Chapter One

	Preparing the Soil
	1987-1993

The idea of an emergency child care service for Ottawa-Carleton families germinated in 1987 with Rosemary Somers, Executive Director of Andrew Fleck Child Care Services (AFCCS), a large, multi-service child care agency providing child care and other family services to Ottawa families since 1911. Ms Somers was well known for her development of innovative and high-quality child care services.

At that time there were few back-up child care services in the region to meet the needs of the growing number of working families and their children. In 1987, with federal government funding, Ms Somers initiated a small, emergency child care service in AFCCS called Short Term Child Care. Emergency child care was available in the family home and through the AFCCS home child care system.

When in 1989 the opportunity of Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services funding for flexible child care services arose, AFCCS was in the right place at the right time. A formal, community needs assessment on emergency child care needs was conducted in 1989 and determined there was a need for flexible, emergency or back-up child care services.

The seed for the STCC program was sown in 1989 when AFCCS joined with two other large, child care agencies, The Children's Village of Ottawa-Carleton and Gloucester Child Care Services to sponsor a proposal to the Ontario Government to fund an Ottawa emergency, back-up child care service as one of the province's flexible child care service initiatives. The challenge for the three agencies was how to structure the service for optimal growth and to best meet the needs of parents and children.

In 1989, Elsie Chan was Manager of Home Child Care Services at
The Children's Village of Ottawa-Carleton and one of the founders
of STCC. For Ms Chan, it was essential that STCC be developed as
a separate organization with shared partnership and collaboration
between all three agencies. Ms Chan saw all three agencies as equal
partners in the cultivation of STCC. Her championship of the fledgling
service grew from a strong belief that an emergency child care
service was necessary to meet working parents' needs. Ms Chan
carries that commitment today as Executive Director of AFCCS.

In 1989, three-year pilot funding was granted to the three agencies to operate a Short Term Child Care program. STCC was set up as a not-for-profit, charitable corporation with a voluntary board of directors with representation from the three founding agencies.
The mandate of the Short Term Child Care Program was to provide emergency and temporary (back-up) care to children aged 3 months to 12 years either in their own homes (the only option available if child was mildly ill) or within the licensed home child care and group day care system if there was a breakdown in regular care. STCC also had a purchase-of-service agreement with the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton to provide care to sick children of families receiving subsidized child care. The service was open to all Ottawa-Carleton and National Capital Region families.

Within the first year, STCC's roots had spread far into the community. By 1993, STCC had served over 450 families and their children. The STCC client base grew steadily as the program gained credibility and loyal parent users grew comfortable using and trusting the service. By the second year of operation, family re-utilization of the service was at 63%.

The first Executive Director of STCC (1987-1992), Valerie Bryce, remembers the initial years of the innovative, groundbreaking service.

"One of my greatest areas of satisfaction was providing care to families
receiving subsidized child care, people who otherwise couldn't afford
this type of care, were in jobs where they would not be paid if they did
not go to work or who didn't have family support. We were able to
provide these families with high-quality, back-up child care. It had
its problems but was immensely satisfying."

The quality of the STCC service was nurtured and sustained by excellent caregivers, licensed home child care providers and child care program staff. In-home caregivers were carefully screened and selected on the basis of child care or comparable experience. Both the in-home caregivers and home child care providers were monitored by the STCC child care coordinator through home checks. The recruitment, training and monitoring of caregivers was a significant pre-occupation for STCC staff.

Despite STCC's positive growth, external elements did not favour the emergency child care service. In March 1993, at the completion of the three-year pilot project, funding was terminated as part of overall, wide-reaching government cutbacks. Given that provincial funding constituted the largest revenue source for STCC, the program had no option but to close down. Ironically, at the time of closing the agency had attained its highest service level with over 250 days of care provided in March alone.

However, the ground was ready and community roots had spread and taken hold. Parental use and satisfaction was high and private and public organizations had begun to take notice of the service as a benefit for employees and members. The Ottawa Civic Hospital, a large employer, had already negotiated a pilot emergency child care contract with STCC for nursing and administrative staff. A 1989 Conference Board of Canada survey of over 11,000 Canadian employees had attracted substantial public attention with the conclusion that 80% of Canadians surveyed reported that "finding last minute emergency child care" was their most important issue. Back-up or emergency child care services were not being provided by the child care sector.
The increasing number of Canadian parents in the workforce had few options when regular child care was unavailable.

Never say never
A committed STCC board weighed the decision of either closing the service or finding a new funding structure. Operational funding had disappeared but the community need for emergency child care services had not.

STCC would not lay fallow. Responding to parent need and challenged with the imperative to create a new funding structure, the STCC Board and its partner, the Ottawa Civic Hospital decided to explore new ideas and opportunities for Short Term Child Care. The Ottawa Civic Hospital had a strong need and incentive to access emergency child care for its workers: the replacement cost of a nurse exceeded the cost of providing emergency child care as a benefit. The hospital's drive and leadership was a key factor in the revival of STCC.

For Vonnie Kline, a key player and supporter of the service in its early stages, and an Ottawa Civic Hospital employee, an inherent belief in the emergency child care service was substantiated by the business case for a community-based consortium.

The Ottawa Civic Hospital was the first organization
to establish the business case for providing emergency child care.
Recognizing the benefits to employees in assisting them with
their work and family responsibilities the Civic led a series
of community consultations in 1993 and 1994 to explore a new
funding structure to revive the STCC program.