S3,E23 - Tanika Jones

This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState CEO. We're an independent nonprofit committed to creating inclusive, equitable, and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward.

This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. As a part of our innovation and entrepreneurship work CenterState CEO staff gets to work with some of the most creative and passionate small business owners in our community. They are offering unique products, they're making our neighborhoods more vibrant, and they're overall enhancing our regional economy. On this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, I'm joined by one of those entrepreneurs, Tanika Jones, Founder and Owner of It Takes a Village Daycare.

Tanika, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you for having me.

You are a Syracuse native. You are also the owner, the founder of It Takes a Village Daycare, and It Takes a Village has grown quite a bit in the past few years. Can you tell me a little bit about your journey, how it started, and where you are today?

Absolutely. So It Takes a Village, 24-hour childcare started in my living room.

Oh my gosh.

In 2014, and it's always been 24 hours. The children became part of my family. I just decided that if I was able to pour into my own children, I could pour into others. And why not 24 hours? I mean, parents work off-hours. So I thought that was great. They became part of our cheerleading team when we had games for my one daughter, and we went to birthday parties, we went to Chuck E. Cheese, all the things. So the children really became a part of my family. The program outgrew my home and into the home next door to my home, which is still, I call it the OG building. And that is completely designed for children. So no one resides...So no one resides in the home. They reside upstairs from the home. So it is a childcare center in a home.

In the pandemic, the research and referral agency would do virtual visits and then licensing would do virtual visits as well. And they said, Tanika, you should really consider opening a center. I said, 'No, that's crazy, not me. How would I do that? People don't open centers. What do you mean?" And they said, "No, no, no, you should absolutely consider opening a center." And they said, "Go." And I said, "No." And they said, "Go." And I said, "No." So eventually I gave in, and I'm very thankful to CenterState for assisting me in that journey, helping me to locate a building that was in my community. I was very, very dedicated to the community that I'm in. Purchasing the building was huge.

That's a huge task.

People that look like me don't buy buildings and then open centers. No. And then a build out was crazy. I had no idea that an architect could cost so much money.

Oh my gosh.

Like what? It's like I was calling CenterState, and I'm talking to Erik. I'm sending Erik, I don't want to pay $7,000 for an architect. No. So then we finally opened our first center. I was so proud.

When was that?

That was in December of 2023.

Okay.

Yeah. And so shortly after that 90, I call it our ninety, ninety, ninety days after we opened, we were 90% full.

Oh my gosh.

90% staffed and the center right across the parking lot became empty.

Oh my gosh.

I said, could this have happened earlier? And so they came over and they said, "Would you be interested in another center?" I said, "No". They said yes. I said, "No." So eventually I said, you know, I actually could impact more families if we had two centers on the same campus. And so I took a leap of faith and opened that in January of this year. So, we have three locations, and it's huge. It's amazing. It really is.

That is amazing. It's a ton of work. I mean, you can kind of hear it when you were just giving that overview. I mean, from the architects to running a building and childcare, there is a lot that you have to take into consideration to make sure kids are safe and learning and healthy.

Yes.

So can you talk a little bit more about the relationship with CenterState, and how you were able to better navigate some of that stuff and take time for yourself as an entrepreneur to focus on what you needed to grow your business?

Yeah. So what does that mean? Take care of yourself? I don't know when that happens.

You're still working on that part.

We're still working on that, but I will say that meeting with my advisor from CenterState weekly has really helped. It was an outlet, someone who could listen, who understood what I was going through. I can't have that conversation with my friends. I can't have that conversation with my family. Nobody understands what it means to run payroll, or find a payroll company, or hiring, or terminating enrollment, marketing, you name it. Nobody understands that talk, and nobody wants to hear those boring conversations.

That's not the one that your friends are like, "Oh, Tanika, tell us about payroll."

Right, right. No, it doesn't happen that way. So being able to have someone that I could talk to on a weekly basis, I look forward to those conversations. I look forward to the feedback, the expertise, the resources. So that has really, really helped me to navigate this. I have to be honest that I wouldn't have done it. I couldn't have done it without the support. And I'll say I couldn't have done it as easily without the support. It was absolutely something that I never thought I could do.

How did you find CenterState? How did you get in contact originally? Do you remember?

