Tara Maddix (left) and Nancy Alrabadi are first-year business administration students and mothers who are doing research for their course on if there is a need in the Summerside area for a 24-hour daycare. The women are looking for people interested in being part of a focus group.
That was when the mother of four began looking for a place for her infant son to go when she returned to work.
“I am separated from my ex-husband so the three older kids go with him half the time, so I didn’t need anybody for night shifts because we were purposely working different shifts,” said the Summerside woman. “I have the baby full-time. For me to go back after my maternity leave meant I had to have someone for those four shifts.”
But, after an exhaustive search, she learned no such place existed in Summerside.
It prompted Maddix to make the life-changing decision to give up her job at Cavendish Farms and go back to school.
“My family works. There was nobody I could send him to,” she added. “I went back to school because I needed a Monday to Friday thing.”
Now Maddix, a first-year business administration student at Holland College, along with fellow student, Nancy Alrabadi, as part of their course, are researching the need for a 24-hour child-care centre in Summerside.
“I hadn’t found anybody that... did overnights,” said Maddix. “They would do late night, but I needed someone for a night shift, while I slept the next day. For me, it wasn’t there.”
As far as the duo knows, the closest 24-hour centre is in Ottawa, Ont.
“I thought there has to be a need because of Cavendish Farms, the GST centre, the hospital, just in that small area,” added Maddix. “Plus, you have your nurses, RCWs and such.”
Alrabadi, also a mother, knows there are many who work shifts, including nurses.
Fortunately, added the New Brunswick woman, while she studies on P.E.I. her daughter is in the care of her father.
The students are now looking for volunteers for a focus group to help with their research.
They have reached out, via social media, for input.
“There is a lot of positive feedback,” said Maddix. “We had people commenting on it that it was a really good idea. It is just hard to find people to donate their time to sit down and talk for a couple of hours.”
Ironically, the reason given why people can’t volunteer is most often child care.
“We don’t have a set time and date for the focus group,” said Alrabadi. “It is difficult because the people that need it are working, and the times we need them they have no babysitters.”
In the focus group, they will discuss things like meals, hours of operation and.
They also hope to devise a business plan for a 24-hour daycare centre in their second year of their course.
Maddix, who, when returning to school, initially planned to enroll in the early childhood care and education program at Holland College, isn’t discounting, if the research supports the concept, possibly opening such a facility.
“I don’t know why there isn’t one,” she said. “The demand, I am sure, has to be there.”
Three fast facts
— Little Start Child Care in Barrie, Ont., in January, began offering 24-hour child care
— To be part of the focus group, email [email protected] or [email protected]
— Average cost of child care on P.E.I., according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is $738 a month for infants, $608 toddlers, $586 preschool child.
