Rural Child Care Project

              INTRODUCTION
On April 17,1991 the Associate Minister
of Agriculture, Shirley McClellan,
announced that Agricultural Initiatives
Funds, provided by the Alberta Lottery
Fund, would provide financial support
to the Alberta Women's Institutes to
administer a program to implement and
evaluate a variety of child care projects
in rural Alberta.
The executive of Alberta Women's
Institutes, in consultation with the
presidents of four other Alberta rural
women's groups, planned a committee
to oversee the program. They appointed
to this committee, two A. W. I, members
as non- voting chairman and secretary
treasurer, and four voting members
representing Alberta Women's
Institutes, Women of Unifarm, Alberta
Women in Support of Agriculture and
Alberta Farm Women's Network. This
committee and the group Presidents
met in Edmonton May 2,1991 for a
planning session to launch the project.
Subsequent meetings involved
committee members only.
The project began with press releases
and the design and distribution of
brochures. Response to the brochures
was very good, with about 130 requests
for applications from all over the
Province. Application forms were
mailed in response to every request.
A criteria was established for accepting
projects and the committee tried to
choose those that had the highest
likelihood of continuing when our
assistance ceased. Seven projects were
accepted for the fall session, July to
December 1991, and twelve projects for
spring, January to June 1992.
Subsidy was paid at 65% of child care
costs to a maximum of $ 4.00 per hour
per family and payment was made at
the close of the project and after receipt
of signed time sheets and the user's
evaluation.
The purpose of this project was to plan,
implement and evaluate a variety of
child care demonstration projects that
would meet the needs of farm families
in Alberta. This report is a condensation
of the observations, evaluations,
achievements and failures that the 19
projects encountered during the test
period. The report will discuss needs,
purpose and benefits, of rural child
care, costs, types of projects and some
suggestions and recommendations for
implementing them.
There will also be a section for
observations, recommendations and
quotes from individual participants
who hold common views.
Alberta Rural Child Care Pilot Project
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