CUPW is one of a very few unions that has negotiated
a child care fund to assist members in finding and affording quality
child
care.
Through a membership survey, CUPW learned that
child care for children with special needs was a major issue for
many of
their members.
The union then used the fund to research and analyze the impact
on members' work and family lives of parenting a young child
with special needs. 74% reported that their children face
limitations regarding attendance at school or child care, 75%
of the children
are limited in participation at play or recreation activities,
and 43% have special transportation needs. Summer is especially
difficult for these members because their school-aged children
often need significantly more specialized assistance when they
are out of school, than do typically developing children.
Based on these findings,
CUPW initiated a Special Needs Summer Project in 1996. The idea
was to help "level
the playing field" – to
bring costs of child care and child care related activities
closer to those costs faced by members with typically developing
children.
A partnership with SpeciaLink, the National
Centre for Child Care Inclusion, gives CUPW access to staff who
are experienced
in special
needs.
All CUPW members who are parents have difficulties
juggling work and family. Parents of children with special needs
have additional
problems with higher financial and personal costs. Recognizing
those added challenges, the CUPW Special Needs Project helped
105 CUPW members and their families enjoy a less stressful and
more productive summer in 1996.
In 1997, based on members' needs,
and on the success of the Summer Project 1996, the National Executive
Board approved the inception
of the second CUPW Special Needs Project in the summer of 1997,
and the third in the summer of 1998.
Over 240 CUPW members have identified their
families as including children with special needs. These children
have special needs
such as blindness, deafness, severe asthma and diabetes,
learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders, brain injuries,
and profound developmental delay. These special needs range
from mild
to severe, and include children from birth to 18 years.
- Child care and related
costs are generally much higher for CUPW members with
children with special needs.
- Without additional supports, the doors
to regular child care, recreation and community programs
remain closed.
- The child's special needs often cause spouses
of CUPW members to leave the workforce or take part-time
work.
- The child's medical needs often require much
more unpaid time off work by CUPW members and many more
uninsured
expenses.
Most of the CUPW
members used the CUPW fund to pay for child care, special transportation,
and recreation
programs that
included specially
trained workers.
CUPW members also used the CUPW fund to make community-based
child care more accessible to members' children
with special needs by
providing funding for such things as equipment
and assistive devices.
The funding and
support offered by the CUPW Special Needs Summer Project
is available to CUPW members
who have
children with
special needs, and who experience difficulties
in securing, keeping,
and paying for specialized child care services
for their children who
have support needs.
The children must be no
older than 18. In addition, the impact of the child's special
needs on
the family must
result in
child care and child care-related expenses
being higher in cost,
and/or more difficult to access, hindering
or preventing the child's
participation in activities that other
children his or her age are accessing.
Prepared for the CUPW Special Needs Project
by SpeciaLink: The National Centre for
Child Care
Inclusion. For
hard copies of
this Fact Sheet, the Executive Summary
of the research report, the Full
Report In
Our Way, and further information,
contact the CUPW
National Office, or SpeciaLink.
SpeciaLink: The National Centre for Child Care Inclusion
76 Cottage Road,
Sydney, NS B1P 2C7
Phone (902) 562-1662
FAX (902) 539-9117
Contact us by email
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