Ford County’s Child Care Landscape
Ford County, Kansas, represents both booming business and dire need for diverse, affordable, and available child care options. In Dodge City, where Cargill and National Beef have a strong foothold in the employment status of the community, the coalitions and providers who serve Ford County are well-acquainted with the needs of families who work full time while also navigating the child care system.
According to Dalila, a community coalition leader from Dodge City, “child care is a dire need” in her county. According to Child Care Aware of Kansas’ data, Ford County needs 1,646 child care slots to fulfill the needs of all families living in the area, but with only 448 slots available, only 27% of the county’s needs are accounted for.
Families have severe and immediate needs for available, affordable child care that offers multicultural and multilingual representation, as well as nontraditional hours to match the hours they work at companies like Cargill and National Beef.
Families have severe and immediate needs for available, affordable child care that offers multicultural and multilingual representation, as well as nontraditional hours
Voices from the Community: Families and Providers Speak Out
Brittany, the mother of a family with two children who have required child care in Ford County, agreed that the need for available child care in her community is severe, but also stresses the need for safe and well-trained providers. For providers to feel capable of caring for the children of Ford County effectively, however, she strongly believes that they need to be adequately supported.
Lauren, who owns an in-home child care facility in Dodge City, feels that child care provision is a field that is in desperate need of mental health support to prevent burnout, as well as the funding that would allow her and other providers like her to afford to pay themselves a living wage as well as provide the children they serve with all of the resources that will help them to develop and grow. Not being able to afford to support herself as well as the families that she serves, Lauren says “wears on my mental wellbeing.”
Building Respect and Support for Child Care Providers
Ultimately, Lauren, like many other providers, feels that child care is an undervalued field. “The heart of the issue is respect,” she shared. Receiving financial support and recognition from agencies like Child Care Aware of Kansas is one way that she believes that builds a deeper sense of respect among her community, as well as feeling less alone in her field. Lauren divulged, “I was an island… but there are people that will come help.” The help that Child Care Aware provides for communities, families, and providers is diverse. According to Dalila, through a grant funded by CCAKS, providers in Ford County were able to participate in professional development classes and workshops, as well as receive books, guides, and other helpful literature.
A Resilient Community Working Towards a Brighter Future
While Ford County desperately needs available, affordable, and diverse access to quality child care, its members stress that it is a resilient county with big plans for the future.
Dalila shared that her community child care coalition’s goal is to create support systems for providers, as well as to one day build a new child care facility to accommodate much-needed availability for families. “If it takes hand-holding, I’m happy to do that,” she expressed. Her drive to create high quality child care with greater availability is earnest, and her confidence is infectious.
Ford County’s child care needs are great, but Child Care Aware of Kansas, as well as community members like Dalila, Brittany, and Lauren, believe that through the advancement of support for families and providers will fill in the gaps, hopefully preventing any children from slipping through the cracks.