So that's a great question. So I am the type of person that will tap into every resource possible. I'm a forever learner, and if somebody says that they're offering something, I show up. I love to go to conferences and all the things. So during the pandemic, there was a grant with the, I think it was KeyBank

And then there was this survey that if you are awarded this grant, are you interested in this, this and all these things. And I checked every box. You're like, yes, every single thing I'm interested in everything. And so I got this phone call, and at this time it was a different individual who called me. And it was interesting because their interest, I guess, or commitment to the growth of It Takes a Village was greater than what I could even imagine. So the conversation went a little like, "Hey, I'm calling from CenterState." There was the program they mentioned, and "We'd like to talk to you about... Do you want a bus? Do you want this?" I'm like, no. Whoa. Wait, wait a minute. Wait a minute. No. And I will never forget that. And I love that he poured into me and I was like, whoa. And I was really kind of a little resistant and I was like, what are you talking about? I'm fine. Where I am in my home mind and my business, right. Doing very well. And here he comes with these grandiose ideas. But that's really how I found CenterState. And I've been meeting regularly ever since. And I don't ever want them to leave me.

I don't think we will. We love having you here, Tanika. I mean, you are someone that folks in our office talk about, people who work with CenterState talk about, and just how much you really pour yourself into the community, into kids, into what you do. I mean, John Peter, he was just on our podcast last episode, and he mentioned you as well. I know he has made contributions to It Takes a Village, and he just mentioned when he got to meet you how passionate and dedicated you are, and it was something he knew that was meaningful to invest in. Can you talk a little bit about the community support you've received, what it's like to see community pour back into you, what you pour into them?

Yeah. I have to admit that it's a little overwhelming. I'm not a person who naturally looks for gifts or anyone to give me anything. I'm much more of a giver than a receiver. And so when Erik told me that there was this gentleman who really wanted to meet me and heard my story and was interested in contributing to our expansion, I really thought it was unreal that there's people that exist that do those types of things because everything that I have has come from Marketplace. And so he wanted to invest in signage. So here's a funny story. So that was back in with the first building. So that was over a year ago. And again, I was very overwhelmed, and all of the paperwork and all of the things and then expanding again was a lot. So I couldn't even think about the check actually expired. We won't tell him that, but it did. It expired and then he had to rewrite it again because I just couldn't past garage sales and those things to accept the gift and know what to do with it and how to apply it to my business. Once the dust settled and everything was clear, I was able to really get into this and really accept it as a gift and invest in signage. And can I tell you how game changing that was.

Really.

Had I known last year that signage would've expanded my business the way it did?

Wow.

I would've cashed a check as soon as I got it. I didn't know the check just kind of sat as a trophy on my desk.

You were like, I earned this. I don't quite know what to do with it.

Right? It was just a gift, and I just wanted it to just sit there and just take that in as just a kind stranger just invested in little old Tanika from Syracuse and childcare because childcare is not well respected in our communities. So that was huge. And shout out to John. It was amazing. The signage is fantastic, and I get so many people that walk by and they call us from outside. I see this is a 24-hour childcare. And I said, "Yeah. How did you find out about it? Oh, well, I'm outside. I'm like, really? Gosh, I'm looking at your sign. I'm looking at your sign." So that was really amazing, and I'm so grateful to have received such a gift.

I mean, you are a firm entrepreneur now. You have been in this now for years. Reflect on it a little bit for me. What have been some of the most challenging, the most rewarding? What do you feel when you think about your career with It Takes a Village so far?

Geez, legacy building.

I get emotional thinking about how if I can influence just other people that look like me, little girls to dream a bigger dream, to know that they can do all things, anything they put their mind and heart to. I feel like I've done a great job. So not just for my children, but my children's children and their friends and others in the community. Like I said in the beginning, people that look like me don't buy buildings and open daycare centers, and I didn't think I could do it. I come from a family of business owners, but they were men. I didn't think that black girls could do this kind of work and make this kind of magic happen. So just to inspire others and just build a legacy that will last for a long time in this community would be amazing.

Definitely. I know that people in the community are probably when they come to bring their children to you, that's such an intimate experience to drop your children off with someone else who you trust. I mean, is that something that you respond to you can feed off of.

Absolutely.

That you treasure?

So it is taught in this industry that as an owner that you should own, and you should be an offsite owner. I'm an owner director, and I'm an onsite owner director. And that is important to me. I tour every family.

And you were cooking lunch right before you showed up here.

