Lisa Hansen, whose daughter goes to Kithicoo Daycare, reads a story to Alexandre Darmawan, Gordie Denny and Elias Aros during her once-a-week shift at the home daycare.
Thirteen months ago, Lisa Burry signed up her child for a municipal daycare space. She has not heard back from the city since.
“It’s the biggest challenge,” she says of finding childcare in Ottawa.
Burry is part of a group of parents who have joined together to form Kitchicoo, a parent-run co-op daycare on Gladstone Street.
The daycare currently has six families involved in its operation. Each parent devotes one day per week to volunteering at Kitchicoo. This can involve feeding the children or playing with them alongside the daycare’s early childhood educator, says Burry.
It costs around $700 a month to place a child at the co-op daycare. This is reasonable when compared to unsubsidized spaces in the city, says Lisa Hansen whose 29-month-old daughter, Nelle, stays at the daycare. An unsubsidized space can cost between $1,200 and $1,500 per infant per month, she says.
Earlier this month, the city revealed that up to 700 subsidized childcare spaces could be cut if the City of Ottawa’s 2009 draft budget is approved.
But Kitchicoo cannot serve as a substitute for these spaces, says Vicki Smallman, another one of the founding members of the co-op.
“We can’t offer subsidies, so we cannot be a replacement for the municipal spaces that are at risk right now,” she says.
“Those spaces are important.”
Both Burry and Hansen say that one of the benefits of being involved in the co-op is that parents can have more input into how their child is cared for during the day.
Hansen says the parents contributed not only to the choice of the caregiver but to the daycare’s menu and activities for the children. The parents have also been able to build relationships amongst themselves, she says.
“It’s always amusing how well we know each other’s kids and step in to wipe noses or run interference,” says Hansen.
She says that parents even step in to help her run errands when her husband travels so that she can work late. They have also celebrated birthdays, new homes and other events together.
“Getting this daycare up and running was like starting a small business,“ she says, “but we have been pleasantly surprised at how well our group has worked together.”
Lisa Burry says she enjoys the supportive atmosphere of the daycare as well.
“It definitely builds a community,” she says. “I think it’s wonderful”
Despite the parents’ glowing reviews of the daycare, Smallman says the co-op model may not work for every parent.
A parent needs time to invest in the co-op as you need to be able to spend one day per week working at the daycare. Also, because of the guidelines that they have set up at Kichicoo, it is not a practical option for parents who have more than one child in need of care.
“Parent-run co-operatives are part of what should be a wide variety of daycare
options,” says Smallman.
Kitchicoo opened its doors in October 2007. The idea came about in the spring of 2007 through conversations among parents and discussions with another parent-run daycare located in Vanier.
Smallman says that getting the project off the ground was challenging. Some of the founding families’ main hurdles included finding a suitable space and getting to know the legislation that was involved in running the daycare. She says choosing an early childhood educator with the appropriate qualifications and experience was key. The parents also had to agree on the basic rules and procedures that would govern the daycare.
“Since we try to operate by consensus, that is always time-consuming,” Smallman says.
But, she says, the time spent planning was not time wasted.
“It was a worthwhile process as we were all taking a huge leap of faith in starting this up.”