Child care a top priority for Flagstaff County

Flagstaff County has recently presented the Flagstaff Satellite Family Day Home Society with a grant of $50,000 to address a shortage of registered child care availability in the county.

With unemployment rates at an all time low in Flagstaff, and more help-wanted signs than there are people available to fill jobs, Flagstaff Businesspersons approached Flagstaff County, seeking solutions.

The County facilitated a meeting with some social programmers, including FFCS Director Lynn Jenkinson and asked her to prepare a proposal to come up with some solutions to the lack of childcare in the county.

Flagstaff Satellite Family Day Home Society (FSFDHS) Day Home Coordinator Cherise Backen says, “The original request was mainly for a day care with after school care, but that kind of facility is difficult to get started in a smaller community.

“It’s hard to get kids to a facility in a different community for after-school care.”

Backen said the better solution arising from the proposal was to increase the number of licenced day homes operating in Flagstaff.

The FSFDHS was formed in 1991 and has had a number of homes throughout Flagstaff since, with four homes from Daysland to Sedgewick, and have hopes of increasing that number to six within the next few months.

Backen says her December reports showed 35 children currently receiving care under the society’s homes.

“I have 15 families on my waiting list,” Backen says, “from all around Flagstaff.”

With the grant funding, the society’s goal is to bring the total number of homes to 11 by the end of 2013, serving all the municipalities in Flagstaff who are in need.

Read the rest of the story in the January 29, 2013 Edition of The Community Press, on newsstands now!