Georgia L. Stevens

Kids’Team: Statewide Agencies Model for Building Community Level Coalitions

As educators, we build coalitions to identify and address community problems. We aim to bring a sometimes diverse group of people together to study an issue and explore information on alternatives. While simple coalitions address a single issue, complex coalitions are multi-issue and are mobilized for a longer time. This paper describes building a complex coalition at the state level, in a project titled KIDS’ TEAM, as a model for developing and guiding formation of community coalitions to address specific local needs.

Parental employment and rural school-age child care needs

School-age child care needs and problems in rural communities were investigated for 3,648 families. Parental employment status was found to influence types of child care utilized and the types of care problems experienced by parents. Less than 1% of all children were found to receive only parental in-home after-school care. One of every five children received patchwork care of three or more types. Implications for community-based policy decisions are discussed.