RURAL DAYCARE CENTER MeadowLark Childcare Duncan, BC Emily Greenfield EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Daycare is an essential service for most families with infants and preschool-aged children, and also a major expense. Families have several options to choose from, including relatives, home-based daycare services, and center-based care. Typically, daycare costs for infants and smaller children are higher than for older children. Depending on the type of setting, geographic location, and other factors, ballpark costs (per child) range anywhere from $150-$300 per week. Nationwide, communities were struggling with a decline in the number of available childcare centers during the late 2010s. While this was a challenge in many communities, the issue was especially pressing in rural areas. MeadowLark, is a nonprofit rural daycare center, which will operate in the new Community Center in Duncan, British Columbia. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Childcare workers' employment rate was projected to increase 7 percent, or as fast as average for all occupations in the next five years in Canada. Most childcare workers (29%) were self-employed, while 25 percent were employed by child day care services. Approximately 18 percent worked in private households, and 8 percent were employed by elementary and secondary schools. Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations employed 7 percent of all childcare workers. Access to quality daycare is often problematic for residents of rural communities, who have few options. MeadowLark has been established to address this very need in its local community. Nonprofit daycare centers serving rural communities in North America have access to helpful organizations. Examples of these in the United States include the National Agricultural Library's Rural Information Center ( https://www.nal.usda.gov/ric ), the Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant Program ( https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/community-facilities-direct-loan-grant- program ), and the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program ( https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs- services/rural-microentrepreneur-assistance-program ). MARKET ANALYSIS National Synopsis Organizations found that there was an alarming decline in family child care providers as well as a decline in the number of child care providers accepting subsidies from organzations. Coupled with challenges at the provincial level, this meant "that care is inaccessible and unaffordable for many families and child care quality is inconsistent across communities." At the end of last decade, most provinces in Canada 1/7
experienced a decline in the number of available family child care providers and in the number of center-based daycare providers. Provincial Synopsis Across Canada, there were 106,295 licensed childcare centers throughout British Columbia last year. Of these, 64.8 percent accepted provincial subsidies. The organization reported that a substantial number of working families needed childcare toward the end of the decade. For example, of the 303,691 British Columbia children under age five, 187,999 (61.9%) had working parents. Of the 361,743 children between the ages of 6 and 12, 247,110 (68.3%) had working parents. In recent years a growing number of childcare facilities throughout the province have closed. The publication indicated that, over the previous eight years, childcare centers and homes throughout British Columbia had experienced a decline of 34 percent, based on figures from the British Columbia Department of Human Services. The