Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Child care is a serious need in Kosciusko County.
To help with the ongoing effort to address the problem now, Combined Community Services held a meeting Tuesday with local businesses and school and church officials to attempt to establish a subcommittee within their Quality Initiative Task Force.
"We need to pull these businesses in to form a partnership to address these (child care) needs," said Pam J. Houser, quality child care coordinator.
A year ago, the Quality Initiative Task Force had local companies' employees complete a survey on child care. From the survey, issues dealing with child care needs were highlighted. CCS applied for and received a limited grant to help the county address the issue.
CCS is using the grant money to expand awareness of child care needs in the county, develop partnership with community businesses, expand child care capacity in the county, increase the number of child care facilities that have credentials and reduce the turnover in child care providers.
The 1998 survey was a follow-up to a county needs assessment completed in 1993-94 by United Way of Kosciusko County. That assessment found that child care is the second most serious countywide service needed, the second highest reason for not using existing county services, fourth in neighborhood problems and second in household issues.
For the 1998 survey, 15,000 survey forms were sent out and 14 percent were returned. Of those returned, 33 percent of respondents said they need child care and 21 percent said sick day care for their child is a problem. Other parental problems include summer care, working overtime, dependability of caregiver, transportation and location of caregiver. Nineteen percent said the cost of care is a problem for them as parents.
Jim Coons, CCS executive director, said based on the returned surveys, the data suggest that if 5,333 parents who earn $8.50 an hour stay home eight hours because their 1.8 children are sick a total of 2.5 days per year, then the lost wage cost to Kosciusko County is $1,631,898. This is based on a survey of 15,000 people, or fewer than half of Kosciusko County's population. Assuming wages are 15 percent of the eventual sales revenue, Coons said, the value of lost production is almost $11 million.
"This could easily be doubled with 33,000 families in Kosciusko County," he said.
CCS's recommended course of action is to form a partnership that includes Kosciusko County businesses and local service agencies to investigate the cost and feasibility of expanding the county's child care capacity. CCS also wants to continue to examine child care issues with a 1999 needs assessment and to act on findings as appropriate.
"Without the business community," said Coons, "there is nothing that is going to happen with this issue in the county."
One way CCS is making the search for child care easier is through a computer program available at their office.
CCS has a list of 86 child care providers from around the county in its computer. Parents stop by the CCS office and tell a representative what kind of child care services they want. After in-putting the information from the parent, the computer prints out a referral list. There is no cost to parents for the service.
"We stress these are referrals and not recommendations," said Houser.
For more information on the task force or referrals, contact CCS at 269-6194.
