Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO:

Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM:

Director of Social Planning

SUBJECT:

2001 Childcare Grants Allocation - Report 1 of 4

 

RECOMMENDATION

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

COUNCIL POLICY

Council established the annual civic childcare grants program on October 23, 1990, as part of the Civic Childcare Strategy. The overall objectives of this grant program are:

· to support the viability, accessibility and quality of existing childcare services;
· to assist childcare initiatives in high need areas;
· to encourage and support efficient, coordinated administrative services required for a childcare system in Vancouver;
· to lever other sources of childcare funding whenever possible.

Approval of grant recommendations requires eight affirmative votes.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to recommend approval of:

as part of the first of four reports to Council on the 2001 Childcare Grants Program.

BACKGROUND

On March 15, 2001, City Council approved the 2001 Operating Budget-Interim Estimates which included an adjustment that limited the inflationary increase for the City Grants programs to 1%. Consequently, the 2001 budget for Civic Childcare Grants is $682,700, which is 1% higher than last year's.

DISCUSSION

1. City-wide Childcare Support Services Grants

This grant category was established in 1992 to fund the basic infrastructure that is integral to developing and maintaining a viable, effective, high quality childcare system in Vancouver, including:

In 1999, Council approved grant allocations from this category to support the development of childcare leadership and collaboration activities in each of the six MCF/Health Board network areas so that childcare issues could be adequately represented in Ministry, Health Board and community discussions. This new network based structure has helped to improve neighbourhood dialogue, information sharing and collaboration between centre and family childcare providers. Now that the network based structure has been established, it will provide a vehicle for the City Childcare Coordinator to learn about the unique and emerging needs directly from network members. This will assist in planning and setting priorities for childcare in the future.

In March 2001, Westcoast's Board of Directors decided to phase out the Child Care Financial and Administrative Services as Westcoast had incurred a significant financial liability maintaining the services. Community organizations were notified and a wind down process was established. Services were formally ended as of May 31, 2001. The Childcare Coordinator is in the process of examining new and innovative ways to strengthen the administration of childcare services and will report back to Council later in the year with a strategy. As such, the grant request for the Child Care Financial and Administrative Services, typically included in this application, has been deferred.

Four applications for city-wide support services have been received and reviewed (see Appendix I). During the grant interviews applicants were required to:

For 2001, it is recommended that the City-wide Childcare Support Services grant funds be allocated as follows:

Grant funding this year will be disbursed in two installments to provide an opportunity to establish benchmarks and a new contract agreement with the funded organizations.

2. Administration of City-owned Childcare Facilities Grant

The Civic Childcare Strategy called for development and support of a single-purpose, non-profit childcare organization to manage those new City-owned/leased facilities in the Downtown area resulting from rezoning negotiations or City projects. This grant category was established to fund the administrative costs of this society.

In December 1994, the Vancouver Society of Children's Centres (VSOCC) was incorporated. VSOCC now operates three children's centres which include 155 childcare spaces and a family place program, serving over 400 families. Two other facilities are in the design phase. The overall annual operating budget now exceeds $1.9 million.

VSOCC's Year Six Workplan includes:

Details of the 2001-2002 workplan are attached in Appendix II. This work fits with the expectations under the Administration of City-owned Childcare Facilities grant category. It is therefore recommended that VSOCC's request for $64,750 be approved by Council.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Total City-wide Childcare Support Services and Administration of City-owned Childcare Facilities grants of $184,680 and $64,750 respectively are to be funded by the Childcare Grants Fund, 2001 Operating Budget.

CONCLUSION

This report recommends approval of:

This leaves $433,270 still remaining in the 2001 Childcare Grants Budget for allocation to grant categories which are reported in July and/or November (see Appendix III).

* * * * *

cs010607.htm

Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre
210 West Broadway, 3rd Floor
Vancouver, BC V5Y 3W2

Overview of City Services
Review April 1, 2000 - March 31, 2001
Goals April 1, 2001 - March 31, 2002

Westcoast Resource and Information Services (RIS)

· Funded by the City of Vancouver (28%), BC Ministry of Social Development (69%) and agency fundraising (3%).

2000/2001 Review
· Provided consultation, information, resource and referral services by telephone, in person and through a comprehensive resource library to Vancouver citizens, predominantly child care providers, instructors, researchers, students, businesses, and families with young children.

· Provided Visitor and Reception services to agency programs, affiliate organizations and co-locators for all incoming calls, visitors, and facilitated photocopying and laminating services as well as room bookings for Westcoast programs and the community.

· Provided Multilingual Child Care Resources offering translations and interpretation services on a fee for service basis to the child care community and continued to produced all Westcoast's own publications in languages other than English.
· Provided public access to the Westcoast Library which has a comprehensive collection of materials including books, magazines, video tapes and posters. Over 10,000 itemsare catalogued. The library is currently funded by the BC Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security, and agency fundraising.

