Though the official launch of the North Slope Borough's child care initiative happened just a year ago, Mayor Charlotte Brower's passion for quality child services stems back decades.
As a young mother of three in the early 1970s, entering the workforce, Mayor Brower recalls the difficulties of finding a reliable source to care for her children while she earned a living.
"Many of our young working parents had no choice but to quit their jobs and get public assistance. That really bothered me," said the mayor from Barrow last week.
Now, four decades later, Mayor Brower has made child care a top priority. The subject was one of seven key components in her platform when she ran for mayor in 2011.
Earlier this month, the borough assembly passed an ordinance to implement an "area-wide analysis of potential child care facilities."
"Reliable, consistent, licensed and sustainable child care is a serious obstacle to the well-being of families and communities," added the mayor in a release. "Many of those responsible for the care of young children are simply unable to provide adequately for their households, creating issues that are relevant to the entire region."
According the mayor's office, 5 percent of Barrow's population is headed by a single parent, which makes working without reliable child care impossible -- a large reason for the region's 24 percent unemployment rate, according to the release.
"A working parent can be a single mom, or dad, or a grandmother or grandfather," said Mayor Brower. Parents need the opportunity to "leave their child and be able to work and sustain their income for their families."
But it's not just reliable care that is needed, the price has to be affordable to get parents out in the workforce. The mayor noted that the cost for three children to receive care while a parent works can be upwards of $300 a week. And for a single parent, that cost is not realistic.
"We're looking at trying to get our mothers and grandmothers off public assistance, Mayor Brower said. "It is a social responsibility that we recognize, and it is a must.
"This is something we have to give back to our community to have a reliable and sustainable work force."
But without consistent, cost-effective caregivers, parents are forced to stay at home or work part time with sporadic hours, pushing parents more and more towards relying on financial help from the state.
Since the summer of 2012, various regional organizations, including the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope, the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the Arctic Slope Native Association, the North Slope Borough School District, Ilisagvik College, the NSBA, and many other local non- and for-profit agencies, have formed a partnership called the Childcare Team.
The group has been traveling around the region hosting "community cafes" to get input from locals on what exactly is needed and where.
So far, the community meetings have hosted dozens of concerned locals.
And progress is being made.
The community of Nuiqsut is currently working on completing a child care center that can accommodate up to 20 children. The facility is slated to open later this year.
Facilities are needed in all the North Slope villages but finding a suitable location, and the money to back it up, is a challenge.
In Barrow, the old Browerville Daycare Center is most likely the viable locale, but state and federal funding need to still be secured to manage the renovations and upkeep. The new child care center, wherever it will be, will need to house 45 children on a regular basis and will work on a sliding-fee scale based on the parent's income and ability to pay.
"The new centers are a great step to increase the health and vibrancy of both communities, but child care facilities are needed in each of our eight villages," read a release from Mayor Brower's office.
Currently, a project analysis report is now in draft form, said Kathy Ahgeak, the advisor to the mayor.
Borough, tribal, state and federal agencies and governments are being queried for help financially to move forward with this vision.
"We will work with all entities," Ahgeak said. "... Hopefully they all recognize that child care services are really, really needed.
"The mayor's leadership is essential to moving forward," she added.
Residents of the North Slope Borough are encouraged to participate in the next phase of the project by attending community cafes, offering input and suggestions and completing an online survey found here.
This article originally appeared in the Arctic Sounder and is republished here with permission.