Highest per capita child care availability found in Revelstoke

Tim Collins / News staff

Child care.

It's a challenge in virtually every Canadian community with parents facing a dearth of available child care spaces, exorbitant costs, and a sometimes questionable level of professionalism among child care facilities. But, according to information provided by the Revelstoke Child Care Society (RCCS), the community has managed to provide some of the best care in the province, due, in no small part, to the work done by the dedicated staff and volunteers of the Society.

The RCCS is a non-profit organization that works to provide parents with information about, and access to quality child care choices. It's a model that has resulted in Revelstoke having the highest number of child care spaces per capita of anywhere in the Columbia Basin.

But it hasn't been without a lot of hard work and dedication.

"There are a number of segments to the work of the society, and each has an important part of the whole picture. We do a lot more than operate a day-care centre here," said Linda Chell, RCCS executive director.

"It's really a sort of continuum of care that combines to give us the results we see today."

Chell explained that, while the RCCS manages 105 child care spaces, it's still only slightly more than a third of the overall childcare spaces in the community. She said that one of the roles the RCCS plays is to support the Family (in-home) Child Care providers with the resources, training and referrals that help to ensure that in-home, small scale child care is of a consistently high quality.

"We provide parents with information about choosing care, and help registered care providers with financial start -up assistance, a toy and resource lending library (free of charge), professional development, home support visits, and parent referrals. By supporting those providers with training, resources and networking we help to raise the quality and quantity of all the community's care opportunities."

At the same time, the child care provided by the society at the Begbie View Early Years Centre is second to none. The programs at the purpose-built centre are designed to provide a seamless transition of care for children, transitioning the wee ones from infant to kindergarten and beyond.

"Eight or nine years ago…there were no licensed infant toddler spaces in group care in Revelstoke. Our manager took the practicum in Victoria and we paid her wages to make it possible so that, when she came back, we could open an infant toddler space. But that wasn't all. She then hosted a practicum here for other providers to qualify them for infants and toddlers, and so on. We now have nine people qualified at that level in the community," said Chell.

"We are strong advocates and supporters of training child care providers, both for in-house staff and those providers operating at any of the other fantastic child care operations in the city."

In addition to the program for infants and toddlers, the RCCS provides in-house care for every age grouping up to kindergarten as well as school aged care for those children who require supervision before and/or after school. They also operate Leap Land, a free play space for little people, and Play in the Park opportunities to get the little folks outside.

"There's always room for improvement, of course. It's still hard to accommodate those parents whose work schedules are irregular, but we're working on it," said Chell with a smile.

"There's some really good people in Revelstoke who care about the children and I know we are going to get it done in time."