2001/2002 Goals
1. Continue to respond to the requests for child care resources and information from Vancouver parents, child care providers and the community at large, by phone, fax, e-mail and through in-person consultations both on and off-site.
2. Continue to revise data collection methods in order to better understand the client base and develop effective service evaluation strategies.
3. Ensure that Westcoast Services continue to be accessible to the public through welcoming and efficient Reception and Visitor Services six days per week.
4. Continue to develop and publish relevant print resources including the Westcoast Post, and the FYI series.
5. Review the development processes of the FYI series and data collection on its distribution and use.
6. Review, redesign as needed and maintain the web site, www.wstcoast.org, with plans for launching a new improved site in the upcoming year.
7. Deliver 8-10 workshops in the "Saturday Workshops at Westcoast" series.
8. Working with the Vancouver Child Care Training Committee to deliver 1-2 city-wide child care related workshops during the coming year.
9. Co-ordinate information sharing about training and professional development opportunities through community bulletin boards, the Westcoast Post and the Westcoast Website.
10. Continue to support a variety of child care committees in the city including the Vancouver Child Care Training Committee, the Early Childhood Development Project at the Holiday Inn site, the City Wide Child Care Committee, etc.
11. Continue to offer multilingual child care resources (materials in several languages as well at translation and interpretation services) to the community on a cost recovery basis, monitoring demand and trends for future planning.
12. Provide assistance and support as needed to the City Child Care Coordinator, Vancouver Social Planning Department.

Westcoast Multicultural and Diversity Services (WMDS)

· Funded by the City of Vancouver (21%), Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security (50%), and Ministry Responsible for Multiculturalism and Immigration and agency fundraising (29%).

2000/2001 Review
· Provided resources, consultation and information to the child care community and the public on multicultural, anti-bias, diversity early childhood education.

· Provided 15 outreach visits involving children and staff in 5 of Vancouver's childcare centres and preschools, serving 71 children and 18 staff. This direct work with children and staff in Vancouver continues to be vital to our planning as it informs our practice, which has a direct impact on the materials and resources we acquire and develop.
· Offered Neighbourhood Site Lending (NSL) in three Networks in order to bring resources to child care providers closer to where they work. At the three sites NSL lent play materials to 18 programs. Child care staff made 47 visits, providing resources for 565 children and a total of 50 staff. A total of 295 items were borrowed over a five month period (April-November 1999).
· Provided professional development to the child care community, parents, government and community program staff. Topics include Bullying Prevention, Helping Children Resist Bias and Discrimination, Cross-Cultural Child Rearing.

· Developed original curriculum and teacher training materials.
· Collaborated with local, provincial and national groups to address multicultural and anti-bias issues. Such connections include: Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC (AMSSA); Windows of Opportunity - Ethno-Cultural Group; Circle of Change Project (ISS).

2001/2002 Goals
1. Consultation Services: Continue to respond to a broad range of requests on diversity, ESL and anti-bias/anti-racism issues from childcare providers, students and related community partners, by phone, fax, e-mail and visits to the resource centre.
2. Resources: Acquisition of resources for use by childcare providers, students and related community partners that reflect the broadest possible range of diversity in our society.

3. Outreach Services: To continue to offer a range of Outreach Services to both staff and children in Vancouver child care programs through:

4. Professional Development Workshops: To deliver up to 10 professional development workshops for staff from the continuum of child care services, ECCE Instructors and students, parents and related community partners.
5. Orientations: Provide orientations to WMDS services for students, instructors and new borrowers on request.

Westcoast Information Daycare (ID)

· Funded by the City of Vancouver (28%) and the BC Ministry of Social Development and Economic Security (72%).

2000/2001 Review
· Supported parents in making personal decisions about child care by providing up-to-date information on child care choices in Vancouver. Provided referrals to the continuum of child care options including licensed and license-not-required child care programs, family places, neighbourhood houses, community centres and preschools and general information on child care regulations, training programs for child care providers, Provincial Child Care Subsidy Program and in-home child care.

· Responded to many requests from the child care community and the public on child care topics including enhancing quality, fees, recent trends and vacancy rates.
· Continued promotion of Westcoast Information Daycare services in the Chinese and Indo-Canadian communities.

Goals 2001/2002
1. Maintain an accurate and effective information service supported by a representative of those who have interest in and knowledge of the child care needs of Vancouver families.
2. Enhance Vancouver parents' access to child care by listing new License-Not-Required Family Child Care Providers registered through Vancouver Child Care Resource & Referral program in all Vancouver neighbourhoods.
3. Respond to an average of at lest 700 calls per month while maintaining an accurate and comprehensive database of 600+ licensed or registered child care settings.
4. Extend ID phone service hours to include Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
5. Extend ID walk in service hours to include Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
6. Plan and promote a variety of approaches to group education sessions about child care options and choosing quality child care settings to appeal to parents having varied circumstances and child care needs.
7. Enhance accessibility to child care information and referrals for non English speaking families through continued outreach to staff of Vancouver agencies serving newcomer and ethno specific populations.
8. Update annual fee surveys of licensed group child care services in Vancouver including +3, -3 programs, preschool and school age care as well as licensed and registered family child care homes for distribution to parents, providers and others as required.
9. Provide accurate information about the Provincial Child Care Subsidy program in several languages including appropriate referrals for those parents who wish to apply.

APPENDIX II - 1 to 5 not electronically available.

 

Date of Report to Council

Proposed 2001
Guidelines

Recommended
To Date

City-wide Childcare Support

June

$249,663

$184,680

Admin. of City-owned

June

$64,750

$64,750

Program Enhancement

July

$121,200

  

Inner-city Childcare

July

$223,017

  

Program Stabilization

as required

$5,050

  

Program Development

November

$5,020

  

Research/Policy Dev./Innovations

November

$14,000

  

TOTAL

  

$682,700

$249,430

BALANCE

    

$433,270

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