Since 2022, we have been collaborating with the Old Cottage Hospital in Norris Point, Newfoundland on a community-led project to examine the impact of daycare access (or lack-there-of) on this coastal and rural areas of the province. Through this presentation, we will outline the process of co-designing the project, including the local childcare crisis which has prompted this work, and present our ongoing findings on the potential for rural daycares to both act as key community nodes and spur rural economic development. Our findings are based on semi-structured research interviews, a survey, and a series of community meetings, and in our analysis, we draw on Gibson-Graham’s (2020) ‘community economies’ approach to argue for the importance of rural childcare to families, communities, and rural sustainability more broadly.