CO-OP DEVELOPMENT ACTION
School’s In!
California parents create childcare co-op
By Melanie Bowden
Editor’s note: Bowden is a freelance writer, writing
teacher and writing coach. She has written for more
than 100 publications.
’ve lived here for more than 15
years,” says Lina Hernandez, a
mother of three. “Before the
Knights Landing Children’s
Center,
there was no reliable
child care. My husband
worked days and I had
to work the swing shift.”
Now, Lina has a day
job as a case manager
for the Yolo Family
Resource Center. She’s
much happier not
having to look for swing
shift agricultural or
retail work. And her
four-year-old daughter,
Esmeralda, is happier
too.
Staff from the new
California Center for
Cooperative Development (CCCD), along with a parent
organizing committee, spent a year planning for the parentrun
cooperative’s opening in January 2004. In 2007, the
CCCD helped the co-op upgrade its financial accounting
system. CCDC helped educate the members and the board
of directors, which is comprised of parents. It also assisted
with other structural supports that have helped strengthen
the co-op, which offers families in the rural community of
Knights Landing, Calif., a place for children age 2-6.
The co-op meets the unique needs of parents in a rural
agricultural community. Many of them work in a nearby
cannery or in the fields. Since the center is open year-round
from seven a.m. in the morning to five p.m., parents have
time to drive back and
forth to their jobs and still
put in an eight-hour shift,
something that was
impossible when the sole
preschool in town offered
only a three-hour
program.
USDA Rural
Development recently
provided a $224,000 grant
to the Yolo Mutual
Housing Association
(YMHA), which is the new
Center for Cooperatives in
California. YMHA works
with cooperatives on
various projects
throughout the state,
including providing
technical assistance and
support to Knights
Landing Cooperative
Children’s Center.
Parents make the
difference
The operation of
Knights Landing Children's Center (KLCC) is designed to
meet the needs of its members--and to adjust when those
needs change. Parents make decisions and solve problems on
such issues as tuition, staff hiring, hours of operation and
budget. The parent-elected board of directors meets
monthly, and membership meetings are also held regularly.
“It’s the parents working together who have kept the
center open,” says Clare Purtill, a board member and a
teacher at KLCC. “Without the parents’ help, we wouldn’t
be able to offer three different programs: four-hour, six-hour
and full day."
A sliding-scale fee has also been established, with the help
of a combination of grants, donations and volunteer parents
doing jobs that would otherwise require paid help. Since
the highest fee is less than the lowest fee typically
charged by local child care providers, KLCC is able to
serve more families living on low incomes.
For their part, each member family is required to
participate five hours a month, either helping in the
classroom or performing functions such as bookkeeping
or purchasing supplies. Parents are expected to attend
the annual membership meeting and to participate in a
minimum of six education classes that focus on parenting
issues.
“It is humbling to work with the parents and staff of
Knights Landing Children’s Center,” says Kim Coontz, a
nationally known co-op development specialist who now
serves as executive director of the new California Center
for Cooperative Development. “The parents and the
dedicated staff of KLCC put a high value on their
cooperative and have been true partners in identifying
the education and training needs that would best help it
succeed. They have worked hard to implement the
changes needed to make their cooperative strong.”
Facing the future, together
This solid base of support will be tested in the coming
months. Grafton Elementary School has notified the coop
that next fall, it will need the classroom currently used
by KLCC. The school has offered the cooperative
another temporary classroom until the following fall, but
then the co-op will need to have a more permanent
location. Some of the help provided by the cooperative
development center has included identifying potential
funding sources for this move and developing a brochure
and templates for other types of information, which are
useful for fundraising.
Gricelda Cardenas, a board member and the co-op’s
treasurer, appreciates all that KLCC has to offer. “I
receive parenting and educational support from the staff
and the other parents. Parents are encouraged to
participate in their children’s education, both at the
center and at home, and are given the necessary tools to
help their children learn.”
Esmeralda Hernandez, Lina’s four-year-old daughter,
likes getting to play with all her friends at school.
“Teacher Clare takes us to the library every week,” she
says. “One time we went to the clinic and learned how
to listen to a heartbeat from the doctor.”
Asked what she likes best about her school, she says, "I
like everything.” And she likes having both of her parents
at home at the end of the school day, too.
For more information on the California Center for
Cooperative Development, visit: www.cccd.coop.
Art & science of energy independence
“The Art and Science of Cooperative Business Development,”
now in its fifth year, is the only training program available in the
United States that addresses the unique attributes of developing
and expanding cooperatively based enterprises.
Twice each year for five days of intensive training,
participants are immersed in learning the practical applications of
cooperative business development skills. The training uses a
multi-faceted format that includes lectures, interactive sessions,
case study analyses, panel discussions, study tours to local
cooperative, and plenty of opportunities to network with faculty
and students.
The program is produced by CooperationWorks!, a national
service cooperative for co-op development centers. It takes place
at the University of Wisconsin and Madison, a national nexus for
cooperatives and credit unions.
Energy independence director speaks
A special highlight of the September 2007 session was a
reception for the Madison co-op community, featuring guest
speaker Judy Ziewacz. Currently the director of Wisconsin's new
Office of Energy Independence, she was previously deputy
director of the Wisconsin State Department of Agriculture, Trade
and Consumer Protection. Before that she was a national leader in
cooperative development and one of the founders of
CooperationWorks!
Ziewacz spoke about the role co-ops can and are playing in
the move toward energy independence. Wisconsin's governor has
challenged the legislature to mandate that 25 percent of electricity
and 25 percent of transportation fuel come from renewable fuels
by 2025. The state’s dairy co-ops (part of a $20.6 billion industry)
seem to be in a good position to benefit from such initiatives.
Ziewacz told the Madison crowd that people who look to
generating renewable energy from the rural landscape but are
intimidated by big projects should not be concerned. That’s
because the co-op model offers a way to make this happen by
becoming more, not less, independent.
Business model that works
“When we first started the [co-op development] centers,” she
said in a recent interview, “we positioned cooperatives as a rural
development tool that aggregates individual producers’
enterprises in both vertical and horizontal linkages to the market.
As the renewable energy field develops, we don't have to reinvent
the wheel,” she emphasized. “We already know a model that
works.”
The 2008 “Art & Science of Cooperative Business
Development” program will begin this spring. For more
information, contact Audrey Malan at 307-655-9162 or
cw@vcn.com.
—By Jane Livingston
