[Massplanners] Childcare at Public Meetings

[Darlene Wynne]

I posted about this back in 2019 for our master planning process and
received a few responses. Ultimately, our legal and HR staff did not
support this due to concerns about liability, CORI checks, certification,
that the City is not in the business of childcare. So it was mostly
organized by others (not City staff) and advertised as having "child
friendly activities available."

We used volunteers from JROTC who needed volunteer hours. We had one child
attend whose mother was a member of our master plan committee - which was
still important, as she is a single parent.

Best,


Darlene Wynne, AICP

*City of Beverly*

*Director of Planning & Development*

*978-605-2341*

*dwynne at beverlyma.gov <dwynne at beverlyma.gov>*



*--*


*When responding, please be aware that the Massachusetts Secretary of State
has determined that most email is public record and therefore cannot be
kept confidential. *



On Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 1:17 PM Jeffrey Bagg via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> We've recently held two community meetings for our Main Street re-design
> project in the past 6 months and I coordinated with the High School.  They
> provided in both cases several Honor Society students who came to provide
> the childcare service.  We also offered rides to and from the event via our
> Senior Center shuttle bus.  We included this information on all our
> outreach efforts.
>
> The first meeting had about 100 people who attended in person (about 25
> online) and the second meeting was about 30 people in person.
> Unfortunately, we had no kids utilize the service and no one requested a
> ride.
>
> Jeff Bagg
> Planning Director
> Easthampton, MA
> 50 Payson Ave
> 413-529-1406
> jbagg at easthamptonma.gov
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 11:47 AM Anne Capra via MassPlanners <
> massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:
>
>> Dear Planners,
>> Wondering if any of you municipal planners have been able to offer
>> childcare at a community meeting that was hosted by the municipality?
>> Typically we have only been able to do this if partnered with a group that
>> offers something like that already such as a neighborhood organization.
>> Wondering about liability issues etc. if the municipality is the meeting
>> host and how we could provide someone to watch the children of attendees
>> for two hours. Childcare is often cited as a strategy for broadening
>> participation in community events but I haven't seen any municipalities
>> offer this due to these complicating factors.
>> Thanks,
>> Anne
>>
>> --
>> Anne Capra, AICP
>> Director, Planning & Conservation
>> Town of South Hadley
>> 116 Main Street | South Hadley, MA 01075
>> (413) 538-5017 x6128
>> acapra at southhadleyma.gov
>>
>> *Do not print this email unless necessary--
>> MassPlanners mailing list
>> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
>> http://masscptc.org/mailman/listinfo/massplanners_masscptc.org
>>
> --
> MassPlanners mailing list
> MassPlanners at masscptc.org
> http://masscptc.org/mailman/listinfo/massplanners_masscptc.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://masscptc.org/pipermail/massplanners_masscptc.org/attachments/20230727/2c2c8ea0/attachment.htm>