Almost everyday, Margo Kirk hears from a parent desperate to get their child in daycare. And everyday, she relates the sobering news: the limited spaces and the staggering waitlist of more than 300 names.
鈥淚t can be very stressful,鈥� says Ms. Kirk, the executive director of University Children鈥檚 Centre, a nonprofit daycare on the AV俱乐部 campus. 鈥淲e get calls from people whose babysitters have just quit, for example, and I鈥檒l have to say, 鈥榮orry, we might have a space two years from now.鈥�
鈥淲e just can鈥檛 be responsive at all to immediate needs.鈥�
The centre has room for 78 children at its two locations: one on South Street, where care is offered to children ages four months to five years, and in the Life Science Centre, where there鈥檚 a morning nursery school program, plus lunch and after-school programs.
Alison Thompson, associate professor with the Department of Chemistry, asked about space for her son even before he was born. And not only at the University Children鈥檚 Centre. She called the YWCA, Saint Mary鈥檚, Peter Green Hall and other centres. The response was always the same: we鈥檒l put your name on a waiting list. You should phone back often to check where you are on the list.
It was a frustrating time. Not only was she learning to care for her newborn, she was keeping an eye on her research group at AV俱乐部 and worrying about her return to work with childcare very much in the air. It was just by sheer luck that she found out that the YWCA on Barrington Street was setting up an infant care facility before it was even in place鈥斺�渨e got in purely by chance,鈥� she says.
Relating her experience to other parents at AV俱乐部, she discovered it was hardly unique. Other faculty, staff and students related how they鈥檇 get a call for a space only after their child was in school. Or, how they鈥檇 created a patchwork of care, relying on babysitters, parents and neighbors so they could return to work.
鈥淪o many people need daycare,鈥� says Prof. Thompson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a stupid, out-there thing to request 鈥� but right now, people have no expectations they鈥檒l get their child in (anywhere) despite how many times they phone and fill out the application forms.鈥�
Prof. Thompson and 30 like-minded parents have formed an action group and taken their cause to the consultants for AV俱乐部鈥檚 campus master plan. She says AV俱乐部 needs two additional facilities for daycare, with room for at least 200 children and babies.
At a meeting last month for the master campus plan, Larry Sherman, the Toronto architect leading the consulting team, related how the need for daycare has come up repeatedly. He confessed it was an issue he didn鈥檛 expect. 鈥淲e are finding the campus does not serve its community in many ways,鈥� he said.
But with the campus plan still in a 鈥渓istening phase,鈥� Prof. Thompson says the problem is too acute and can鈥檛 wait. She鈥檚 investigated a provincial initiative that aims to increase accessibility to daycare by providing funds in the form of a forgivable loan to cover up to 75 per cent of construction and outfitting of new nonprofit facilities, with the remaining 25 per cent available as a one per cent loan or as a financial contribution from a partner. The Early Learning and Childcare Initiative, offered through the Nova Scotia Department of Community Services, is likely to accept applications early in the new year.
鈥淭o enable the application, we need a commitment from the university,鈥� she says.