FAIRBANKS — A group of child care providers and parents in Fairbanks has united to help address the need for affordable and quality child care for young children.
Twenty-six percent of Americans have considered quitting their jobs to address child care needs, according to a company that provides child care services to Fortune 500 companies across America.
Candace Crews, a member of the Family Friendly Task Force for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has spearheaded the effort by forming the Advocates for Young Children, which hosted its initial meeting inside the Resource Center for Parents and Children to discuss how child care can become a viable part of the community’s infrastructure.
“I have a vision of making this a community effort,” Crews said following the meeting. “I think childcare is something that is a viable part of the economy and without it, many parents would be unable to work.”
Between fighting to get on waiting lists to setting aside the hundreds of dollars each month for child care, parents across Alaska are struggling to make ends meet and ensure their children are cared for, according to Crews.
More than a dozen parents and providers shared their own childcare woes.
Anna Berge watched over her busy 10-month-old daughter, Frances Antonia, who was interacting with another baby in the room.
“When people talk about family values, I think it’s time to put our money where our mouth is,” Berge said. “If we support families then we have to support child care along with it — the two are inseparable.”
Berge said she is moving to Canada soon and child care agencies have already contacted her about options from stay-at-home nannies to public day care that cost just $7 per day.
Pam Pilon, a mother of three, started her own childcare business after retiring from teaching.
“After my third child, it was no longer economically feasible to work and pay for day care for three children,” Pilon said. “The money I made was negated in child care costs.”
After the birth of her third child, Pilon started watching her colleague’s children.
While she said she loved working as a childcare provider, she said the costs of caring for children shocked her.
“I work from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., caring for as many as eight kids, and when you add in fuel costs, food costs and other toys and activities, it can be expensive,” she said. “Thankfully I’m on my husband’s health insurance otherwise I wouldn’t make any money.”
A gentleman spoke about the importance of making child care as much a priority to legislatures as roads and health care.
He is a single parent of a 9-year-old boy and struggles to find adequate care during the summer vacation.
“It comes down to convincing the community and employers that childcare needs to be a priority, otherwise the community is at stake,” he said.
“Kids cannot advocate for themselves so this is something we have to get the community involved in,” Paige Vander Haar, Chair of the Early Childhood Development Commission for the Fairbanks North Star Borough said. “We need to come together and help people understand that childcare should be part of our infrastructure.”
The Advocates for Young Children are working closely with the Child Care Connection of Alaska, a statewide agency for childcare resources.
Candace Winklar, CEO of Childcare Connection, said the three most common complaints are that childcare is difficult to find, can be very expensive and often times not enough quality to meet a parents needs.
“Fairbanks is an interesting situation,” Winklar said. “It seems that there is a lot of fluctuation with child care availability in Fairbanks and that more parents are pulling out of formal childcare and placing their kids in less formal care, and the challenge of informal care is that it can be difficult to know what’s happening while you’re away at work.”
Winklar said in Alaska, middle income families seem to be hit hardest when it comes to finding care.
“Often, who we see really struggle are middle income families,” she said. “The higher end wage earners have extra resources to afford it, and there seems to be support for the very lowest income but many of our families requesting child care assistance seem to be right in the middle income brackets.”
Child care costs, according to Winklar can be as high as $700 to $800 per month.
Winklar said she also sees the lack of affordable childcare as a community problem.