Iowa leads the nation in the number of families with parents working outside the home. Three-fourths of households with children under age 6 have all their parents participating in the labor force. But in many Iowa communities, child care has become unaffordable, inaccessible, or nonexistent. As a result, working parents miss work, drop shifts, are less engaged on the job, switch employers, or leave the workforce altogether. The Mount Vernon/Lisbon Unit of the League of Women Voters would like to better understand our local communities’ child care challenges. We want to better understand your experience if you are a parent or guardian to any children under the age of thirteen.
During the month of March, Mount Vernon and Lisbon parents will be asked to share their child care challenges and hopes through a short, online survey. Do you feel that you have affordable, quality child care? What are the challenges you are facing? What is your biggest worry with respect to the care of your children? We hear a lot in the press about an Iowa child care ‘crisis’, however, we really don’t have good data regarding Mt. Vernon and Lisbon’s local needs, and we need your help.
This is only the first step. The League of Women Voters (LWV) will also be gathering information from child care providers about their unique challenges and barriers to providing safe and loving care. Then, the LWV plans to hold community panel discussions to engage community conversations around potential solutions, innovative strategies and partnerships that will strengthen access to reliable and quality child care for our children.
Each community is different, and all communities will solve (or not) their challenges uniquely. By better appreciating what the specific needs are in our two communities, we can we better address these challenges. But we can only do that if we work together. We look forward to hearing from each of you.
To complete the survey:
• use this link: https://forms.gle/PkJY7EzD5yFfELEi7