Serving 10 counties, Huffer Child Care Resource and Referral focuses on promoting quality child care. On top of that, it also provides support for families and the community.
The organization focuses its efforts on tools for families searching for child care. Outreach specialist Ryan Hart says this tool is more than just a traditional rating system.
“It’s to help parents make an educated decision on where to send their kids because they can look at the rating and see that a provider has really done a lot to move up to a level four,” Hart said.
A level four is the highest rated program a parent can find. Some of the qualities for a level four child care program include having a planned curriculum, adequate learning environments and being nationally accredited.
Research shows Delaware County is among two others where infant childcare is least affordable. Hart says the county has a variety of high-quality providers, but those may be expensive.
“It can be between $240 to $260 a week for full-time,” Hart said.
As of now, the organization is trying to get businesses involved to sponsor scholarships for high-quality child care programs. Hart believes this could benefit families in the long run.
“What we’re looking at with the C.A.R.E. Initiative is just a partial subsidy for that,” Hart said. “So maybe for just $125 a week, a business could contribute that and it would knockout about half of the cost.”
Even though the initiative isn’t in full swing just yet, Hart believes there’s a lot of potential to help families in multiple communities.
