In partnership with SPARC BC, Diversity CLUES was retained by Child Care Options Resource and Referral Program (Child Care Options)  to conduct community stakeholders’ consultations to inform their future programming.

In the fall of 2019, Child Care Options Resource and Referral Program (Child Care Options) initiated key community partner consultations with the goal to better understand the role and value of Child Care Options in Surrey, Delta and White Rock. An inquiry also sought to understand how Child Care Options engages with stakeholders and which improvements it might consider in the future service delivery model to increase its outreach and impact in the community.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers from two organizations: Social Policy and Research Council of BC (SPARC) and DiversityCLUES Consulting. Each team member brought unique experiences and qualifications to the process.

• Project Advisor: Scott, Graham, Associate Executive Director / Manager of Research, Planning and Community Development, SPARC BC
• Project Lead and Senior Researcher: Olga Shcherbyna, Senior Consultant, DiversityCLUES Consulting
• Researcher: Anna Vorobyova, Associate, DiversityCLUES Consulting

Over 25 community partners have participated in this exploratory community exercise and shared their insights. Participants ranged from child care operators and front-line staff of partner organizations to early childhood educators, professional development facilitators and senior staff from community agencies, Fraser Health Authority, school districts and municipalities.

Consultations were conducted in October of 2019 and included two 2-hour focus groups and 13 individual interviews of 30-45 minutes each. Standardized interview and focus group protocols were developed. Additionally, all focus groups’ participants were ‘primed’ with basic information about Child Care Options through a quick quiz and a fact sheet that were distributed at both focus groups. Focus groups and interviews were not recorded; instead detailed interview and focus group notes were taken.

All interview and focus group notes were reviewed and analyzed by both researchers (who conducted interviews and facilitated/took notes at focus groups) to avoid potential biases in drawing conclusions and ensure the quality and robustness of the analysis process. Each interview and focus group notes were analyzed separately first; this process was followed by the analysis of the entire body of data which resulted in the discovery of emerging themes presented in the final report.