Childcare with Josh Peck and Kori Olsen 
[Music]
Matt: Welcome to Bellingham Technical College’s Money$marts Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Benoit. Each episode we’ll talk with BTC students, staff, community professionals, and financial experts about financial literacy and wellness all to help listeners navigate resources in the community and empower themselves financially. We’re here today with Josh Peck of AmeriCorps VISTA, which is a Federal Program aimed at Alleviating poverty. VISTA stands for Volunteers in Service to America. Josh, How are you doing?
Josh: I’m doing great thanks so much for having me.
Matt: Excellent. So, today we are talking about the topic of childcare in Whatcom County and specifically gaps in childcare. First of all, tell me about your position and what you do.
Josh: Sure. My position – I work at the Opportunity Council, which does a variety of different social services in Whatcom County. My position grew out of the fact that there is a huge lack of capacity in childcare right now. There’s really long waiting lists for parents, there’s just nowhere for them to go. So, the idea the Opportunity Council had is to recruit and train a number of childcare providers to increase the supply of childcare in the community and at the same time get people into running their own business, move up the economic ladder while creating this business out of your own home. That’s the first half and then the second half is just general advocacy for early learning and going out into the community and saying this is an important issue.
Matt: In doing this research, what have you learned about the gaps in childcare in Whatcom County? How big a problem is it?
Josh: We started by looking at childcare provider survey data and comparing that to census data. And what we found – there’s about 7,700 children in Whatcom County under five, who have both parents that are working and there’s only about 3,200 childcare slots available. So, that means potentially 58% of the children with working parents are potentially left without an option for licensed childcare. So, there’s that first piece that – there simply isn’t a place to put your kids. We talked to the YMCA, they have two childcare centers in the area and they told us: if you become pregnant and are looking for childcare in Whatcom County you are not asking in time to get a slot for you infant. You need to start looking for childcare when you are thinking about having a child. That’s how big the capacity issue is. And then on top of that, you know, it’s just so expensive. It’s literally more expensive to put an infant in care than it is to send someone to Western. You know, it’s $12,000 per year, and that’s just for one kid.
Matt: Wow, that is…more expensive than sending a student to Western Washington University. That blows my mind.
Josh: Yeah, so it’s a huge issue.
Matt: So, obviously, this is something that not only effects parents but it effects people who even are thinking about being parents. Because that’s how much of a gap there is, that’s incredible. Now, when it comes to – some of the people looking for childcare services, they may not be in school, like you said, they both happen to be working, but in this case when we apply it to here at BTC, what barriers do students who are also parents face when they are going to school and trying to find funding for school and then also childcare. I mean, that’s a huge – that’s crazy. 
Josh: Right. Right. So, one thing I would think about that’s specific to students, we hear about being busy during nontraditional work hours. You know, most childcare providers are open about the same time as regular 40 hour per week jobs. So, if you’re taking night classes, it’s going to be a lot harder to find care for your kids.
Matt: Okay. What else do you have?
Josh: Definitely those barriers are a huge issue, transportation, of course trying to find somewhere near BTC to take your kid. I know in many parts of the county, having done this research there’s, we say 58% of the kids are potentially left without the option of care, if you’re a student at BTC coming from east county that’s more like 20% of the kids have access. So it’s even worse, area dependent. 
Matt: What are some of the things that can be done to fill in these quite significant gaps. What is the overall goal of Opportunity Council in helping alleviate that childcare gap.
Josh: There’s a couple resources that I would point out that we offer and that the state offers. The first one would be that we offer an emergency childcare program. So, essentially, if a family faces a crisis – unexpected medical bills, they’re thinking they’re not going to be able to pay rent, could probably be used for student fees as well at BTC, we can offer short term assistance for a number of months. And make sure that parents have that continuity of childcare, still going on and don’t need to lose their slot if they face some unexpected expense. So, that is something I would say Opportunity Council does really well. I would also mention we have a family call center. Families can call 1-800-446-1114. Basically, that will take you to a childcare resource and referral specialist and so they have information on all the licensed childcare in the state. You can tell them your price range, ages of your kids, all that information, and they can make a recommendation for what might be the best provider for you. So those are two I would definitely point to.
Matt: And in terms of the short term sort of emergency situation, if somebody is looking for that, what is the first step, what do they need to do step by step, where do you start off?   
Josh: To access the emergency childcare voucher the first thing you would do is visit the Opportunity Council in person or you call 360-734-8396 extension 227. And you’ll reach one of my colleagues and we are very happy to help you. I would add that you do need to be either a Whatcom County or Skagit County resident to access this program.
Matt: Okay. So we talked about short term emergency care, what is the Opportunity Council doing to build capacity to enable parents to receive long term assistance?
