The Rural Voice, 1994-07, Page 21being taken into consideration at
1 Perth Care for Kids. Based in
t Mitchell, this agency is now in its
t third year of operation. It grew out of
a survey conducted by Women in
Support of Agricultureand took as its
model a similar program in Oxford
County.
During May, June, July and
August, Perth Care for Kids offers a
service in which students in Early
Childhood Education programs are
available to be sent out to farm
homes to look after a family's
r children (or those of more than one
family up, to five children).
f The service is flexible to meet the
r needs of farm families. While the
r care givers can only work eight hours
1 a day, those eight hours can be any
1 time between the hours of 7 a.m. and
f 7 p.m. "We have found that the care
givers have been very flexible," says
e Kathie Cox, supervisor of the
p program.
J Heaviest use of the service comes
g during the height of cropping
periods, she says. The system is
flexible enough that if the weather
changes and planned outdoor work
isn't able to be done, the service can
n be cancelled for the day.
n A parent who might want to take
2 advantage of the program calls the
e office in Mitchell. If it's a first time
n request, the parent will be asked to
n fill in forms requesting care, giving a
e description of the farm, information
on how many children there are and
s what ages and how many are in
s school. The information includes
of emergency contact numbers. Parents Lcan also make the care givers aware
e of what danger areas there are on the
It
Vickie Piluke:
licenced agencies
gives in-home care
legitimacy.
farm and areas that
are off limits to the
children. Care givers
are also required to
have updated first aid
certification.
Preference is given,
when hiring students
for the program, to
those from a farm
background, and so
far all the care givers
have been former
farm kids themselves.
Children love the service and look
forward to the care givers arriving,
Cox says. The care givers plan their
program ahead so that when they
arrive they have activities arranged to
keep children entertained. The care
givers have access to the toy lending
library, operated out of the same
building, for toys and games. The
library (which also travels out to five
locations from Kirkton and St. Marys
north to Milverton and Listowel for
toy exchanges) has more than 1,000
toys providing everything from
puzzles and books to story tapes and
play clothes. The arrival of a care
giver with two boxes of goodies is
something to look forward to. "The
care givers usually report that the
kids are sorry they're leaving," Cox
says.
But while the program is flexible
it can only stretch so
far. Last year 43
families were helped.
Families can get up to
two days a week of
care but with only two
care givers available,
the service is heavily
booked. Some dates
have already been
booked ahead for July
and August. Through
early June, the
program had been 90
per cent booked. Two
care givers do so
much.
That's why in both
Perth and Huron other
programs for flexible
care are being looked
at. These include home child care
where people take children into their
homes to give them day care. Unlike
those who just provide baby sitting
services, these care givers take a
much more serious view of the
service they offer. "We don't want
kids sitting in front of the TV," Cox
says. Care givers are given toys,
through the toy lending library. They
have resources, crafts and ideas for
different activities.
For safety the homes must
undergo fire safety inspections and
members of the care giving family
must be screened for criminal
records. The homes are visited once a
month by Cox to see that things are
running properly.
A similar program has been
running in Huron County for a
couple of months now. Vicky Piluke
is supervisor of the Huron Home
Childcare and Family Resource
Centre located in a vacant space in
the Clinton Public School. Last
November, she says, the Centre was
an empty room. Today it houses a toy
lending library and resource centre
for information on raising children.
Piluke also oversees the program to
start in-home child care in the
county.
efore taking up her current
job, Piluke ran two programs
that trained 38 people to give
in-home child care. Now her
agency is licenced by the Ministry of
Community and Social Services to
contract services from in-home
providers (it operates
under the board of
directors of the Clinton
Co-operative Child
Care Centre). The
licence allows for up to
25 homes each
providing day care for
up to five children (the
number varies
according to the age of
the children involved
and the total includes
any children of the care
provider). The program
provides the potential to
almost double the
licenced child care
capacity in the county.
So far, she says, homes
in Vanastra, Goderich
and St. Augustine have
Kathie Cox: Perth Care for
Kids offers flexibility for farm
hours.
JULY 1994 17