Essential Elements proposal will help child care providers

By Michael Barrett

Freelance Writer

            The main goal of the Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association (MLFCCA) is to make sure that licensed child care providers through the state have an opportunity for resources, training, recognition, in a way that they can network with each other to truly serve the children better that are in their care.

            That was what Kathy Wilkens, executive director, stated in her presentation to the Red Lake Tribal Council at their Regular Meeting of September 9, 2003.

            “About a year ago we started working up at Red Lake with New Beginnings trying to help get new providers licensed who wanted to be licensed to get the nutrition program–so that they ould receive reimbursements for the food that they served the children during the day,” Wilken said. “That person that was working up here came back and said, Kathy, you know what we really need, not just at Red Lake, but this whole northern tier of daycare providers is that we don’t have enough training–we don’t have enough good quality training.”

            Wilken said that their organization had received a state grant to do some training. Red Lake was not one of the sites that they had thought about doing, but it became apparent when she started coming up and talking to some providers, and talking to people on the phone–that this was something that providers really want and don’t have.

            “Child care for those of you who haven’t done it, is a very high-stressed job–it has a lot of turnovers,” she said. “You know it sounds lke it would be a really good job, a really easy job to watch kids all day, but without a good support mechanism and good training, our experiences show that child care providers quit at a high rate of frequency.”

            That wasn’t good for the providers, and it really wasn’t good for the children, Wilken explained. She said that whole process of making sure that the same person is taking care of the child day in and day out, really helped support what the parents were doing at home. And when they change providers frequently because the child care provider quit, it wasn’t good.

            “So the state association had a program called Essential Elements that is working with people who are newly licensed, or who are going through the licensing process, to help them learn how to run a business effectively, to show them how to manage the children on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “It gives them ideas of activities to do.”

            On behalf of the Minnesota Licensed Family Child Care Association, what Wilkin proposed was that they bring their program here for the Red Lake providers, either to those who were newly licensed–2 years or earlier–or who were going through the licensing process now, to them that jump start and that support that they needed.

            “We do have some funding that we’re able to put into he program, and what we’re asking the Tribal Council today for would be, $1500, which would pay for all the materials that people receive, as well as a little bit of money for a mentoring experience,” she said. “What we do, and I’ll let Beth explain this more indepth, is we take new providers and pair them up with people who have been licensed for a long time, so that they can learn from people that have already been through these kinds of growing pains in special situations. We can work together very closely with them and help them make their decisions.”

            She explained that they asked the Northwest Minnesota Foundation if they would be willing to put some money in towards that as well, and they agreed that they would also help fund this just for the Red Lake providers.

            Ponemah Representative Clifford Hardy inquired as to how long the training was to complete.

            “The training program, when we offer it, some places it’s offered for 8 weeks in a row, two hours a night,” Beth Mork said. She was the coordinator for the Essential Elements Program within MLFCCA. “What we’re proposing to do with Red Lake is 2 full Saturdays of training for the Essential Elements of training child care.”

            Mork explained further it would consist of 8, two-hour classes, and they would come one additional time on a Friday evening before issuing Saturday training and offer what they called Infant Toddler Training Intensive classes which dealt with infant care for a provider coming in with a baby.

            “Infant Toddler Training Intensive classes really does work in helping the provider build a relationship with the baby’s parent so that you are doing it with the same value of building the relationship,” she said. “We’re proposing that even parents of infants be allowed to take the Infant Toddler Training with the provider so that they get some of the heads-up information about major decisions about the infant provider also.”

            She passed out a brochure to the Tribal Council that explained the eight classes that there were. She also spoke about an $80.00 match, but she hoped they could offer the training for free.

            Some of the things they taught involved working with multiple groups of children, crafts and games, doing things for all age groups, nature/science studies, reading with rhymes, food and nutrition, hand washing, equipment safety, marketing, the environment, curriculums, record keeping for a business in your home, child guidance and etc.

            Chairman King asked if their organization had already received the funding from the Northwest Foundation.

            “What they said is, if the Tribal Council would put in, they would in $2000,” Wilken said.

            Mork said they already had the matching funds. She also said she agreed to come up here at no charge for providers in the area to do an activity count for providers and children to build a relationship with the providers.

            Representative White made the motion, seconded by Representative Thunder, to give $1500 to the Essential Elements Child Care Program as proposed, with the motion carrying unanimously.

            Established in 1973, MLFCCA is a non-profit, statewide network of family child care providers, provider associations, support groups and neighborhood groups. They are currently working on coordinating many educational opportunities across Minnesota as well as being an advocate for providers and children.