I was cooking lunch. I make lunch every single day. I tour every single family. I interview every single candidate. And that is important to me. We are a family. You have to trust that your child is going to be in the best care ever when you walk away. We serve many families from outside of our county. That always blows me away. But it's that intimate connection when you're touring someone or even on the phone that I make, as soon as somebody calls me, if a parent calls and says, "Hey, I just got a new job, and I need childcare." The first thing I do is say, "Congratulations. You go girl." Because that's a huge win for someone who's been looking for employment for a while, and now all they have to do is get their child in childcare. So let's make this happen for you. I got four calls this morning. They want to meet with me on Thanksgiving. That's not going to work, but I can meet with you tomorrow. I'll make an exception. We had a tour yesterday, and I only usually do one a week, but I'll make an exception because they want to start their new employment opportunities on December 1st.

So that absolutely, my office window is right at the front door, and I keep threatening to put up a curtain, but I'm not because I want to see those friendly faces every single day. So even if that means I have to stay two hours later tonight. So yeah, it is a very intimate connection that I feel is important. So offsite owner, I don't know if that's in the future for me. I don't know. My office is pink because it is a representation of me, and it is my nice cozy space, and I absolutely love it. And I'm there all day. You can always find me at the daycare.

Well, Tanika, we are going to take a quick break. We are going to have a word from our presenting sponsor NBT Bank, but we'll be right back.

I would recommend NBT Bank to any business. My name is Chris Polimino, and I'm the president of Atlas Fence. Chris had decided to purchase Atlas Fence from the previous owner. He had previous connections at NBT Bank. NBT Bank provided me equipment financing, doubling our entire production workforce. It's important to me as a business owner that the decisions of our banking relationship are made locally.

This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO, and your host for Talk CNY. I'm joined on this episode by Tanika Jones, the Founder and Owner of It Takes a Village Daycare. Tanika, thank you for being here.

Thank you.

So we were talking a little bit before the break, how you are probably not going to be an offsite owner anytime in the future. I mean, your passion for the field is clear. Can you tell me why childcare for you? Why is this something that resonates with you? Is it always something, a field you've always wanted to be a part of? I know you said that you first started out of your home with just a few kids, and now you're three locations in and many more kids. So take me on your journey with childcare a little bit.

For sure, for sure. So my background is in social work. I absolutely never had an interest in early childhood education. My mother's a retired teacher. My grandmother was a teacher and then professor at Syracuse University. So I definitely come from a family of educators by way of the females and my family, but I never saw myself as a teacher. Kids are like, "Oh, what do you want to be when you grow up? Oh, I want to be a teacher."

No, not me, but I have a passion for families and being a difference maker. And so I realized that as a parent, not only did I struggle with childcare, but as I was parenting my children by myself, I got to know a lot of their friends, and I volunteered in the schools, and I made a difference in the lives of a lot of children. And even though I was the very stern mom, all of the children seemed to gravitate to me. So I knew I was doing something right with my own children and raising them and pouring into them and making them my priority because of the way I was raised and the love that I received. So when given the opportunity, I had a life-changing experience where I stepped away from a job that I had that I absolutely loved, but I decided I wanted to stay home and be closer to my children. And so that was a perfect time for me to open my home to other families. It was scary. Oh, sure.

Okay. It's very intrusive. You have strangers coming into your home is very intrusive.

Yeah. You said you started as 24 hours.

I started as 24 hours. So there were children sleeping in my home.

Yeah.

That was interesting. But quickly, we fell in love with it. And I say we, myself, my children, my family, my neighbors, that's the daycare house. She's a daycare lady. And it was an amazing journey. And then there were children and people were coming and they loved my home and I was like, wow, I actually have created something here. And it just grew from there. Just grew.

I mean, we touched on it a little bit when you talked about families who come to you who say they want to start their new job, but childcare is such a big part of people being able to start new jobs, go to work, support their families, and the holistic part of community. Can you talk a little bit more about how your daycare center, It Takes a Village. It's 24 hour care plays a role into that system and is trying to really address some of the needs that there are within the system right now.

For sure. So I had love for you to consider when you leave work and you have to stop and get dinner, the person that's taking your order, if they have children, where are their children? On Saturday, when you have to go get your groceries and the cashier's ringing you out and she says, have a great day. You think about maybe she has children. That was me as a mom. I was that cashier, and thank God for my mom and my grandmother who assisted me on those weekends or at night when I worked various jobs. But not everybody has that village. Not everybody has a safe place. Even if they have a village, it may not be the safest option. It may not be the most child-friendly option with activities and learning support, healthy meals. And so It Takes, a Village has created that. I also forgot to mention that I also provided transportation for many families over the years. When I first started, I would actually take parents to work.

