Members sought for new Child Care Council
The Citizen
By Lexi Bainas
July 29, 2009

Are you interested in being part of Social Planning Cowichan's new Cowichan Child Care Council?

They're looking for members of the community to help resolve several significant issues in child care.

The council, formed after SPC's regional childcare taskforce voted unanimously that it was needed, will address such concerns as: lack of child care spaces, funding of child care services and programs and the increasingly problematic area of staff training, recruitment and retention in the birth-to-three-year sector.

Back as far as 2007, SPC decided the community was calling for action on child care.

Following four months of research, a report was published, identifying those three main obstacles to good child care here and a task force was set up to make recommendations.

Under the direction of Co-Chairs Ian Kalina and Candace Spilsbury, this task force was able to make a pitch to Linda Reid, the provincial Minister responsible for child care at the time, and to increase training opportunities in Cowichan by working with Vancouver Island University.

…. Now the Council will need to strengthen its message to the provincial government regarding adequate funding for quality child care for our children," Spilsbury says.

However, in Cowichan, the continued critical lack of licensed child care spaces and the inability to attract and retain qualified early childhood educators indicates that there is still more work to be done….