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SWIFS putting together directory of child care providers
By Laura Bacon, NT Staff Writer
New residents and area parents looking for child care will soon have a new resource to help them in their search, thanks to a project put together by Southwest Iowa Family Services (SWIFS).
Starting around June 1 a listing of child care providers will be available to help care providers and families get together.
Officials with SWIFS, a group that has been looking at putting together a community child center offering child care services, had conducted a needs survey about a year ago looking at child care needs in the Atlantic area.
Elaine Elming, a member of the group, said that one thing that came out of the survey was the fact that licensed care centers and registered home care providers were not working together, making it hard for people in the community, “and especially newcomers,” Elming said, to find quality child care.
Elming said the group that did the survey for SWIFS recommended that child care providers needed to learn to work together more effectively to help families find child care, and a sub-committee working on the topic decided to put together a directory of licensed and registered care providers.
Elming said that Atlantic had a large number of home care centers and while there was a listing available, some providers on that list were not registered, and some were no longer in business. “The listing was very hard to use,” she said.
A SWIFS subcommittee made up of Elming, Dr. Wendy Prigge, Dr. Keith Swanson, Jolene Mitchell and Jody Kirchner, representing home care providers, planned a new listing of licensed and registered centers, showing the name, address and phone number of providers, and the number of vacancies they had for a particular month.
That list will be published in the Atlantic News Telegraph at least once a month and will also be available through a handful of other sources.
CADCO will also provide the directory information to the city of Atlantic for their website, to Welcome Wagon officials, and to schools, realtors, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the hospital and radio stations.
In order to be listed, providers submitted information that was then filed with the Cass Atlantic Development Corporation (CADCO), giving permission to list their business name, address, contact information.
CADCO is being assisted by West Central Development Corporation (WCDC), which will check on registration and licensing for the providers and will provide information like expiration dates for SWIFS.
Those licensed or registered providers who wished to be included should contact CADCO. Only providers with vacancies will be listed, and those providers who fail to call with monthly updates when required will be left off the next list, Elming said.
She noted the deadline for the information for the first listing was today, and that providers will have to call in their updates next week. Providers will then have to provide updates monthly.
Elming said it was important that childcare providers in the area always had openings so that families moving in or changing schedules could find childcare when they needed it.
“Parents can’t work without childcare,” she said, adding that childcare was a “volatile business. You can have 18 kids one day, 19 another, and then have three kids out sick,” she said, and with parents faced with changing schedules, it’s important to have providers with vacancies, she said.
She said working on the directory, “We’ve had great cooperation among providers and centers,” and said putting the project together will help get “everyone on the same page,” giving parents a choice when they are looking for childcare.
The directory will list all day care centers and home care providers who handle infant and preschool aged children, as well as providers who take care of school age children.
Those with additional questions about childcare can contact Jolene Mitchell, with Child Resources and Referrals at WCDC, Elming said.
Comments on these stories are welcome, but please include your complete first and last name, and a phone number that can be used to verify the posting. Phone numbers will not be published.
Starting around June 1 a listing of child care providers will be available to help care providers and families get together.
Officials with SWIFS, a group that has been looking at putting together a community child center offering child care services, had conducted a needs survey about a year ago looking at child care needs in the Atlantic area.
Elaine Elming, a member of the group, said that one thing that came out of the survey was the fact that licensed care centers and registered home care providers were not working together, making it hard for people in the community, “and especially newcomers,” Elming said, to find quality child care.
Elming said the group that did the survey for SWIFS recommended that child care providers needed to learn to work together more effectively to help families find child care, and a sub-committee working on the topic decided to put together a directory of licensed and registered care providers.
Elming said that Atlantic had a large number of home care centers and while there was a listing available, some providers on that list were not registered, and some were no longer in business. “The listing was very hard to use,” she said.
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That list will be published in the Atlantic News Telegraph at least once a month and will also be available through a handful of other sources.
CADCO will also provide the directory information to the city of Atlantic for their website, to Welcome Wagon officials, and to schools, realtors, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the hospital and radio stations.
In order to be listed, providers submitted information that was then filed with the Cass Atlantic Development Corporation (CADCO), giving permission to list their business name, address, contact information.
CADCO is being assisted by West Central Development Corporation (WCDC), which will check on registration and licensing for the providers and will provide information like expiration dates for SWIFS.
Those licensed or registered providers who wished to be included should contact CADCO. Only providers with vacancies will be listed, and those providers who fail to call with monthly updates when required will be left off the next list, Elming said.
She noted the deadline for the information for the first listing was today, and that providers will have to call in their updates next week. Providers will then have to provide updates monthly.
Elming said it was important that childcare providers in the area always had openings so that families moving in or changing schedules could find childcare when they needed it.
“Parents can’t work without childcare,” she said, adding that childcare was a “volatile business. You can have 18 kids one day, 19 another, and then have three kids out sick,” she said, and with parents faced with changing schedules, it’s important to have providers with vacancies, she said.
She said working on the directory, “We’ve had great cooperation among providers and centers,” and said putting the project together will help get “everyone on the same page,” giving parents a choice when they are looking for childcare.
The directory will list all day care centers and home care providers who handle infant and preschool aged children, as well as providers who take care of school age children.
Those with additional questions about childcare can contact Jolene Mitchell, with Child Resources and Referrals at WCDC, Elming said.
Comments on these stories are welcome, but please include your complete first and last name, and a phone number that can be used to verify the posting. Phone numbers will not be published.
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