Anyone involved with child care will have access to supports through the Child Care resource and Referral (CCRR) office which opened in the Ashcroft HUB on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
The program provides government support to families, primarily with young children in the child care work force and early childhood education.
While the CCRR has been established for about 30 years, an office in Ashcroft is a new thing, said Maureen Doll, director of community programs for Kamloops YMCA/YWCA.
"We've had an established CCRR with the Kamloops Y since 1996 and this past April the government decided they wanted to have a CCRR in every school district."
The Ashcroft CCRR office will be for School District 74, The Gold Trail, which services Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Lytton, Lilooett, Clinton and Gold Bridge.
Doll said the office will be open Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and it will have a small lending library.
"We can assist people who are interested in starting a child care site," she added. "We can help with child care benefits and the other forms that child care providers or parents need to fill out in order to receive government funding to help with child care costs."
Ashcroft resident Dana Foster, a CCRR consultant, will be running the office.
Foster can also do child care referrals so when families are looking for somewhere for their families to go she can provide a list of resources.
"We provide a lot of professional development opportunities for families, usually focusing on the early years and for child care providers," Doll said, noting they bring in speakers and professionals to share information.
The location of the hub is 711 Hill Street.
Programs are free and open to parents, caregivers and young children from birth to six-years-old, and people can attend in-person, indoors, outdoors and virtually.
CCRR also provides professional development supports, site visits, mobile and virtual outreach and one-on-one visits.
