[Massplanners] [EXTERNAL] Re: Childcare at Public Meetings

[Train, Alexander]

The City of Chelsea provides childcare at our community meetings. We
utilize a contractor, who is a licensed childcare provider, and have a MOU
and indemnification agreement to limit liability. Happy to chat offline,
but I think this is doable for all municipalities and something I'd
encourage.

On Thu, Jul 27, 2023 at 2:12 PM Darlene Wynne via MassPlanners <
massplanners at masscptc.org> wrote:

> 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>*
>
>
>
> *--*
>
>
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>
> 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
>>>
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-- 



Alexander Train, AICP | Director | he/him/his

Department of Housing and Community Development

500 Broadway, Room 101

Chelsea, MA 02150

Office: 617.466.4192 Cell: 857.234.3791

atrain at chelseama.gov
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