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ELLSWORTH—Think childcare is a problem reserved for parents?
Think
again.
“Businesses
are affected by childcare issues,” said Phyllis Young, Child &
Family Opportunities’ executive assistant.
The mission
of Child & Family Opportunities is to serve children and their
families with Head Start and childcare services in Hancock and
Washington counties.
The agency
opened a new, larger childcare center off Beechland Road on June
23.
However,
the center’s infant slots were filled and a waiting list started
before the opening.
Anyone with
employees who have children has been affected by childcare
issues, Young said.
Employers
complain they can neither hire nor retain good employees because
childcare options are too few here, according to Jeanie Mills,
the agency’s director.
Businesses
are less likely to locate in an area where these basic human
resource needs aren’t being met or even addressed, said Mills.
“It’s very
difficult to find infant/toddler care,” said
Meg Swift, the agency’s community
childcare director.
Hancock
County has about 100 childcare providers in family homes and daycare centers
but “openings are rare,” said Swift. “When there are openings,
it’s usually for an older child.”
“The phone
just doesn’t stop ringing,” said Florence Fregeau, owner of
Clubhouse Child Care Center in Ellsworth.
The
Clubhouse, which offers infant care, is full and has a waiting
list.
The daycare
center at the James Russell Wiggins Down East Family YMCA,
offering childcare only for preschoolers, is full and has a
waiting list of 80 families, according to Peter Farragher, the
Y’s chief executive officer.
The crisis
in childcare puts restraints on businesses, and therefore,
economic development as well, according to Mills.
Quality
childcare is a productivity issue for employers and employees.
“When your
children are settled and happy, you can be settled and happy in
your workplace,” said Young.
Childcare
is also a housing and transportation issue, according to city of
Ellsworth Planner Michele Gagnon.
Gagnon
cited a mother who lives and works in Ellsworth but could find
childcare for her infant only in the town of Hancock—adding
dozens of miles to her daily commute.
“How many
people do this?” asked Gagnon. “I think it’s a huge issue.”
One goal of
Child & Family Opportunities is to advise businesses on
childcare benefits they can offer employees.
CFO’s Meg
Swift said in the past businesses have paid for slots in the
childcare center and held those for employee children.
“The
problem is it costs money,” said Swift. For example, infant care
at the center costs $11,000 a year, she said.
“That’s our
next generation,” said, Britt Uhr-Morse, human resource director
for CFO. “We have to be sure we’re giving them loving, attentive
care.”
“It’s a
community problem,” Swift said. |
