Finding the Right Childcare Fit SMACNA and SMART partner with Tootris to provide childcare options for their members By Sheralyn Belyeu
As a young dad, Dave Gauthier, business manager for Local 206 in San Diego, struggled with childcare. “When my twin boys were young, our childcare facility opened at 6 am, and I had to be in the shop at 6:30,” he says. “We would be there at the doorstep waiting for it to open, and I had to jump in my truck and do everything I could to get to the shop on time.” Linda Jennings, SMACNA Executive Director of Innovation, Integration, and Learning and former SMACNA Executive Director in San Diego, wanted her children to be with family while she worked, but that was not an option. “I was an older mom,” she says, “and my parents were not capable of helping me with my kids because they were in their 80s. A lot of us don’t have family that can help with the kids.” Because of their personal experiences, Jennings and Gauthier are very sensitive to the challenges that young families face. “About 80% of childcare providers never advertise,” Gauthier says. “How are you going to know they’re there and available?” Under Gauthier’s and Jennings’ leadership, Local 206 adopted Tootris, a new service that locates and advertises quality childcare for non-traditional circumstances. “The first thing I noticed was that Tootris helps clients find daycare at times that are not traditional for working families,” Jennings says. “During the summer, if you’re working construction in the desert, the start time might be five o’clock in the morning so you can quit before the sun is in the highest position.” Tootris helps parents with challenging shifts, weekends, and holidays—times when childcare is more difficult to locate. Steven Joyce of Local 206 needed infant care for his family 4 » Partners in Progress » www.pinp.org
around Thanksgiving last year. “I was searching because I had a two-year-old and a newborn,” Joyce says. “It was a lot of calling around to facilities and finding out they were full.” He signed up for Tootris through the Local and quickly located a great fit. “It’s been easy because they provide all the contacts, the searching, and the people who are available at the right time. Tootris does the footwork for you, and they don’t find just anyone. They found people in the top tier of daycares in San Diego.” In their search, Joyce and his wife prioritized cleanliness, high-quality nutrition, and location. They chose a facility that’s only 2.5 miles from their house and fits naturally into his commute home. “It’s on the way to the highway,” Joyce says. No matter how congested San Diego traffic is at the end of his day, Joyce knows that his children are waiting for him in a safe, secure space. Tootris helps parents solve the most complex daycare
