JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The cost of childcare remains a challenge for working families across Jacksonville, but city leaders said help could be on the way.<\/p>\n
The City of Jacksonville and Mayor Donna Deegan\u2019s Office have launched a task force to address one of the biggest issues facing working parents: the cost of childcare.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHalf of their check going towards daycare and have struggle with the rest of the bills and buying food and everything like that,\u201d Veronica Williams, a mother of four, said.<\/p>\n Williams said childcare costs have been eating up a big part of her budget, paying $800 a month for one child.<\/p>\n \u201cI live in the Arlington area part of Jacksonville and it\u2019s unfortunate that I can\u2019t find a quality child care center. I have to travel out of my way,\u201d Yasmina White, a mother of two, said.<\/p>\n For parents like White, finding affordable, quality daycare has been a struggle. After she brought her concerns to Deegan\u2019s office back in May, the city launched this new coalition initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really shocked to learn that it\u2019s for infants it\u2019s around $400 a week,\u201d Lynn Sherman, Executive Director of Health Programs, said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n The group includes early learning experts and parents, all focused on finding long-term solutions to make childcare more affordable and accessible in Duval County.<\/p>\n New data shared during a coalition meeting shows that in Jacksonville, every 100 working adults support about 36 children, the highest rate among major Florida cities. It also shows that one in three households with children is led by a single parent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will benefit the community by seeing that the first step is starting and that we\u2019re talking about the issues and hope to bring solutions to the community,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Parents like Williams hope those solutions come quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially it being the holidays don\u2019t announce it and then have people waiting around for it or I apply for it and I gotta wait six months for it,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n Wednesday was just the kickoff for the new coalition initiative. The Mayor\u2019s Office said the group has about 120 days to come up with childcare solutions, which will then be presented as recommendations to the Mayor.<\/p>\n TASK FORCE MEMBERS:<\/p>\n Betty Burney, Child Care Center ConsultantAngel Carro, Early Learning Coalition of DuvalMartha Cox, Episcopal Children\u2019s ServicesCheryl Fountain, Early Learning Department, University of North FloridaDavid Garfunkel, Jacksonville Civic CouncilGregory Grant, JSEB Administrator, City of JacksonvilleCoretta Hill, COO, United Way NE FloridaFaye Johnson, CEO, NE Florida Healthy Start CoalitionLucy Klausner, Episcopal Children\u2019s ServicesIsaiah Oliver, Community Foundation of NE FloridaAkilah Pope, Medical Director, DOH DuvalDr. Natalya Roby, CEO, Episcopal Children\u2019s ServicesSara Smith, Family Support ServicesCheryl Taylor, CEO, Career Source NE FloridaTawanda Washington, DOH DuvalKortney Wesley, Dir. Government Affairs, DCPSYasmina White, Parent LeaderColleen Wilson, Jacksonville UniversityChristine Wolfe, Family Support ServicesLaTonya Wynn-Hall, Childcare Center ConsultantReShawndia and Dontorien Mitchell, Mitchell Learning Academy<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The cost of childcare remains a challenge for working families across Jacksonville, but city leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[14324,639,28,969,29611,116,118,117,634,115,9475,29612,29614,29613],"class_list":["post-44843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arlington","tag-duval_county","tag-florida","tag-jack","tag-jack_nicholas_brooks","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-local","tag-news","tag-nicholas_brooks","tag-veronica_williams","tag-williams","tag-yasmina_white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}