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Effective Program Strategies
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| Collaboration for Operating School-Age Care
(Public/Private) Eastern Band of Cherokee |
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Demographic
Information:
The Eastern
Band of Cherokee Indians live and work on 57,000 acres of trust land in the
mountains of Western North Carolina. There are approximately 12,000 enrolled
members of the Tribe. The Tribe designates the Cherokee Center for Family
Services as the lead agency to administer the CCDF program. The Cherokee Center
for Family Services (CCFS) service area includes all reservation land in a
three adjoining county area.
Type of Program:
The CCFS operates two birth through five years, center-based and state-licensed child development programs serving 85 Indian children. One Child Development Center is located in Cherokee and the other in Snowbird Community, 50 miles away. The CCFS also operates two center-based school-age programs serving 105 children ages 5 through 12. The CCFS recently completed construction of a 5,000 square foot school age center for the exclusive use of school age care. It is the only facility of its kind in North Carolina. The other school age program is located in the Snowbird Community and has two rooms for the exclusive use of school age care.
Effective Program Strategy:
The Cherokee Center for Family Services and Barclay Home Products, the largest manufacturing plant in the area, collaborated to provide school age care for 25 children of Barclay employees and the 80 Indian children.
The CCFS offered Barclay Home Products the opportunity to participate in providing quality child care which helps to decrease employee absenteeism, increase employee loyalty, demonstrates the company's community activism, and lowers operating costs. All of this was offered at a very low cost compared to the cost of lost production due to child care problems and high turnover rate of hourly wage earners. CCFS offered Barclay 25 child care and school age care slots for its employees only. The CCFS would monitor attendance and submit to Barclay an itemized listing of fees for each employee each month. Barclay, in turn, provided the half-fee for each employee based on the child's attendance. Barclay provided additional funding for school-age staff. This benefit was provided at no cost to the employee regardless of tenure at Barclay. These additional funds helped to enhance the quality of care and provided funds to operate the school age program in the summer. The efforts of the CCFS and Barclay Home Products provided the foundation for the child care portion of a recent Empowerment Zone of Western North Carolina Alliance for Business and Child Care application. Through public hearings, community meetings, and local government input, the need for employer-assisted child care was heightened. Although the Empowerment Zone application was not funded, a greater community awareness was a successful outcome of the effort.
Resources:
The
financial resources used in this strategy involved no Tribal dollars. CCDF quality
enhancement and school age care set-asides were used.
Results:
Barclay employees
were happier to be at work. There was less documented absenteeism of workers
with children; and, employee turnover was decreased. The Cherokee Children's
Coalition, a successful outcome of the Barclay collaboration, continues to
be the moving force behind the employer assisted child care initiative. The
Cherokee Children's Coalition was recently recognized as an advocate for comprehensive
and quality child care services.
Contact Information:
Stan Bienick, Executive Director
Address:
Cherokee Center for Family Services
PO Box 507
Cherokee, NC 28719
Phone: 828/497-5001
Fax: 828/497-5818
Email: sbienick@cherokeefamilyservices.org
| NOTE: If you have information about an Effective Program Strategy in your Tribal community that you would like to share, please contact the Tribal Child Care Technical Assistance Center (TriTAC) at TriTAC@namsinc.org |
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