The need for child care is ever-present for young families, and a group of motivated women have made that need a reality for Neilburg.
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The Neilburg Early Learning and Child Care Inc. board has been hard at work for the last few years to bring reliable child care to the small Saskatchewan town.
“When I was on maternity leave, I was new to town. I didn’t know anyone and I was pretty stressed out on where to go and what to do,” Amber Kobes, board treasurer said. “It came up with a family member, who told me about the subsidized program. I was talking to them during harvest in 2023 one day over lunch at the farm. They told me about the program and gave me the resources to look into it.”
Kobes said the initial needs assessment indicated the need for 30 child care spaces in the community.
“I did a survey by myself at that time; the 30 spaces came from that initial needs assessment,” she said, noting two of her friends got on board as chair/vice chair. “With their help, we were incorporated within two months in 2024. We had our business plan put together and our application put together that year and we were approved in 2025.
“It started with a need for child care and a worry of where my kids would go.”
Through the three founding members work, more were recruited onto the board to aid their efforts.
“They kept going and got government grant funding and approval for this, so they brought on four more of us,” said board member Ashleigh Jarvis. “Its been a labour of love of fundraising and trying to get it together, and it’s become quite a cool project.”
Standing in front of the ongoing construction on Centre Street in Neilburg, Elizabeth Shideler-Jacquest, Neilburg Early Learning and Child Care Inc. board member, said she’s happy to see construction underway.
“It’s a wonder to actually see it being built. We’ve spent so long on floor plans and fundraising,” she said. “It’s so nice to see it as, you’re actually building this now.”
The hope is to expand capacity of the centre in the future.
“When it’s done, we’ll have spaces for 30 children, though we’re hoping to increase that to 50,” Shideler-Jacquest said. “Eventually, we might rent a space to the preschool or have a preschool.”
She said having child care available in the community is very important.
“I know so many people who need child care, so many people who can’t find it or moved away because they can’t find it,” she said. “Having a centre like this will be amazing for building jobs in the area because you have reliable child care.
“It’ll be a place where our kids can go and be prepared for preschool, be prepared for school, and hopefully have some fun.”
“There’s a lot of babies in this town,” Jarvis said. “Our community is growing. There’s lots of families moving here, starting families, and it’s affordable to live here.”
The entire project has been driven by the board, with grants coming from the government and continuing fundraising efforts.
“Nothing has come from loans or banks or anything, 100 per cent of it has been grant funding from the government. We got $400K I believe and then we fundraised everything else ourselves,” Jarvis said. “The community has donated, the RM has donated, Synergy, Co-op, Rutherford and also community members. Some give us $1,000, some give us $200, but every little bit adds up.”
According to Jarvis, the fundraisers have been very successful.
“We did a mock wedding, New Year’s Eve party, we raised about $4,000 from that,” she said. “Co-op invited us to auction pies, we raised $4,000 auctioning pies and then just a few weeks ago, we wrapped up a Facebook auction where we raised about $18,000.”
She said they’ve raised $677K thus far, with their initial goal being $800K, but ballooning costs have pushed that goal post farther.
“Since we’ve started, costs have adjusted and changed, so I think we’re probably higher on the million-dollar mark,” she said, noting fundraising efforts are still ongoing. “We don’t have a final number of exactly what we need, but it’s upwards of $1M now.”
Jarvis said they’ve seen a lot of community support for the project.
“It’s really cool to see the support from our community,” she said. “The amount of people who are signing cheque and sending us money is incredible.”
Shideler-Jacquest said they’ll be at the Marsden Street fest, which will give them an opportunity to show off some photos and get pre-registration going.
The board will soon begin recruiting staff for the centre.
“We’re looking for a director. There is certain education requirements needed for that person,” Jarvis said. “We would love someone local to do the role, or someone from around the area.”
“I think the full-time staff, it’s ideal if they have at least their ELC one,” Kobes said.
For more information on the project and upcoming fundraisers, the group can be found on Facebook on their page, Neilburg Early Learning and Child Care Inc. People looking to support the project can do so in a few ways.
“They can e-transfer us to ne***********@***il.com, they can write cheques to Neilburg Early Learning Child Care Inc, they can also donate to the town and the town will give it to us,” Jarvis said.
The project officially broke ground on June 29, with opening day targeted for May 2027.
“It’s cool to see what a small town can do,” Jarvis said.
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