considering how growing communities respond to the needs of families. Seeing that work firsthand gave our leaders a shared reference point for discussing stronger childcare infrastructure in the Savannah region.

Those conversations continued when we returned. Lessons from Tennessee helped inform this year’s President’s Council programming and brought greater attention to local organizations, partnerships and investments addressing barriers to opportunity.

This week’s preview of East Savannah United’s Early Childhood Learning Center offered a tangible example of that progress. The Chamber’s involvement in helping launch the SPLOST-funded project reflects a longstanding understanding: a strong economy depends on families having the resources they need to participate in it.

Supported by sales tax dollars that our visitor economy helps generate, the center brings together local government, community organizations, businesses and residents. It connects early education with a broader vision for neighborhood opportunity—the kind of place-based investment our partners at United Way of the Coastal Empire describe.

With SPLOST collections supporting a second childcare center beginning this month, that vision is entering its next chapter. These investments can support parents working today while helping prepare the next generation to succeed.

That same commitment to opportunity shaped Jason Marshall’s keynote address on behalf of Goodwill Southeast Georgia at President’s Council this week. Goodwill’s planned Opportunity Campus will bring education, childcare and healthcare services together, addressing challenges that often overlap and prevent people from pursuing employment and greater economic stability.

The work of East Savannah United and Goodwill reinforces a central lesson of the Purpose Built Communities approach: education, housing and supportive services are connected. Progress requires partners to consider the full range of conditions that help families thrive.

This month, LEADS delegates will explore that approach in New Orleans’ Bayou District, where Educare New Orleans made early childhood education a cornerstone of the Columbia Parc redevelopment.

As our own local projects take shape, this visit will help us consider what sustained investment could make possible over the next 20 years. We will also examine the partnerships, policies and commitments needed to turn that potential into lasting progress.

This is the value of LEADS. President’s Council creates space for serious discussion. LEADS gives leaders the opportunity to see work firsthand, ask questions and learn together. The Chamber carries those lessons into its advocacy, partnerships and policy work throughout the year.

Our responsibility is to keep connecting what we learn with what our community needs. As we prepare for New Orleans, we are building on a conversation already generating local momentum—and working toward a stronger region where economic growth creates greater opportunity for all.