LEXINGTON — In an ongoing process to increase the capacity and quality of childcare in Lexington, the local Communities for Kids, C4K, branch is looking for people to join committees to help address the issue.
The C4K team met for the first time in 2021, some appearing in person at the First United Methodist Church on Tuesday, while others joined in via Zoom.
Lexington C4K Coordinator Alyson Young said the group would refocus and update on new initiatives which are available, the creation of subcommittees and the relaunch of a community wide child care survey.
For background, an informal group of Lexington citizens began meeting regularly after June 2019 to discuss the ongoing child care shortage in Lexington.
Simply put, Lexington has a lack of child care capacity to suit the community’s population. According to the 2010 census data, there are 993 children under the age of five living in the community. If all needed access to licensed child care, there would be over 723 children left out.
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The C4K group has been meeting regularly to address the issues of the lack of capacity, lack of bilingual providers and lack of qualified providers.
C4K is looking to build up a group of subcommittees to focus on specific issues such as the survey, quality, capacity, sustainability and engagement.
The survey team will focus on reintroducing a child care survey to the community. The data gathered will help to refine goals, early childhood efforts and help develop areas of focus for key messages.
A child care survey in three languages, English, Spanish and Somali was distributed in the late months of 2019. There were responses, but not enough to represent each demographic.
The C4K is reviewing the survey this month and is interested in feedback and ideas on what questions to ask and how to best distribute it to the community.
It was noted the survey shouldn’t just be taken by those interested in or needing child care. As child care issues affect the whole community, everyone who is able should take it. It will be available in one link this time around and the participant can selected one of the three languages they wish to take it in.
The quality team will focus on continuing to support providers in the community to help maintain and increase the quality of their care.
The capacity team will look at access to child care in order to address the gap which is present and meet the needs of families who are looking for early care, education and service and create ways for new providers to become licensed.
Those on the sustainability team will focus on looking ahead and find the best ways to continue to make C4K sustainable after the grant period is up.
Finally, the engagement team will be focused on helping with new and ongoing engagement of the Lexington community about these issues.
C4K is actively looking for people to join these teams, those interested should contact Alyson Young at c4kyoung@gmail.com or call 308-325-9453.
The subcommittee teams will choose when to meet, while the whole group will meet every other month in 2021.
Shonna Werth, Assistant Vice President, Early Childhood Programs with Nebraska Children and Families Foundation said Lexington is one of 31 C4K communities which has been allowed to participate in a bilingual grant which will help reach out to Spanish speakers who are providing child care.
Its suspected many Latino children in the community are being cared for on a non-licensed basis and this grant will help reach out to them to ensure they are providing quality care. Trainings can also be offered to get these people formally licensed and build small businesses of their own.
Rachel Sissel, with Nebraska Children and Families also told the group about another grant opportunity for early learning scholarships.
Sissel said the scholarships are prorated this year, so Lexington will have access to $17,500, the contract runs from March 1 through September 30. In October, then an additional $30,000 will be made available.
These scholarships are intended to help support providers but also alleviate financial burden to families. There are eligibly requirements for both providers and families, said Sissel. Young will assist in recruiting families who may be eligible.
The next meeting of the C4K team will be April 6 at 12 p.m.
