Child Care for Low-income Working Families: Four Community Profiles

The fi rst phase of the Community Child Care Research Project consisted of gathering information about the child care contexts of four Indiana communities: Marion, Lake, Allen, and St. Joseph counties. To provide an initial picture of these four communities in relation to child care, we examined existing community data and child care indicators available for the communities, conducted qualitative interviews with community child care leaders and low-income working parents, and did a brief non-random survey of potential parent research participants. Together, these sources provided a preliminary look at the child care perspectives of the families, the child care providers, and the larger community. We reviewed information about community child care supply, employment levels and income, availability of child care resources and child care subsidies, as well as current child care fi nancial resources, utilization, and problems.