The last licensed child care center in Kotzebue closed more than 10 years ago. Now, a local mother and daughter are working to fill the gap as the need for child care increases, in their community and across Alaska.
Bailey and Tracey Schaeffer are preparing the upper level of their house for childcare services on May 1, 2023.
To highlight the new child care facility and the need for services in the Kotzebue area, social worker Laura Norton-Cruz and filmmaker Joshua Albeza Branstetter in April released a documentary,The 25-minute film was screened in Juneau last month to spark a conversation with state lawmakers about the lack of child care in Kotzebue.
But even after Teuscher became a stay-at-home parent, she still struggled to find after-school activities and development opportunities for her children. Because of that, her family decided to leave Kotzebue and move to Anchorage. “Just really kind of connecting kids to where they are and the things that happen,” Tracey Schaeffer said. “That’s kind of our vision.”
“That’s kind of been my second job,” Tracey Schaeffer said. “It’s been a long process already, you know, a long and challenging process of submitting and resubmitting and fixing this and changing that. ... I can see why people don’t do it, very clearly.”
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