Laurie Dalzell, Golden Star
The Giving Tree Child Care Society, the College of the Rockies, and the Early Childhood Development Coalition hired the … Group, led by former Golden resident L Dalzell, to conduct a community-wide feasibility study on the need for and the ability to sustain an Infant/Toddler and/or Group Childcare Facility for Golden and Area A…
Dalzell has been tasked to look at the current need for and ability to sustain a group facility in Golden.
As part of her research, she visited Golden in the beginning of October and hosted several formal and informal community consultation sessions.
In total, 25 people attended those sessions and provided their thoughts on the current state of child care and the gaps that need to be filled. We have also provided opportunities for the current child care providers to participate in this discussion….
A survey to parents has just been released .. to ask more specifically what parents in Golden are feeling their needs are in relation to child care.
This survey is also available in paper format at the following locations around town….
There are two other important aspects that Dalzell is gathering data on. One is the importance of child care to the economic vibrancy and sustainability of the community of Golden and Area A as a whole.
Input from the business community will be very important to this aspect of the study. Dalzell has just created a survey for business owners and managers to assess the impact of child care (or lack thereof) on their ability to manage employees and to get their products and services delivered.
Another key factor is that of migration of families and businesses in and out of Golden and the relevance that child care options has to this phenomenon.
Tied in to the importance to community economic development is the idea of community collaboration to help fill the gaps in child care options here in Golden….
The study has received just over 50 responses to the parent survey in the first week and we hope to reach 100 responses in total….