ASHLAND — At Ashland Source, we believe the best reporting happens not just for our community, but with our community.
That’s why we;re asking you to do us a favor.
Ashland Source, Richland Source and Knox Pages are in the midst of an in-depth reporting project called It Takes A Village: Why Child Care Is Everyone’s Business.
In this series, we aim to explore the challenges surrounding child care in north central Ohio, as well as potential solutions.
And we want to hear from you.
Whether you’re a parent, a grandparent, a kinship caregiver, a child care provider, an employer or simply care about the community and its kids — your voice matters.
We want to know what challenges you’re facing when it comes to child care.
We want to hear about the child care providers in our area going above and beyond.
Our survey is open through Aug. 1.
After that, we’ll crunch the numbers to come up with a bird’s eye view of how this issue is impacting folks in our own backyard. The more people who take the survey, the more accurate that bird’s eye view will be.
So if you want to help tell the story of child care in Ashland County, you can do so by clicking here to take the survey.
And if you want to a space to build your own village, we encourage you to join the special Facebook group for this series.
It Takes a Village: A Source Community is a place to ask questions about parenting and child care, share advice and resources, start honest conversations and keep up-to-date with our latest child care reporting. We hope to see you there.
Why child care?
Local leaders in Ashland, Richland and Knox counties have all identified child care as an issue.
Across the state, families struggle to find and afford care while child care workers barely make enough to get by.
In Ashland County, leaders are already taking steps to address these challenges.
The Ashland County Community Foundation Women’s Fund conducted a survey of business park employees in May 2021.
Of the 173 respondents, 64 percent said they struggled to find affordable care. Roughly a quarter of respondents said they struggled to find care that was dependable, high quality and matched their work schedule.
That survey inspired the Women’s Fund to raise $4.8 million to build and sustain a new nonprofit child care center, Foundations Community Childcare.
The center opened in June 2024 and we’ll likely be revisiting it at some point in this series. We plan to continue publishing new It Takes A Village content through this fall.
In the meantime, we hope you’ll take a few moments to fill out our survey and check out the full series below. Then, we’d urge you to share an encouraging word or act of kindness with a parent, teacher or child care provider you know.
After all, it takes a village.
