Daily News

Raleigh News & Observer
Businesses called to be flexible, more

By AMY MARTINEZ, Staff Writer

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — As Eboni Christmas prepares to start sixth grade in August, her mother, Annette, takes comfort in knowing that she won’t be spending her afternoons in front of a TV, or worse, getting into trouble.

That’s because Eboni, 11, will attend an after-school program run by Communities in Schools of Wake County, a Raleigh nonprofit group dedicated to helping the working poor.

While Eboni plays and does homework at the Heritage Park Learning Center in Raleigh, Annette Christmas will be able to focus on her job at The Lighthouse in Clayton, a home for children considered at risk of dropping out of school.

Christmas also won’t have to scrape together money for Eboni’s after-school care — a key for someone barely making ends meet on $27,000 a year. Communities in Schools will provide care for Eboni and about 120 other children at no cost to their parents.

TO LEARN MORE Here are a few places where businesses can learn more about ways to improve after-school care: * N.C. Center for Afterschool Programs, www.nccap.net, or (919) 781-6833 * Corporate Voices for Working Families, www.cvworkingfamilies.org, or (202) 429-0268 * Communities in Schools North Carolina, www.cisnc.org, or (919) 832-2700 THE POLL The Young Scholars Program, a Raleigh initiative funded by the nonprofit Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, has released the results of a survey of 600 working parents with at least one school-aged child in North Carolina. The survey, done in late March, gauged parents’ perceptions of after-school care. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Here are some of the survey’s findings: * 52 percent of those working full-time said they have taken time off from work to care for their children or to pick them up after school. * 27 percent of full-time and part-time workers said they consider after-school care when choosing an employer; 30 percent said after-school care plays a role in whether they stay with their employer. * 18 percent of those working full-time said they have worried about their child’s after-school care while on the job in the past year; 10 percent said they’ve had difficulty doing their jobs because of problems with after-school care. PROPOSALS Here’s what the N.C. Center for Afterschool Programs believes employers could do to help working parents: * Create flexible work environments so that parents can leave and pick up their children after school. * Provide money and support for local after-school programs. * Support state and federal legislation that gives more money for after-school programs. * Encourage employees to become mentors for children in after-school programs.

"If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know how I’d survive," says Christmas, 46.

But a significant number of working parents worry about their children’s after-school care.

A new survey, conducted by the Raleigh-based Young Scholars Program, found that 18 percent of parents working full-time in North Carolina worried about their child’s after-school care while on the job in the past year; 10 percent of those had difficulty doing their jobs because of their concerns.

Using the survey as a call to action, about 40 people from the state’s private and public sectors met for three hours Tuesday at GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park to discuss what they think businesses should do to improve after-school care. The meeting was the first of its kind sponsored by the N.C. Center for Afterschool Programs, a three-year-old nonprofit group formed at the behest of Gov. Mike Easley.

Certainly, advocates for improving after-school care would like to see businesses give more money for programs such as the one at Heritage Park, which relies on corporate and private donations. But they also know businesses are focused on the bottom line, and many companies don’t think child care is a priority for them.

The N.C. Center for Afterschool Programs aims to reach out to businesses in the next three years with more than just raising money as its goal. It also hopes to show businesses they can help by offering flexible work schedules, supporting state and federal legislation that gives more money for after-school programs, and allowing employees to take time off from work to volunteer at after-school programs.

Businesses considered to be leading the way in the Triangle include Cary’s SAS Institute, which gives money to Communities in Schools, and Cisco Systems and GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park.

Annette Byrd, who manages GSK’s work-life programs, said the pharmaceutical company has teamed with six after-school centers operated by Bright Horizons in the Triangle to ensure its employees get first dibs on openings. GSK employees also get a 10 percent discount on the centers’ fees. Byrd said GSK pays Bright Horizons annually in exchange for the special consideration, though she did not know how much.

Still, Byrd said the most important thing GSK does to help parents of school-age children is to give them flexibility in setting their work schedules. Employees can start their workday early and be home by the time school lets out, or they can start at 9 a.m., leave in time to pick up their children from school, and finish their work from home, Byrd said.

"It doesn’t cost us anything as a corporation," she said.

Cisco Systems, which employs 2,800 in Research Triangle Park, also encourages working parents to adjust their work schedules to their children’s school hours. Ruth McCullers Lee, a mother of three and a Cisco employee who spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, said businesses benefit when working parents aren’t worried about where their children are and how they’re doing. Those benefits include increased worker productivity, lower absenteeism and turnover, and an ability to recruit top-notch workers, Lee said.

"Plus, it’s just the right thing to do," she added.

Staff writer Amy Martinez can be reached at 829-4884 or amartine@newsobserver.com.

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