Needs, Strategies & Community Response

Having reliable childcare may mean the difference between being successful at work and not being successful. Many people striving for self-sufficiency have young children; often such people are the sole caretaker of these children. Even when parents can arrange affordable child-care, a variety of child-care concerns often occur during work hours. Child-care arrangements may fall through at the last minute due to an unreliable provider, or parents may be unable to find care for sick children. Parents may need to pick up sick children from child care during the day, and transportation problems can make traveling between work and child care difficult. In addition, concerns about the quality and safety of child-care services may interfere with a parent's ability to perform well at work.

Concerns

Research shows that it is more difficult for low-income mothers to return to work after they have children. Child care can be a crucial factor in workers job success; those worried about the quality of their childrens' care or who must miss time at work due to unreliable or inconvenient care will be less able to perform well on the job. Because so many child-care programs do not meet high quality standards, many working parents need assistance locating care that can provide appropriate and stimulating care for their children while also fitting the parents work hours.

Parents moving from welfare to work have a particularly great need for assistance in this area. New workers face numerous new challenges within a short time, are frequently single parents, usually have very little time to locate child care, and often have transportation problems that prohibit them from being able to make thorough visits to different child-care settings. Employers can help by working closely with child-care "resource and referral" agencies to help employees locate appropriate care for their children.

Community Response

Communities may need to take a separate look at child care to assess cost, quality, and related issues. Are there enough regulated slots for children? Are parents pleased with their care? How do you know? Where are the gaps in available care? Is there enough infant care? Is there enough school-age care or care for sick children? How can the community meet this need? Additional information is available in Community-Based Child Care--a manual available through Cooperative Extension; see also Child Care: Organizing at the Community Level.

Strategies

1. Employer-Employee Discussion

Parents and employers can sit down together and discuss possible solutions that would ensure quality care for children while allowing employees to complete their job duties successfully. This sort of discussion can be encouraged during the interview process or among multiple employees in the workplace.

Important considerations might be flexible scheduling, creative solutions for transportation problems, and support in finding good child care. When employers and employees work together to address these issues, employees will be more committed to the organization and better able to focus their energy on job responsibilities.

2. Supporting the Search for Child Care

Parents must learn how to network within communities to locate good child care. Even with a vast knowledge of quality child care, finding the "right" care can be extremely difficult. Parent-workers should consider these strategies:

3. Helping Parents Make Backup Plans

At some point, children will need care during the day because they are sick. What plans has the community made in this regard? What do other parents do? What does the employer offer?

4. Assuring There Is Ongoing Quality Care

Once child care is selected, having confidence that children are safe and nurtured and that their needs are met is critical to worker success. Hold work-site informational sessions for parents to help them know what to look for as they pick-up and drop-off their child. What are the signs that a child is doing well in care?

5. Consider Day-Care Cooperatives

A member-owned association of self-employed, trained, and licensed family child-care providers serves as a business support system with the goal of helping providers earn a decent living. Depending on the number of people who graduate from a child care training program and establish a child-care business, the cooperative could be very successful.

6. After-School Child Care

Some schools offer after-school child care. Some programs for school-aged children are organized through the county or local schools or organizations.

7. Child Care Subsidies

Subsidies may be available to qualifying families through various government agencies.

For more information, see:

Community Strategies for Helping Families Become Self-Sufficient
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.
Cornell Cooperative Extension- Children, Youth and Families