PENHOLD – Affordable daycare is coming to Penhold.
The Alberta government recently announced an expansion to its $25-a-day daycare program in the province.
Premier Rachel Notley said at the end of April that 100 new Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) centres will be added to the program.
The daycare program is a three-year pilot project implemented last year. The project allows non-profit daycare centres to apply for up to half a million dollars per year in government funding.
Community T.I.E.S Daycare in Penhold was included in the expansion.
"We are really thrilled for our families, to be able to help them out with the high fees they're paying for child care," said Arlene Mendoza, director at Community T.I.E.S (Together Investing in Early Success).
Community T.I.E.S is a non-profit society that runs out of the old Penhold library on Aberdeen Street. It provides two accredited programs, the Community T.I.E.S Daycare and Penhold School Age Care (an after- school program that is not part of the pilot project).
There are 24 spots available at the Penhold daycare.
Reshann Butts, coordinator with the Innisfail Family Day Home Society, said there are no daycare centres in Innisfail that qualify for the funding.
“You have to be a non-profit (daycare centre). The daycare here in town is for-profit so they are not eligible to apply for the program,” said Butts, noting her work with the local family day home agency.
“Day home agencies are not eligible (for funding) either and we are a non-profit,” she added. “If it ever becomes available for us, we will absolutely apply.”
Prior to the expansion, there were just 22 daycare centres in the province providing $25-a-day services. That number now jumps to 122 under the expansion.
Mendoza said they will implement the new program starting May 26 and will introduce weekend care, thus providing $25-a-day daycare seven days a week.
As a result, they will add several new positions.
"We are in the process of hiring (two to four more) staff that will work on the weekend," said Mendoza, noting the current number of eight staff members that work Monday to Friday.
They are filled to capacity now with 24 families using their daycare services, she noted, and since the announcement, they have added 16 families to a waiting list.
"We're also receiving calls and interest from parents about our weekend care," she said.
Mendoza thinks the pilot project will have a positive impact for families in Penhold.
"Those parents who are not in the workforce yet, it gives them the opportunity to go back to work since the (more affordable) daycare will be available to them," she said. "It’s great for families that work during the week, to find a safe place where they can send their children."
For more information visit the Penhold Community TIES Society on Facebook.
