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a childcare cooperative |
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Concept
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In order to meet the demand for 24 hour, 7 days a week childcare needs of parents in Campbell County, a childcare cooperative is being organized as a non-profit organization in order to be eligible for governmental and private foundation funding. The Co-op anticipates providing the following services:
Comprehensive Website A comprehensive, functional, and user-friendly website that allows parents to book slots, find matches, and organize activities.
“Ace-in-the-Hole” childcare Because of the urgent need, and almost complete unavailability of childcare outside of traditional hours in Gillette, Campbell County Memorial Hospital (CCMH) has offered to provide childcare slots to businesses for the benefit of their employees on night and weekend hours when their state-of-the-art center is under-utilized. CCMH will offer these slots in increments of 4—one slot for each age group: infant, 1 year old, 2 year old, and 3 years old to kindergarten—they will charge $6 per hour per slot for this service, and they expect payment for the entire amount in advance, per quarter. CCMH will not handle scheduling, nor will they bill parents directly. KidsFIRST: 24/7 Co-op would like to purchase an initial set of 4 slots, couple that with corresponding daytime slots at Hugs ‘N’ Bugs Preschool, Daycare and Playland. The Co-op will schedule the slots. Members will be given first-come, first-serve access on an online booking website. Members agreeing to a full year of membership will be granted an initial 12 hours of Ace-in-the-Hole hours, after the first month, each membership will accrue 6 hours per month. Members may purchase Ace-in-the-Hole hours above and beyond their membership—if no other member has booked the time one week in advance—and by paying the full cost for the hours used.
If the need and interest in this service indicate feasibility, the Co-op could negotiate similar arrangements with other childcare providers. The ability to book childcare in advance may be attractive to many parents, including those who only need occasional childcare during traditional hours.
Scheduling and Administration Services for Employers KidsFIRST: 24/7 would negotiate with companies desiring to purchase childcare on behalf of their employees to provide scheduling and accounting services. This would include a Co-op membership for the parents, and could include collecting a parent’s contribution, if the company is subsidizing their childcare; matching parent schedules with others on opposite shifts to keep childcare slots filled, and save dollars for both parents and subsidizing employers. The Co-op could handle these kinds of scheduling and accounting services with any childcare provider on behalf of parent members, and/or their employers.
Coordination of Employer, Parental, & Charitable Fundraising The Co-op would work actively with companies employing parents working non-traditional hours to subsidize childcare in order to make quality childcare affordable for parents, and feasible for providers. The Co-op could coordinate employer contributions, parent shares, and maximize the potential of private and governmental charitable contributions through grant writing, fundraising, and accounting.
Parental Shift Matching A service which pairs shift working parents with others on opposite shifts. This service can be utilized for several different purposes—one mentioned above, where the childcare facility slots are kept full, and prevents a parent (or their company) from having to pay the full cost, even when they aren’t working, to keep a space for their child. Another would be for parents who would like to trade childcare entirely—when one works, the other takes care of the kids, and vice versa—to better preserve the family budget.
Unused Childcare Refunds Parents could have the option of enrolling their existing childcare arrangements into the Co-op’s system, so that their unused childcare slots could be offered to other members of the Co-op, in which case parents would be able to receive a refund.
Childcare Service Locating and Quality Assessments The Co-op would maintain a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute database of all available slots in the community, with policies, pricing, and quality assessments. The existing Childcare Finders service is a government office, and as such, cannot make recommendations. We envision this as a Wiki-style website that would allow parents, providers, and others to comment on quality, services, pricing and other issues. In addition, the Co-op would conduct their own assessments in order to provide accurate “apples-to-apples” assessments of available services.
Before and After School Activities, and Teen Job Service Again we envision this to be a Wiki-style site, monitored and enhanced by Co-op personnel, that would list all available Before and After School activities in the community, with policies, pricing, availability, and booking (where possible), as well as a central place for Teen Job placement.
Work With Other Groups to Promote Quality Providers The Co-op would work closely with the established Childcare Working Group, and others, to promote the accessibility and availability of quality childcare providers in the community.
Future Possibilities Other services as envisioned and implemented by the Co-op Membership and Board after organization. Future projects might include participation at some yet-to-be-determined level in the Campbell County Childcare Working Group’s effort to secure a Planning Grant to develop a Business Plan for a 24/7 childcare facility. Should the resulting plan indicate feasibility, the Co-op could be a key player in the implementation of a capitol campaign for fundraising, and may be in a position to consider managing the operation of a resulting facility.
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