Child Care Task Force Report: Ambassadors for Children
Next Steps for the Fund
The following activities are in various stages of completion. Some will be completed before the Fund begins formal operation while others are long-term activities that will need to be continued by the Fund to ensure its success.
Membership:
The Children's Fund Committee assembled a Leadership Recruitment Team of community leaders who are assisting in recruiting the initial membership to the Community Board and Leadership Council of the Fund. The Team includes Mayor Kirk Watson, Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Earl Maxwell, County Court at Law #2 Judge Orlinda Naranjo, County Judge Sam Biscoe and Bill McLellan, Executive Director of Lifeworks. Potential Community Board and Leadership Council members have been identified by the Children's Fund Committee and are diverse in the skills needed for the Fund and are representative of the community it will serve.
Marketing:
TateAustin is working with the Children's Fund Committee on a volunteer basis to establish a presence for the Fund including the name, logo identity and public awareness campaign. The Children's Fund committee considers this to be an essential task because of the need for a consistent message to the community. TateAustin is planning a press conference on November 17 to introduce the Fund for Child Care Excellence to the community.
Financial:
The Task Force has selected the Austin Community Foundation as the initial repository for funds. The use of ACF will provide the necessary accountability, reports and review without the expense of setting up a corporate financial system. The Foundation provides the necessary tax advantages for corporate contributors. The agreement between ACF and the Fund is being formalized.
Staffing/Office:
Funding to be used to hire the Executive Director of the Fund has been approved by the City of Austin. The Children's Fund Committee is formalizing an agreement with St. Edward's University to serve initially as the fiscal agent for the Fund. Office furnishings and equipment were purchased from the Task Force budget that was funded by the City. `
First Year Funding Project:
The selected first-year funding project will be a "child care career center", a centralized recruitment, screening, training and referral program for entry-level child care staff. The project was proposed by Task Force Co-Chair District Judge Scott McCown to address the critical teacher shortage affecting Austin area child care programs. It is designed to be the first step of a career path for child care teachers. The second step, Teacher TRAC, is already receiving limited funding from the City of Austin.
In the greater Austin area, virtually all child care centers are reporting extreme difficulty in recruiting and retaining qualified staff. During the summer of 1999, two child care centers in the Austin area closed because they were unable to find qualified staff. A center that had served downtown Austin for over 30 years recently announced that it is closing for reasons related to staffing. Pay for child care staff is low, averaging $7 - 8 per hour, and benefits rarely include sick and vacation leave or health insurance. Although the cost of child care is steadily increasing, the income generated from tuition alone is not enough to either pay teachers adequately or to purchase appropriate learning materials. As a result, the classroom environments often have inadequate learning materials and teachers who are both underpaid and undertrained.
The "Child Care Career Center" will directly address the concerns raised in the Child Care Council's report, Affordable, Accessible, Quality Child Care for Austin, July, 1998. It will help child care programs maintain services so parents are able to work, and it will provide a source of entry-level caregivers which will strengthen the child care system in the greater Austin area. The "Child Care Career Center" is an important first step in addressing the need for accessible, affordable and quality child care in our community and will result in greater continuity of care for children, which is crucial for early growth and development.
The Child Care Task Force considers the "Child Care Career Center" project to be especially critical for drawing attention to the new Fund. A fundraising campaign is being developed around the project, and the Children's Fund Committee is working with TateAustin to develop a profile and marketing strategies for the proposed "Child Care Career Center".
Purpose:
- Increase awareness of child care career possibilities throughout the Capital area.
- Promote professionalism of child care careers.
- Provide training that promotes developmentally appropriate practices in classrooms.
- Encourage advancement within the child development profession by providing information about education and career options.
- Reduce costs of recruiting for child care programs.
- Decrease use of substitutes.
- Address gaps in continuity of care for children caused by teacher turnover.
- Provide stability for parents by reducing center closures.
Time Line:
The Children's Fund Committee estimates that the recruitment of Board members and follow-up on the tasks mentioned above, with the exception of those tasks which are considered to be ongoing, will occur by the end of November, 1999. Depending on funding, the target date for initiation of the first major project, the "Child Care Career Center", will be the summer of 2000.
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