Envision Bend brings together community organizations and residents to discuss access to child care
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Community leaders and organizations met up at the Deschutes Public Library Tuesday night to discuss having access to affordable year-round child care.
Representatives of Envision Bend, NeighborImpact and the Boys & Girls Club of Bend got together to discuss the status of child care in our region.
Envision Bend Executive Director Matt Muchna says their organization envisions a more vibrant, inclusive, and resilient bend, and to increase awareness on vital topics in Central Oregon, such as child care.
“Tonight was really to spur on conversation, bring partners who are working on this day in and day out with community members that are experiencing the ripple effect and the impact of not being able to find the childcare that they need,” Muchna said.
Organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of Bend, as well as NeighborImpact, shared what they are doing to help parents.
Bess Goggins, CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Bend, said, “Currently, we provide after-school and summer programing to more than 140 youth at a time at our downtown clubhouse near the library, as well as in east Bend.
"We have a clubhouse at one of the Housing Works communities, and the impact, I'd say, is both for the children themselves, kindergarten through 8th grade currently, and we provide a safe, engaging space where kids are able to learn more about academics and leadership and health and wellness.
NeighborImpact’s Hannah Kuehl, associate director of grants management, said, “We are working on adding 1,400 new child care slots, and right now, we've increased 944. Right now, the focus we're taking is on infant and toddler care. That's the biggest need we're seeing right now.”
According to Child Care Aware in America, a nonprofit organization, in Oregon, the average monthly price of full-time child care is $801 per child. That’s 16% of the median household income for a family with children under 6.
Also, some parents like Natasha Henderson of Bend say the availability of child care can be a problem:
“I think the biggest challenge is we have a lot of people moving here, and it's taking up a lot of the resources that people thought were available, and so they end up scrambling. When (Bend) Park & Rec comes out with their programs, you're finding that there's more need than there are available spaces.”
Envision Bend says the state of child care can be complex. The issue is connecting parents to caregivers. They say a good first step is reaching out to NeighborImpact.
