Region Faces Childcare Crisis, May 25

News release SWOCC.  Our community and our region are facing a crisis in childcare. There are not enough childcare providers to care for our children. As of 2016, we had 12 slots for every 100 children under the age of 6 in Coos and Curry County.  That gap has widened significantly in recent years, with the closure of large centers in the Coos Bay/North Bend area. High quality childcare is available, both in centers and in-home family child care, but there simply isn’t enough of it.  In Coos and Curry Counties, there are no centers that care for infants, and licensed family care providers are limited to two children under 24 months. Support for families of infants is available in the form of home visiting programs, but these services do not provide childcare. We have a responsibility to our children and to their families to do what we can as a community to be sure they are safe, supported, and have opportunities to learn. Children thrive when their families have the supports they need; in order for our families to find stability, for our children to be ready to learn and succeed in their educations, we must find solutions to this problem. If you would like to be involved in working toward solutions, please contact Barbara Bassett at the South Coast Regional Early Learning Hub: bbassett@orcca.us or Danaye Gonzalez, Program Manager, CARE Connections at Southwestern Oregon Community College, phone: 1-800-611-7555; email: qualitychildcare@socc.edu.