Josh: Sure. So, I would say we have two focuses in that realm. The first is the work that I’m doing focused on capacity and so training people to become childcare providers and hopefully through that process opening more businesses and opening more childcare slots available for residents of the county. A huge part of that has been trying to partner more with large employers in the area. For example, we’ve been working with the Bellingham Regional Chamber of Commerce and we’ve been in discussion with a few of the bigger businesses in the area about potentially going the route of them either partnering with a childcare center to offer slots for their employees or  potentially opening on-site childcare. So that’s kind of the long-term capacity goal. I’d also add, it’s important for parents to have somewhere to put their kids but a huge part of it too is making sure they have a high quality learning environment to put their children. So a large part of what the Opportunity Council does is administer a program called Early Achievers which is a state program and it’s the QRIS or Quality Rating and Improvement System for the state. Basically, there’s a number of Early Achievers Coaches at the Opportunity Council and these coaches go out to childcare providers, help them set up their environment in a way that’s developmentally encouraging for kids that research is behind – you should set up your toys this way or have these art projects – and that’s a free service that we offer to all providers in the area.
Matt:That’s terrific. Alright Josh, thank you so much for being on the BTC Money$marts Podcast. Now, we wanted to bring in another voice on this episode talking about childcare in Whatcom County which is why we are here with BTC WorkForce Funding Coordinator, Kori Olsen. How are you doing?
Kori: Great! How are you?
Matt: Excellent. So first off, what is WorkForce Funding? And can you briefly describe what you do as a coordinator? 
Kori: Yes, so Workforce Funding is comprised of several grant funded programs that help support students beyond traditional financial aid. There’s typically specific eligibility criteria for these programs. Which falls along the lines of income guidelines, perhaps someone is receiving unemployment benefits. Somebody’s going through some significant life transitions. And in the case that they can qualify for these programs, what they receive is, they receive assistance with tuition, transportation, books, tools and other supports along the way, as they’re going through their education path. 
Matt: Ok. Now, how can WorkForce Funding programs specifically help students with childcare?
Kori: We have a partnership with department of social and health services, also known as DSHS, and working connections childcare. Essentially, if a student is interested in childcare and they qualify for federal food benefits
through DSHS, then they may qualify for childcare subsidies. And how they do that is they go to the Washington Connection website. That website address is www.washingtonconnection.org and they can fill out an application with them. There is a list there of licensed providers that student can select from or a qualified in-home provider. Once they’re able to get that access put in place, our role at Bellingham Technical College is to help keep the Department of Social and Health services updated on what their schedule is. So, students are able to get subsidies for childcare, not only for the time that they’re in school but also during the time that they are studying. There is a huge offset with the childcare costs that way.
Matt: Alright. How do you know, if you have children, that you’re eligible for these programs?
Kori: The first step is, the student would want to apply for federal food benefits, which they can go through the Department of Social and Health Services on that Washingtonconnection.org website. It’s great. There’s actually a button on there that says see if I qualify. And then it pulls up a whole list of questions for the students. Once they’re done with that, if it says that they may likely be eligible for food benefits or cash assistance, the student can then actually apply for via that service. Once they’re on the food benefits, then they can enroll in one of our WorkForce Funding programs here at the college. We have BFET which stands for Basic Food Employment Training, WorkFirst which is a program if you are receiving cash assistance. And so the student would apply through that Washington Connection Childcare on the Washington Connection website and coordinate with then our WorkForce Funding Office here on campus for that childcare piece so that we can update their schedules and their study times. 
Matt: So, if someone listening to this right now has questions, is there an email or a phone number that they can go to to query a question?
Kori: Yes, absolutely. I would encourage them to email us at bfet@btc.edu or they can also contact us at our front desk, which, that phone number is 360-752-8468.
Matt: So, when we talk about childcare, are there any childcare classes offered here at BTC?
Kori: Yes, we have a wide range of classes here that help support parents anytime before the child is born through their teenage years. Those are usually taught as separate from the academic programs here. And then we also have childbirth classes that occur quarterly.
Matt: Excellent. Is there anything else you wanted to add about childcare in Whatcom County and any resources available to people here at BTC?
Kori: I would just highly recommend if somebody is receiving federal food benefits, it is definitely worth your while to look into Washington Connection to see if you can get the childcare subsidies. The other thing that I wanted to add about our campus here is that we have a very robust and wonderful community. We do things to help support families here. So, we have a lot of events such as, we do movie nights where it’s free for families to come in. So, I would just encourage students that are attending that have children, connect with your – connect with your peers because there’s a lot that we offer here for free and it’s a wonderful supportive environment.
Matt: Excellent. Well, thank you, Kori so much for being on the program.
Kori: Thank you!
Matt: Thanks for listening to this episode of the BTC Money$marts podcast, be sure to check out all our episodes on the BTC website. They’re loaded with stories, tips, tricks and strategies for financial literacy. This podcast is produced by Cheryl Kennedy with music courtesy of Bensound.com. I’m Matt Benoit, see you next time!