The Roundtable is founded and convened by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF) with the support of the Virginia Chamber, GO VA, and VEDA and is comprised of executives in business/employers, local & regional chambers, and economic development agencies representing all Ready Regions in Virginia, promoting investment and innovation throughout Virginia’s early childhood care and education system.
Purpose
The Virginia Business Roundtable for Early Education (“VBREE” or “the Roundtable”) was founded in 2023 with the belief that Virginia’s prosperity and quality of life are inextricably dependent upon a strong early childhood education system. A nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative of the VECF board of directors, VBREE’s mission is to sustain and grow, through strategic financing, the supply of high quality, affordable and accessible child care, driving critical and multi-faceted benefits for the Commonwealth. VBREE is committed to educating the public, engaging diverse stakeholders, and driving innovation for the crucial role that accessible child care serves in Virginia’s workforce development and economy, including as a differentiator for Virginia in economic development, site selection, and workforce talent attraction and retention. VBREE strives to secure the increased investment and policy improvements needed for the Commonwealth’s best-in-class early education system to sustain its standing as the best state to live, work, and raise a family.
Mission
VBREE’s mission is to enhance Virginia’s child care system to drive significant positive impact on children’s school readiness, families’ workforce participation, a thriving business sector and labor force, and a strong economy in Virginia.
Members
Members include senior representatives from businesses with significant employment and/or economic impact, GO VA regional boards, local and regional chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, and Ready Region lead agency boards of directors across the Commonwealth.
Our Why
VBREE members represent the perspectives and needs of their region’s business, employer, and economic development sectors. We are committed to championing our Ready Region’s recognition of the importance of and urgent need for a high capacity child care system in Virginia to meet the school readiness needs of the future workforce and work/life needs of the current workforce. When we are successful, compelling benefits will accrue to Virginia’s workforce of today, workforce of tomorrow, business productivity and profitability, and economic prosperity in the Commonwealth.
Learn more about our 2024 Legislative Priorities.
Latest News
In July 2024, the Shovel Ready Virginia Task Force was officially launched under the banner of VBREE to convene top executives across economic development, business and education sectors of the Commonwealth in a collective effort to build the supply of high-quality early childhood care and education services supporting the current and future workforce. The Shovel Ready Virginia Task Force will advise and support VBREE representatives as they oversee the incubation of innovations that address the unique early education and child care supply challenges in each of the state’s nine Ready Regions. The Task Force will explore strategies and solutions to help strengthen the early educator workforce, build supply, and increase families’ access to quality affordable child care in every region, resulting in a paradigm shift in how Virginians view, value, prioritize, and invest in child care.
