Mother offers work-life balance for others with co-working space

CHICAGO — Like many parents she was torn between returning to work and spending time with her new baby. After a short stint using traditional childcare, Daniella Cornue decided to create the best of both worlds for working parents and herself.   

Cornue is a working mother who has mastered the art of work life balance and she wants the same for others. 

“The center of who we are is really built around working parents, specifically working mothers,” she said.

Cornue is the owner of Le Village, a co- working space and daycare all under one roof it’s located in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood.   

“So parents come in, drop their little ones into class and they go and find a seat somewhere put on noise canceling headphones and log into their meetings and work,” Cornue said.

With a shared workspace and conference rooms, parents are able to get the job done while keeping a watchful eye on their little ones. 

Cornue said she got the idea for le village after the birth of her daughter Vivie in September of 2018. She says full time daycare resulted in a lack of quality time with her daughter.   

“I started looking for options for myself, things that would give me the opportunity to just be present with her,” Cornue said.

But Cornue struck out.  A year later she quit her fulltime job in marketing and in November Le Village opened for business. Although the pandemic gave her a bit of a scare on the business front, it would eventually flourish as hybrid schedules became the norm.    

“It ended up being the best thing for our business because it revolutionized the way people work,” she said.

Le Village offers a membership, but Cornue says having a workspace and daycare with certified teachers on-site keeps the cost down. And she says Le Cillage is more than a business, it is a community.  

“Everybody knows everybody else’s kids, they have a real relationship with their teachers and they really connect with them,” she said. “It’s just this amazing community and environment.”

Cornue is already planning expanding, with two locations slated to open in Oak Park and Milwaukee in 2023.