Oh wow.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Uber wasn't a thing,

Right? They had to take, I remember the one mom who is still my daycare daughter to this day, she worked at Taco Bell on the Boulevard. Her commute was two and a half hours long. Oh my gosh. It was easier for me to throw her in my car, take her to work, and then wait outside when she got off work to pick her up and take her home. Oh my gosh. A mom who has to pick up her newborn baby, just like three months old in the bitter cold winter at 11:30 at night, that was too much. I could not go to sleep at night knowing this woman and her three children were out on the bus stop waiting to get home at 11:30 at night, and it was cold. I just threw the kids in the car, went to Loretto, picked her up, and dropped her off at home.

That's just who I am. And even today, I can't obviously pick every child up, but I have paid for Ubers and Rideshare services because I want them to be able to get to work or get their children to childcare safely. So I feel like you said, it's a holistic approach. We have to look at the entire needs of the family and how childcare is just one piece, but if they can't get them to childcare, they can't get to work, they can't feed their families, and then the system, the cycle just continues to go round and round. So yeah, that's all a part of being a village to me.

Yeah. I mean, what do you hope to see change maybe? As someone who's in the field, you see parents and children every day, how do you hope to see the childcare industry and our communities grow and be more supportive of families?

So that's a great question. Currently, childcare subsidy funding has been paused. There's a huge wait list. I've never seen this happen before in our community, and it really breaks my heart. I didn't think it was as serious as it really is. I would say 50% of the phone calls I've been getting are parents who do not have the funds to pay for childcare. I had a mom today, and she's looking for childcare for her five-year-old son after school until 11:30 at night. And I had to break the news to her that there's a cost associated with that, and she's hoping to scrape up the funds by Friday. So he could start on Monday. But I have to be honest, I don't think that's going to work out for her because childcare costs can be a little hard for people. She says, well, I'm on the wait list. And I said, I understand, and unfortunately I hear this often. So I really hope that we can find some funding to assist families so that they can work. Because if she can't go to work, she doesn't have childcare, she's unfortunately probably going to lose her job. Or on the other end, parents are making hard decisions to leave their children at home with either someone who may not be the best choice, or unfortunately by themselves.

Then we have a whole different issue.

So there's definitely a lot to keep building towards to make the system better. So what encourages you day in and day out to keep going and to keep building within childcare?

Knowing that I'm making a difference in the lives of these families. I get up every day knowing that if I don't show up, who will? I have to go there? I have to be there for those families. And also, it's important to mention that I've created lots of employment opportunities. Absolutely. So, again, if I don't show up then what. So a lot of our teachers, for many of our teachers, this is their first opportunity in working in a childcare center and for a percentage of others, it's their first employment opportunity in the U.S.

Wow.

Yeah. That's so exciting.

Yeah, we have a very diverse team, and I didn't even realize it. I just cut the checks.

Then I had one team member come to me and she says, "It's my first check in the U.S. And I was like, oh my goodness. I didn't realize it. I was so caught up in the thick of everything. So I really celebrate that, and that's a huge win for me that I'm actually creating an opportunity for people to have a job. Really. Wow. It's one thing to create childcare, but to create employment opportunities is a whole different level. So do both at the same time to do both at the same time. Wow. The only time I get to reflect on that is when I have opportunities like this to tell my story, because as soon as I leave here, I'm sure I have 10 phone calls waiting for me, and I'm running right back to the center. So I don't have the opportunity to really sit and think about the impact that I make. And I also am very humble. I really don't want to tell the story often as often as it needs to be told.

But that's just your nature.

Yeah, it is it, yeah.

Well, I want to wrap up by looking forward a little bit. We are on the cusp of the new year, about to be 2026. So can you tell me a little bit about what you're excited for in 2026, both for It Takes a Village and for Tanika yourself?

Absolutely. So I had a great opportunity to share my story a couple of weeks ago and in front of a room full of funders. And so I got a couple of phone calls. I'd really be excited to receive some of those gifts and so that we can maybe get a playground or maybe some new rugs. That would be great because everything comes from marketplace, like I said. There could be some improvement. So I'm looking forward for that to really improve the space so that the children have a really beautiful place where they can learn and be cared for. And then also, because as I mentioned that this is sometimes the teacher's first opportunity to work in an early childhood setting. My sort of vision for 2026 is going from caretaker to educator. So really teaching them to be educators. They're great at caretaking, but I really want them to shine as an educator and see themselves really, really pouring into these children by way of education. So that's really what's on the horizon for us in 2026.

Well, that sounds really exciting. Tanika, thank you so much for being here today for spending some time with us.

Thank you so much for having me.

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