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A l b e r t a ' s r u r a l
c h i l d c a r e p r o j e c t
Olson: Chair of the Alberta Rural Child
Care Pilot Project
Norecn Olson, chair of the Alberta Rural
Child Care Pilot Project that includes
representatives from Women of Unifarm,
Alberta Women in Support of Agriculture,
Alberta Farm Women's Network
and AWI, says that seven groups have
been sponsored to receive a portion of
$ 75,000 in grant money. " We have them
all the way from the little project which
will be one person, one family and one
baby sitter, up to projects that involve
five families and ten kids," says Olson
from her farm south of Olds. ' That's the
whole idea here is to fund a variety of
projects so we could find out what really
worked."
Unfortunately, programs devised for
areas with a higher population density
and regular work schedules do not function
well for farm families like the Walp-ers
and their three young children. According
to Sandra, to place their children in
conventional child care would cost the
family up to $ 1,000 per month. Twice
each day she would have to make a 100
kilometre round- trip drive to the nearest
facility and with the inflexible hours she
could never work after supper. Should
the weather turn bad and the fields unworkable,
the family would still have to
pay child care even though they are not
attending.
And for families without older members,
teenagers or neighbors willing and
able to help, the alternative is to take the
children out to the field. " It's hard on
kids," says Olson. " Kids, little kids especially,
shouldn't be away from home 12
and 14 hours at a stretch and that's why
rural kids don't fit into the regular day
home system. Those people want to have
regular hours and you can't blame them."
Across the province, more than 60 people
requested applications for the pilot
project and the group received about 20
completed application forms. The committee
set out a number of guidelines for
evaluation including: need; a unique
approach; the amount of community involvement
and support; a sound proposal;
the details of project administration;
the potential for success; and the potential
for continuation beyond the funding
period.
But says Olson looking at a stack of
" We had to stick to
ones that we thought
had a chance of functioning
afterwards
and teaching us
something."
applications: The first thing on the list of
criteria was need. We immediately gave
that up because everybody needed it. . .
If you fund everyone of these, there are
thousands more of them out there. We
had to stick to ones that we thought had
a chance of functioning afterwards and
teaching us something."
Olson added that many of the letters
would " break your heart." Letters including
messages like this one from a Brown-vale
woman.
" Our son was in a farm accident. He
was three at the time and stuck his finger
in a swather knife. The machine wasn't
running but we were pulling the knife out
and, even after repeated warnings, he still
stuck his finger in. I spent eight days at
the University Hospital with him while
they put his finger back on. Luckily it
took and he's fine but the memory will
always be with me and it still really bothers
me."
While the Brownvale proposal was
rejected, the committee recently agreed
to fund child care programs in Bentley,
Elnora, High Prairie, Cluny, Innisfail, and
Hanna- Spondin.
But in a unique venture sponsored by
the Alberta Women's Institute and
funded by Alberta Initiatives and the Wild
Rose Foundation, women are getting a
chance to address the problems facing
rural child care initiatives.
in Elnora, five families with 10 children
have compiled a care giver registry of 23
people with cooperation from the FCSS,
Elnora Agriculture Society, Lousana
j Recreation Board and the Elnora Village
Office. The care givers include students,
: seniors and other farmers able to lend a
i hand periodically.
Gordon Beck presents Pine Lake
community gift to newly weds,
Carole and Doug Sawyer
^ ried Aug. 17, 1991)
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | Pine Lake History - 1990-1999 |
| Subject | AWI: Pine Lake Branch |
| Description | Branch History |
| Language | en |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Type | text |
| Source | Alberta Women's Institutes |
| Identifier | awi0811091 |
| Date | 2007 |
| Collection | Alberta Women's Institutes - Collective Memory |
| Repository | AU Digital Library |
| Copyright | For Private Study and Research Use Only |
Description
| Title | Page 18 |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | AWI Collection |
| Collection | Alberta Women's Institutes - Collective Memory |
| Repository | AU Digital Library |
| Copyright | For Private Study and Research Use Only |
| Transcript | A l b e r t a ' s r u r a l c h i l d c a r e p r o j e c t Olson: Chair of the Alberta Rural Child Care Pilot Project Norecn Olson, chair of the Alberta Rural Child Care Pilot Project that includes representatives from Women of Unifarm, Alberta Women in Support of Agriculture, Alberta Farm Women's Network and AWI, says that seven groups have been sponsored to receive a portion of $ 75,000 in grant money. " We have them all the way from the little project which will be one person, one family and one baby sitter, up to projects that involve five families and ten kids," says Olson from her farm south of Olds. ' That's the whole idea here is to fund a variety of projects so we could find out what really worked." Unfortunately, programs devised for areas with a higher population density and regular work schedules do not function well for farm families like the Walp-ers and their three young children. According to Sandra, to place their children in conventional child care would cost the family up to $ 1,000 per month. Twice each day she would have to make a 100 kilometre round- trip drive to the nearest facility and with the inflexible hours she could never work after supper. Should the weather turn bad and the fields unworkable, the family would still have to pay child care even though they are not attending. And for families without older members, teenagers or neighbors willing and able to help, the alternative is to take the children out to the field. " It's hard on kids," says Olson. " Kids, little kids especially, shouldn't be away from home 12 and 14 hours at a stretch and that's why rural kids don't fit into the regular day home system. Those people want to have regular hours and you can't blame them." Across the province, more than 60 people requested applications for the pilot project and the group received about 20 completed application forms. The committee set out a number of guidelines for evaluation including: need; a unique approach; the amount of community involvement and support; a sound proposal; the details of project administration; the potential for success; and the potential for continuation beyond the funding period. But says Olson looking at a stack of " We had to stick to ones that we thought had a chance of functioning afterwards and teaching us something." applications: The first thing on the list of criteria was need. We immediately gave that up because everybody needed it. . . If you fund everyone of these, there are thousands more of them out there. We had to stick to ones that we thought had a chance of functioning afterwards and teaching us something." Olson added that many of the letters would " break your heart." Letters including messages like this one from a Brown-vale woman. " Our son was in a farm accident. He was three at the time and stuck his finger in a swather knife. The machine wasn't running but we were pulling the knife out and, even after repeated warnings, he still stuck his finger in. I spent eight days at the University Hospital with him while they put his finger back on. Luckily it took and he's fine but the memory will always be with me and it still really bothers me." While the Brownvale proposal was rejected, the committee recently agreed to fund child care programs in Bentley, Elnora, High Prairie, Cluny, Innisfail, and Hanna- Spondin. But in a unique venture sponsored by the Alberta Women's Institute and funded by Alberta Initiatives and the Wild Rose Foundation, women are getting a chance to address the problems facing rural child care initiatives. in Elnora, five families with 10 children have compiled a care giver registry of 23 people with cooperation from the FCSS, Elnora Agriculture Society, Lousana j Recreation Board and the Elnora Village Office. The care givers include students, : seniors and other farmers able to lend a i hand periodically. Gordon Beck presents Pine Lake community gift to newly weds, Carole and Doug Sawyer ^ ried Aug. 17, 1991) |
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