September 27, 2007
Child care help, enhanced counseling offered
UW faculty and staff can get extra help finding childcare and dealing with diffiicult issues in their lives, thanks to one new and one enhanced service offered by UW Human Resources.
HR has teamed up with the local non-profit Child Care Resources to help parents looking for appropriate childcare. CCR helps Puget Sound families find childcare by maintaining listings of licensed providers and centers (currently numbering more than 2,000 in King, Pierce, Thurston and Snohomish counties). Although a fee of $40 is normally charged, UW faculty, staff and students will now be able to access CCR’s services for free.
Services include:
- Professional telephone consultation to help assess a family’s needs, options and resources;
- Childcare referral lists matching a family’s needs, which also includes prescreening of referred childcare providers to check for vacancies;
- Easy 24-hour online access to listings of licensed childcare providers; and
- Information and educational materials to assist families in making informed choices about care.
“In the past we’ve provided our community with lists of child care centers and family homes that CCR prepared, but we’ve never helped people find out which centers have vacancies,” said Randi Shapiro, assistant director of Benefits and Work/Life. “This service will save people a lot of time.”
Shapiro said the Child Care Advisory Committee appointed by Provost Phyllis Wise had recommended that such a service be provided, and that HR is already getting positive feedback from people who have used it. She said the service can be especially helpful for people with non-traditional schedules, as well as those with children who have special needs.
Child Care Resources can be reached at 206-329-1011, ext. 0, or 800-782-4589, ext. 0. UW faculty, staff and students need only identify themselves as such to obtain the free service. CCR staff members are available weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To learn more about the services, go to www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/worklife/childcare/childcare-referral.html.
HR has also expanded an existing service — UW Carelink. Carelink, which provides confidential counseling, legal services and financial services for people with immediate needs, will now offer UW faculty and staff five free sessions for any given issue rather than three.
“With the start of a new contract, we had the opportunity to review what was working and what could work even better,” explains Shapiro, “and we determined that there would be more utilization if five sessions per issue were offered. We hope to not only see an increase in utilization, but to also see concerns being fully resolved with the five-session model.”
Shapiro says the service has been used by 5 percent of the eligible employees, which is comparable to the national average.
In addition to the extra sessions, more people will be eligible for the service. Non-resident dependents of UW employees — such as children away at college — and non-related members of employees’ households will now be eligible. Also, all phone calls to the service will be answered by master’s level counselors who will be better able to assess the caller’s needs.
“UW departments can also call on Carelink to provide them with free departmental training on a range of topics, from stress management to conflict resolution,” Shapiro said.
UW Carelink is available 24 hours a day. For more information go to www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benefits/worklife/carelink/index.html.
