Call it a small glimmer of hope and a win for the community, but the JCC’s Early Childhood Education (ECE) department will slowly be opening its doors next week - to children of essential service workers.
With the needs of the community and the Oakridge area quite high, the JCC program was cleared to open some of its doors to become part of the city’s fight against Covid19.
According to the JCC's ECE director, Jennifer Trickett, there are approximately 400 families in the area in need of childcare services. The JCC will be part of that solution.
Starting with families that are registered with the JCC program, Tricket said they expect their youngest groups to run at 50% and their older groups to max out at 25% capacity - all in order to maintain the guidelines set out.
"There were a lot of conversations around how to keep the children safe and the teachers safe," Trickett explained of the several weeks of work they have been doing to prepare for this opportunity. "We work with a dream team and we came up with a plan."
JCC executive director, Eldad Goldfarb, said the JCC is, as always, following the lead of local health officials.
"The amount of measures, both health-related and social distancing-related that we have put together with Jenn's help is enormous," Goldfarb said while on the JCC's Bagel & Loxdown show this week. "We are really trying to foresee and have plans in place for everything before we actually have to deal with it."
Tricket noted that BC has not seen any outbreaks at care facilities to this point, which significantly influenced their decision to open.
During the Covid19 shutdown, the JCC's ECE department has been providing daily online and virtual programming, which has been attended regularly by most of the registered children and their families.
While that programming will continue as is for most families, Trickett said her team is excited to have an opportunity to do more for essential service workers and their children.
"It's going to be different," she said. "We're used to working closely together. But it will be nice to get back to our routines."
