An innovative way of helping sole parents enter and stay in the workforce, through a new model of childcare, is being developed by the Sustainable Business Council (SBC) in partnership with Barnardos KidStart Childcare, says SBC Executive Director, Penny Nelson. SBC is a division of BusinessNZ, of which EMA is the major stakeholder.
Nelson says SBC members are concerned about the interconnected issues of child poverty and youth unemployment. "The substantial project that is underway will help sole parents into sustainable and meaningful work.
"But many entry-level jobs can require working outside standard business hours, or have rosters that make childcare provision a major challenge. In addition, very few services are aligned with care for older children before and after school, let alone school holidays."
The Barnardos-SBC partnership is one of 11 social enterprise incubation programmes run by the Akina Foundation from October 2014 until March 2015. The Foundation was established by the Todd and Tindall Foundations and has Government funding.
This article is republished thanks to the EMA Newsletter October 2014