Jason Stockfish | [email protected]
Council鈥檚 committee of the whole was presented with a report entitled 鈥淐ontext and Considerations for Creating a Jasper Early Learning and Child Care Strategy鈥� on Dec. 13.
The report was created at the request of council when they approved administration鈥檚 engagement with the University of Alberta Community-University Partnership (CUP) in an effort to create a Jasper Early Learning and Child Care Strategy.
The 35-page document was compiled by the CUP and presented to council by the organization鈥檚 director, Karen Edwards, and one of the document鈥檚 authors, Mary-Frances Smith.
Surveys, focus groups and interviews were used by the CUP to gather information and conduct their research.
鈥淥ur goal for our work was to give you the context and feedback from the community and from best practices about what you may need to consider in developing a strategy,鈥� Edwards said.
鈥淎nd we had three main goals in mind when doing this work: understanding the current state of childcare in Jasper, trying to describe what a future state could look like and producing a set of recommendations on how we might get from one to the next.鈥�
Edwards explained that five main categories were used when devising Jasper鈥檚 strategy.
Those categories are accessibility, affordability, flexibility, inclusivity and quality.
The report details how currently there are not enough child-care spaces, those that are available remain expensive (particularly for low-income families), options are lacking for child care outside regular hours, inclusivity is impressive for a community of Jasper鈥檚 size but gaps remain, and the quality of care is high but improvements are still possible.
To improve accessibility to child care, the authors suggested a few options, such as land use changes, adding municipal child care programs or locations, utilizing grants and loans, using available space creatively, changing relevant regulations to increase options outside of those provided by the municipality and increasing locally-grown formal collaboration.
In terms of affordability, direct assistance from the municipality to lower the fees for parents was a suggestion, as was seeking outside funding and support from other levels of government.
The findings suggest that flexibility would be improved by increasing the number of early childhood educators (ECE) in Jasper through local efforts and with assistance from the province, by exploring new types of child care and by extending programming to more children through munipally-provided care.
According to the CUP, the concern of inclusivity could be addressed, in part, by reaching out to new residents about child care and looking into new opportunities to integrate cultural diversity in municipal programming.
To improve the quality of early learning and child care in Jasper, which the reports notes is already 鈥渢he category closest to the ideal future state,鈥� the report recommends municipal licensing for private providers, assisting ECEs with training and education, publicizing opportunities available through the province, and looking for ways to train ECEs on a local level.
Advocacy and leadership are seen as integral by the report鈥檚 authors to successfully implementing many of their recommendations.
It is suggested that the municipality advocate to the provincial and federal governments for greater affordability and funding, understand and monitor affordability in Jasper, and play a bigger role supporting local community leadership initiatives.
The authors concluded their report with some final thoughts.
鈥淎t the time of writing, the most pressing issues facing child care in (Jasper) appear to be a lack of spaces and low flexibility among the programs that exist, but those are not the only issues.鈥�
The CUP noted that their report did not include 鈥渁 comprehensive view of all available options鈥� and that the task at hand may appear overwhelming for a municipality of Jasper鈥檚 size.
Although they also explained that acting on many of the recommendations wasn鈥檛 something that could be done quickly or solely with limited municipal resources and authority.
鈥淪ome options may take years to fully develop and implement. Others require the support of higher levels of government, especially the Government of Alberta, or local businesses and organizations,鈥� the authors stated.
鈥淭he strongest single recommendation the authors of this report can make is for the MOJ and council to dedicate the time and energy to discussing the report鈥檚 findings and the issues raised by participants. Any discussion should, at minimum, focus on defining priorities and goals for child care in Jasper.鈥�
Administration stated in its report that it 鈥渞ecognizes that there would be value in confirming the findings of the research with the broader community to ensure any prospective changes to service levels accurately reflect the needs of the community.鈥�
Committee passed a motion to receive the report and to direct administration to conduct a needs assessment of families to assess possible changes the municipality could make to improve early learning and child care services.
