Sioux Center, Iowa — A state grant could help open a new daycare option in Sioux Center.
Organizers tell us the facility would be a collaborative effort among local leaders seeking to address daycare needs.
The Sioux Center City Council recently approved the acceptance of an $88,000 grant from the State of Iowa Future Ready Program. The grant is for the development and renovation of a space to provide “in-home” childcare services.
They tell us the plan involves refurbishing a city-owned property at the south end of Central Park to set the building up as a daycare. The facility could offer between 10 and 16 childcare slots. While City officials say the City will renovate and make the building available, the daycare will be operated privately. It could open as soon as this summer or fall, according to Assistant City Manager Dennis Dokter, who wrote the grant.
Dokter says that the idea was identified through the efforts of the local Daycare Task Force. He says that Sioux Center is in a “childcare desert,” and says the term means there are more than three times as many children as licensed or registered childcare slots.
Sioux Center’s Daycare Task Force includes business, Chamber, Sioux Center Health/Early Childhood Center, and City leaders who are trying to find solutions to local childcare concerns. The idea to apply for this grant came out of the group’s recent discussions.
Sioux Center Chamber Executive Director Barb Den Herder first brought the task force together in the fall of 2018. She says they had identified that one of the barriers for those wanting to start an in-home daycare was that some want to provide this level of care in a facility that is separate of their primary residence. She says that as a daycare task force, they recognize there isn’t just one solution to the childcare shortage. Den Herder says, “This is just one piece that can provide more care for children in our community.”
The task force is seeking an individual or team to operate the daycare. Those interested in learning more about running the daycare can speak with Den Herder at the Sioux Center Chamber or Dokter at the Sioux Center City Office. A request for proposals is available, and those interested must complete this by March 11.
