Creating a Childcare & Coworking Space in Leelanau

Imagine a place where parents and their children enter into the same door for a day of care, community, and companionship. Infants and toddlers are passed off to nurturing staff and join a group of friends to play and explore, and parents tuck away into quiet rooms for a chance to work at their remote/hybrid jobs, their business, or their passion project, or perhaps rest and have conversations with other parents of young children. There are an array of classes and events geared towards early childhood to take in the evenings, and on weekends families can gather together for play in an indoor space that was wholly designed for them.

That place is coming! It’s The Aspen House, and you can help bring it to life.

Our Mission is to care for the whole family as a community-focused center dedicated to an environment that supports thriving, not just surviving, the early childhood years.

From Kendall:

Hello! I am Kendall Rose, founder of The Aspen House and a mother of two children, ages 2 and 4 years old, residing in the community of Cedar. Becoming a parent during a global pandemic in a rural area profoundly shaped my experience of early motherhood and the parenting journey. The Aspen House is how I envision reconciling this experience for the next generation of parents who choose to start and raise families in the gentle beauty of Northern Michigan. In the middle of one of several childcare gaps I have faced in the past 4 years of raising children, I began to envision what I would have needed to feel supported in the early parenting years. The Aspen House idea was born shortly after and for two years I have continued to hear the need for a flexible, hourly model of childcare that allows parents to choose their dates and times of greatest need while having easy access to resources echoed by other parents in my community. Through informal conversations and queries, I believe that local families average $1,500 (1 child) - $2,500 (2 children) per month in childcare expenses, or over 30% of the median gross annual income for a family living in Leelanau County. This doesn’t account for a family’s actual net take home pay, their wraparound care for mornings, evenings, weekends, and center-based closures or additional care with a babysitter or nanny.

ALICE (Asset Limited Income Restricted Employed) families such as mine carry a heavy burden in childcare expenses. Considered too well-off to apply for financial aid, yet forced to make difficult economic decisions such as one parent leaving the workforce to care for children, putting off long-term savings, working several jobs, and spending more than one-third of a household income on childcare are all barriers to thriving in this region. These childcare costs often dwarf mortgage and rent payments. This is not a sustaining model for growing healthy families in our region. The mission of The Aspen House is to provide a place for families to thrive -not just survive - until their children are old enough for enrollment in tuition-free public education.

There is currently not a childcare offering in the Grand Traverse Region that focuses on serving families with children ages 0 - 30 months in a flexible, non-tuition or enrollment based, drop-in model. We can look however to the success of the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA, which allows for members to utilize 2 hours of complimentary childcare on-site while they use the facilities! Since joining the YMCA, I have learned that for some families, this offering is the primary reason they purchase a Y membership and use the common lounge space as a coworking facility. There is an enormous need in our community for a similar intentional space for this service.

I'm pouring my passion for this intentional space into The Aspen House, aiming to make a centrally located hub that supports our region's hardworking families and their children.

What Your Support Will Do:

Why We Need Your Support:

Transforming this dream into reality requires more than just vision; it needs the support of people like you. We've laid the groundwork for The Aspen House by seeking support from the Leelanau Early Childhood Development Commission (LECDC), Infant and Toddler Startup program to help navigate the childcare application process received] support for licensing, safety requirements, teaching resources and equipment.

We are now at a critical moment- the next step is to secure a leasehold so that The Aspen House has a home and can begin the process of childcare center licensing with the State of Michigan!

To make this a reality, we've launched this GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign. Our goal is to raise $25,000. This will help fund the startup costs associated with creating a center for childcare and a space for coworking, with a goal of launching in 2025.

Be Part of the New Movement Around Childcare Solutions

We know that we are facing a significant Childcare Crisis since the end of pandemic era funding last year meant the closing of hundreds of childcare centers and layoffs of thousands of care workers. We know that parents everywhere, but particularly in rural regions with 'childcare deserts' are facing difficult choices when it comes to finding options, especially for infants and toddlers. We can recognize that having affordable childcare care is a social means to economic prosperity by allowing parents to choose when, where, and how often they will be employed outside of the home. And we know that in the past, communities worked collaboratively to care for children, families, and elders and saw the inherent value in each of those demographics. Now more than ever, with parents finally being offered flexible solutions for where they'll work, we need flexible solutions for childcare to match. The Aspen House is pioneering a coworking with on-site childcare model for our region, but it's hardly a new idea. Over the past few years dozens of places across the US have opened their doors to youngsters and parents in hopes of closing the childcare gap. The Aspen House is unique in that it offers an affordable monthly membership for families and pay-per hour care that is as easy to book as a hair appointment. Using some existing ideas, and forging our own, The Aspen House will be the tech-enabled solution to flexible childcare and also offer a modern, lovely coworking space geared towards parents.

Join Our Community

Your support is not just a donation; it's an investment in our region's families and their ability to thrive. The Aspen House is a mission-based business that will benefit parents, children, families, employers, and communities in our region. Let's build something positive together!

We're excited to share this journey and invite you to participate in The Aspen House story.

Take good care,

Kendall Rose, Founder of The Aspen House