One idea under consideration by the FCC Finance Committee (and other interested parties) is to start a licensed Child Care Center in His House. The Child Care Center would necessarily be compatible with our current programming for children and the current users of His House would not be displaced or moved.
The reasons for our thinking about starting a Child Care Center are the following: 1) Child Care Centers often attract new members to a congregation; 2) It would increase the use of an under-utilized facility; 3) It would create a job for a Member and it would add a needed resource (child care) to the community; 4) Fees charged would provide some revenue to the church.
There are some downside variables as well. They are: 1) we would have to go into pocket in the amount of about $1200.00 to cover the start-up costs; 2) we would have to provide administrative support, supervision of staff, and maintain business records; 3) we would have to apply for a license, secure insurances, and make sure that the Member(s) chosen to provide the child care are reliable, committed, and can pass a criminal background check, and; 4) It is possible that no qualified Member will be interested in this employment opportunity.
Roughly speaking, we would need to provide care for between 8 and 10 children—or more or less depending on the ages of the children. The costs of running a child care center on this scale would be about $38,000 a year which includes a salary of about $20,000 annually for the staff person. The gross revenues would be between $36,000 and $49,000 depending on the number and age composition of the children and whether or not we used a sliding fee scale (discounts for Members, etc.)
Whether to start a licensed child care facility is only in the discussion phase. This information is sent to you because it makes NO SENSE to take the idea any further unless there is a considerable amount of agreement among the Members that we do it. If opening and running a child care center over the long haul is of NO INTEREST to the membership we should not do it. PLEASE let us know what your thoughts and feelings are. You can leave an anonymous comment here, or you can e-mail the Chair of the Finance Committee, Dan Krotz, at danielkrotz@gmail.com and he will pass your thoughts along to other members of the committee.
A few years ago I knew of another church which attempted a child-care project. The requirements of the child-care licensing bureau made the cost of bring the building up to code too prohibitive. This was after considerable renovations were already completed to this end. I would suggest that every single requirement be explored up front so that there are no surprises and therefore possible abandonment of the project mid-stream due to finances, zoning restrictions, or other legal issues.
ReplyDeleteAlso I see that you propose to pay $38,000 to one staff person to run the center. So only one person is going to work there taking care of all administrative duties, as well as physical care of 8-10 children, which includes answering phones, changing diapers (if that young), preparing meals, supervising naps, taking to/from school, etc.?
Bottom line, check closely with your state licensing agency regarding caregiver-child ratio and all the other numerous requirements very, very carefully.
Part of the state requirements will be equal opportunity clauses requiring that all discounts and employment opportunities are available to everyone in the community you seek to serve, not just members. That is a federal as well as state statute.
Just a few thoughts: discuss or delete as needed.
These are really helpful comments. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI believe you have the cost of staff to be $20,000 and, especially considering the hours that would probably be involved, does not seem adequate. Of course there may be some willing to work at that salary as a service to others, but you may be severely limiting those who might apply.
ReplyDeleteThanks VERY much for adding to our thinking about this important step. We'll need to do some hard thinking and praying.
ReplyDeleteA child care program such as this could work very well at the salary proposed IF we had a mother with children of her own who wished to remain with them rather than place them in care with someone else, whom she would have to pay, while she took another outside job. However, I'm not sure we have such a person. I agree that all of the other issues regarding building requirements, staffing ratios and other regulation be explored and known before progressing to the point of makiing any capital investment. From susan
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