Finding a Babysitter (and a Job):

A New Program May Help

Aired February 15, 2000

'Tis Tuesday, the 15th of February, 2000. I'm David C. Barnett, and we've got our work cut out for us this morning, as we talk about work, the search for work for those in need and the effect that work has on the family. Time was when dad was the person who went to the factory, the office, or some other form of work outside the home while mom did the work of raising the family in the home. Well, we now live in a world of single-parent families or dual-income families. A researcher will join us with an insight as to what children think about working parents, after we consider where some parents take their children during the day. The crush of people moving from welfare to work is weighing heavily on day care providers in Cuyahoga County. A state deadline to get people off of public assistance and into the workforce has put many parents into a double bind. They must search for a job and for a sitter at the same time. That searh may be eased by a new program that aims to solve both problems. Let's check out some number first.

Billie Osborne-Fears–As you can see here, we have several chapter programs listed, and you can see that there are no vacancies in that particular area.

David C. Barnett–Billie Osborne-Fears is scanning through a database of local day care providers. She's executive director of Starting Point, a local agency that takes the pulse of child care in Northeast Ohio, both in terms of what exists and what is needed.

BOF–Because of welfare reform, most of our child care slots, particularly in center-based programs, are filled. We're at about an 85% utilization county-wide, and we consider that as full, because you need about 15% of the slots to be vacant because babies are born every day, and people are entering into the workforce, and they're not necessarily low-income families, because we serve all families, regardless of income.

DCB–Starting Point is part of a statewide network that matches families with child care providers, everythig from upper-crust nannies to Head Start groups based in church basements. The agency tracks where these services are located, staff qualifications, and the capacities of each location, and the clear shortage of local day care possibilities has spawned a training program that aims to fill the gap.

Pam Hawkins–We train individuals who want to become home providers.

DCB–Pam Hawkins is the child care director at Applewood Centers, and her agency offers training for welfare recipients who want to work their way towards self-sufficiency by providing day care services for local children. Once a person completes the program, they will have state certification to open their homes to children shut out of overcrowded child care centers.

PH–It's a way of easing that load because we're in a center, you've got to have a staff, you've got to have people trained. A home provider can be trained, the can care for up to six kids per shift depending on square footage and some other regulations, and they can care for kids on different shifts, and it allows more accessibility ot care, it's usually in the neighborhood, it might be a neighbor, it might be somebody who's around the corner, so the child can still, even if it's a school-aged child, they go to school, they can walk home to this home provider and be around the corner from their house.

DCB–And, they learn a lot about the business world during the course of 30 hours of certification training.

PH–We teach home safety, we teach them how to do their billing, we teach them small business and taxes, we do parent-provider relationships, which is how to interact with your parents and draw parents in.

DCB–Applewood Centers has been running this welfare-to-work program for a year now, and they've had a number of applicants. Many people on public assistance are facing a state-mandated October 1st benefit cutoff deadline, unless they can prove they have enetered the workforce, or are at least in some form of job training. Pam Hawkins says some of the applicants of her program have been surprised by its intensity.

PH–We've had a number of people come into class, well, they thought this would be a good way to meet their work requirement, get their education requirement out of the way, and well, I'll just babysit for some kids, and we make it very clear to them in class and in the process that this is not just babysitting, because you are required to plan a daily schedule and do activities with the kids every day, and the county will come out and monitor, so that you're not just going to get out there and go do this and be left on your own now.

DCB–Rebecca Dorman, an Applewood Centers executive, says explaining the concept that this is much more than babysitting is a challenge.

Rebecca Dorman–Especially if someone has never had a job before, and doesn't understand what the world of work is like, that it's a huge leap, actually, to go from being on public assistance to being not only working, but running your own business.

DCB–Starting Point's Billie Osborne-Fears says that Cuyahoga County has issued another challenge by forecasting just how many new day care providers are needed.

BOF–A thousand new, certified family child care homes by June 30th.

DCB–Another tough deadline, and one that is rapidly approaching.

BOF–Yes, it is something that is very overwhelming, but when you look at what could happen to families as of October 1st, we have to do everything that we could possibly do to meet that goal, or else families will not have a plcae to leave their children.

DCB–A recent survey indicates that they've got their work cut out for them. A statewide study ranked Cuyahoga 82nd out of Ohio's 88 counties in terms of successfully moving people from welfare to work. Applewood Centers' training program is hoping to chip away at that statistic with their home child care program. They've trained over a hundred people in the last year, but so far, only between 10 and 15 have actually gone completely through the process. Small steps, but steps in the direction of achieving self-sufficiency for some, while provding the day care to make it easier for others to enter the world of work.