In addition to free searches for summer camps, booklets and counseling are available for people who need extra support. In the City of Cambridge alone, children from 72 families spend as much as 50 hours per week being cared for by unlicensed, untrained child caregivers. These high numbers come as a result of welfare reform s pressure on very low-income parents to enter the workforce. The result is a shortage of child care compounded with the high cost of care. Although most are loving and do the best they can, they have few economic or educational resources at their disposal.
Parents are worried about their children, but can find no other affordable option.
The pilot program is at work to raise the quality of care and lessen the stress on parents.