Childcare at council or substructure meetings and events is more than a F/friendly gesture – it supports accessibility and diversity within our community, making participation in meetings and events possible for Friends who are parents of young children.
Please err on the side of making childcare available at events even if you don’t know of anyone who will need it or even if no one in your registration indicates that they need childcare. Parents don’t often know whether they will need to bring their children until the last minute, and they also often don’t want to be singled out by having to opt in.
Types of childcare we provide
- Guaranteed childcare for PYM-sponsored events and meetings (for example, Thread Gatherings, Continuing and Called Sessions, Youth Programs, Council Meetings, Committee Meetings, Collaborative events).
- Childcare for any quarterly-meeting-sponsored event.
- Childcare for any PYM-sponsored event or meeting held at a monthly meeting (ex. Thread Gatherings, Friends in Fellowship, YAF Retreat) may be arranged through the monthly meeting instead of using childcare assistants from the PYM Pool. In this case, we use the meeting’s childcare people who have background checks. We can either reimburse the meeting for the cost of hiring these people, should they request it, or pay cash. To pay childcare assistants in cash, we require advance notice of at least five business days containing the rate of pay, confirmation the childcare assistant has background checks, and the number of childcare assistants.
- Childcare for any event not included in numbers 1, 2 or 3 is not guaranteed and is dependent on the availability of a childcare assistant and whether there is money in the budget to pay them.
With questions about the type of childcare required, contact Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life, Zachary T. Dutton, at zdutton@pym.org.
Please follow the steps below for arranging, confirming, and cancelling childcare:
Make a request to staff
Contact the Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life by email and provide the following information:
- Location of meeting
- Date, time, and expected duration of meeting
- How many children of what ages you expect
- The name and contact information of the person who will be supervising the childcare assistant(s) on site.
Please allow at least two weeks’ notice for the staff to organize the childcare – the more notice you provide, the more likely it will be that staff will be able to accommodate you.
Confirm space
Please make sure that appropriate space for childcare at your meeting site has been identified and arrangements to use it have been made. If the group is meeting at Arch Street Meeting House, please note that the childcare room is not available for use outside the monthly meeting itself. You will need to reserve more than one room and designate one of them as the childcare space.
Supervise provider
Designate someone who will be supervising the childcare assistant(s) and share the supervisor’s contact information upon requesting childcare. This person should be prepared to check in with the childcare assistants periodically over the course of the event. Logistics such as travel, dietary restrictions if there will be food at the event, etc. should be worked out between this person and the childcare assistant(s).
Cancellations
We do not recommend canceling a scheduled childcare person, as you never know who will show up needing childcare. If the event for which childcare was requested is being canceled entirely, please inform the Associate Secretary for Program and Religious Life immediately.
Payment
Childcare assistants are paid for providing childcare and for the time spent traveling if it is outside the travel they would do from home to Friends Center. Childcare assistants may be reimbursed for travel if it is outside the travel they would do from home to Friends Center. Friends Center’s street address: 1515 Cherry St, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
