The Little Lambs Child Care Center in Dubois is scheduled to open Monday, organizers said this week.
The new nonprofit organization formed this summer after the town’s only daycare center closed at the beginning of the year, leaving local parents scrambling to find childcare for their children ages 0-3.
For now, Little Lambs will only be able to accommodate eight of those children, Dubois Town Councilmember and Little Lambs board member Amanda Ysen said, citing state-level staffing regulations for childcare centers, but more slots will be available once additional employees are hired.
The center’s first employee – new director RaShawn Bell – was hired about three weeks ago, Ysen said.
Bell and her husband moved to Dubois a few years ago to work at the National Museum of Military Vehicles, but before that, Ysen said Bell worked at a daycare – just like her mom did when she was growing up.
“Daycare has always been very important to her, (so) when this position came open, she applied for it very quickly,” Ysen said. “Her passion and enthusiasm is very exciting for us. … We could not be where we are without her.”
Bell has spent the last few weeks completing the 40-50 hours of training required for daycare licensure, Ysen said.
She has also been ordering supplies, setting menus, and enrolling clients – most of whom are employees at either Fremont County School District 2 or the Dubois Medical Clinic, Ysen said.
The Little Lambs board decided to prioritize those parents when filling the first eight slots at the center, she explained – but more openings will be available soon, once an assistant director is in place.
The board is also “on the lookout” for substitute daycare employees who can fill in when full-time staffers are sick or on vacation, Ysen said.
Think ‘broadly’
Once the center is fully staffed, Ysen said the Little Lambs board will be able to spend more time thinking “broadly” about the future of the organization – rather than focusing on the “day-to-day” details involved in establishing a nonprofit daycare, like writing policies and purchasing insurance.
The board is already “actively looking for a more permanent location” in town, for example, Ysen said, and at some point she thinks the group could “start switching (its) focus to state-level” issues affecting daycares throughout Wyoming.
They could begin by listing the “roadblocks” they encountered while establishing Little Lambs, she suggested, because “if it’s a roadblock for us, it’s a roadblock for (others).”
The state does offer some support for aspiring daycare providers, Ysen noted, but it was actually another nonprofit center in Wyoming – Valley Village Childcare in Rock Springs – that gave Little Lambs one of the most helpful tools it received this summer: a template for policies and forms.
“Getting Valley Village’s policies was great, (because) they’re a very similar model,” Ysen said.
A statewide “pool” of daycare substitutes is another resource the state could provide that “would help alleviate some stress” when full-time employees are sick, she said.
Community support
Little Lambs has benefited from an outpouring of community support since it formed this summer, Ysen said, expressing gratitude for the donations the organization has received so far – and for the residents who stepped up to provide childcare while the new center was getting established.
“(For) the community to rise up and meet the needs and say, ‘Yeah, I could help you with that,’ that was amazing,” Ysen said. “And then at the same time … the community comes out in droves to support us at our fundraiser.”
The Little Lambs Scramble for Child Care last month at Antelope Hills Golf Course brought in about $12,000, Ysen said, and the organization also had some “generous” and “unexpected” donations ranging from $100 to $5,000 “showing up in the mail” throughout the summer.
The nonprofit also received a $10,000 economic development grant from the Town of Dubois, and Ysen said the board is “actively writing grants” for additional funding from the Wyoming Community Foundation and other local nonprofit organizations.
She thanked the Little Lambs board for “giving selflessly of themselves all summer long (to) make this happen.”
“We’ve got a long ways to go yet, but … it’s just been amazing,” she said.
For more information, email littlelambsdubois@gmail.com.