In an effort to aid military service members in finding available childcare or day care service at MacDill’s Child Development Center, a mobile app called Kinderspot, developed by Oddball, will be available to families of Team MacDill beginning July 12, 2021.

Kinderspot is a mobile app designed to streamline the process of temporarily renting out a child’s spot to families who need short-term child care, whether because they are going on vacation or are going on a TDY for the next 2 months.
“The concept is very similar to what you would use for Airbnb, except instead of subletting your house or apartment, you’re subletting your childcare or child daycare spot,” said Maj. Jacque Vasta, Air Force Personnel Center section commander at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

The app, originally tested at Malmstrom Air Force Base, is set to launch at seven other bases, including Davis-Monthan AFB, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Joint Base Andrews, Luke AFB, Peterson AFB, Schriever AFB, and here at MacDill AFB.
The Kinderspot app will allow service members whose children are enrolled at the CDC, to sublet their children’s spot to outside members seeking short term childcare. Children of families renting the spot must be the same age as the children of the families who offer to sublet the spot.

The childcare slots will be rented out on a weekly basis, and once the spot has been rented, the offering family will receive credit that is equivalent to the weekly expense directly to their account.
“Not only will this app provide an easy avenue to find short-term high quality child care in our CDCs, it will also help Airmen with children enrolled at the CDC, who are responsible for paying year-round to hold their spot, and the ability to receive credit for weeks booked by eligible renters,” said Oddball.io, developers of the Kinderspot app. “Easy success reduces stress, and saves money for our Airmen without impact to current ops.”

Vasta created the app for the 2020 AFIMSC Innovation Rodeo where she won first place. In addition, Vasta was awarded $333,000 toward the development of the project as well as an additional $1 million through a Small Business Innovation Research program established under the Small Business Innovation Development Act of 1982.

“I got nothing but overwhelming support, and encouragement from my leadership,” Vasta said. “I recognized the idea had some merit and it's something that we could actually pursue.”
Innovative ideas such as the Kinderspot app assist in one of the Air Force’s primary strategic approaches – Accelerate Change or Lose. This approach as well as accompanying action orders is designed to push the Air Force into a better, more cost saving and innovative future, ensuring the Force never loses against its adversaries.

For more information on the Kinderspot app, check out http://kinderspot.oddball.io/ or look for the app on the Android or IOS app store.