Relief as hills childcare centre gets set to open- Hills parents, Sue Fraser with Rianne, Debb

By Tania Martin
HILLS parents will no longer have to go off the mountain to access child care.
It has taken 11 months of hard work but a dedicated group of parents committed to the cause are now ready to open the doors of a non-profit childcare centre.
Operation Hills Childcare started in November last year when a group of parents were given a week’s notice after Mt Dandenong Pre-School’s occasional care program was forced to close.
At the time The Mail reported in ‘Parents rally for care’ that 35 kids were left with no place to go following the closure.
Parent, Lisa Alsop told the Mail the parents didn’t even know the childcare centre had been in trouble. Mt Dandenong Pre-School committee president Deb Millner said the decision to close had not been easy.
She told the Mail the program had lost $7000 in the past year and the losses were being subsidised by the kindergarten’s fundraising fees.
Following the closure a group of parents teamed up to find a childcare solution.
Ms Alsop said there were no other childcare centres, in the Mt Dandenong region, which offered occasional care.
She said there were 35 kids looking for somewhere to go but parents didn’t want to take their kids off the mountain to be looked after.
But in reality some eventually had to take that option because they didn’t realise how much was required to set up a childcare centre.
Now 11 months on the Hills Childcare Centre is ready to open its doors.
After finding the perfect spot – the former Olinda Community House – the group had to get a licence to practice. Ms Alsop said the Department of Human Service had to assess the site and a lot of changes had to be made to make it safe for the children.
The group had to raise more than $13,000 for the upgrades which was made easier by a Bendigo Bank grant of $5,000 and $6000 from the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Ms Alsop said the group had never anticipated it would take so much work to open the centre. In the months since the Mt Dandenong program shut down, Ms Alsop said some parents had been forced to seek care off the mountain.
But she said others have had to manage at home and some had no care at all.
The centre is licensed to take 15 children a day aged between one and five with three carers from the old program returning to look after the kids.
Parents are welcome to the official opening of the centre at Charlemont Lane, Olinda, on Sunday 5 October at 1.30pm.
Anyone wanting to enrol can call Sue Frazer on 9728 3233 or visit www.hillschildcare.org.au.