Work/life resource center offers help in finding balance

The Office of Work/Life, formerly Work/Family Services, a division of Human Resources, has opened a new resource center designed to provide faculty, staff and students with information about parenting, child care, elder care, mid-life issues and finding balance between work, family, school and life. Located in the Brooklyn Building, the resource center will be staffed Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Appointments can be scheduled, but drop-ins are also welcome.

Kathy McKim, left, and Erica Gregoire look at items in the new resource center in the Work/Life Office, which is located in the Brooklyn Building.

Books, newsletters, handouts and videos are some of the items that are available to visitors. “One of the center’s goals is to be a clearinghouse of information for students, faculty and staff at every stage of the life cycle,” said office coordinator Randi Shapiro. “Suggestions from the University community on what to include in the center are always welcome.”

The Work/Life office will continue to provide listings of area child-care centers accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children as well as family day-cares accredited by the National Association for Family Childcare. In addition, information is available on child-care programs being used by University families. Visitors will be able to view parent educational videos in the center. Books and videos can also be checked out for home use.

The new center is part of an expansion taking place in the Work/Life unit. Since its inception, the program has been run by one person, Shapiro. Now she has hired a human resources specialist, Kathy McKim, who will coordinate the resource center and other Work/Life services. Erica Gregoire has just joined the staff as a human resources assistant. She will be involved with daily operations and provide essential support to the program. All three are part-time employees.

“We are modeling work/life balance,” Shapiro says. “I think it sends an important message to the campus that part-time employment is one of many tools that can be used to run successful programs while increasing workforce diversity and valuing the employee as a whole person.”

The expansion comes as a result of recommendations by the President’s task force on child-care issues. One of these issues was increased coordination of child-care resources, which has formerly been shared by three separate offices within Student Affairs and Human Resources. The Work/Life Office formerly dealt primarily with faculty and staff; now students will also be served. The student child-care voucher program, however, will continue to reside within the Office of Student Affairs.

The task force also recommended a broad mandate in seeking funding for child-care programs. “We’ll be looking especially at ways to expand campus child care as well as making child care in general more affordable for our University families,” Shapiro said. “We’d also like to look at areas we haven’t been able to address, such as before- and after-school care, drop-in care, emergency/back-up care and non-standard hours of care such as evenings and weekends.”

Another recommendation approved by McCormick is that as the master planning process for all three campuses identifies potential building sites, child-care centers will be included in the discussion.

Work/Life will continue to offer free monthly education seminars for faculty, staff and students throughout the academic year. Seminars are presented from noon to 1 p.m. at three locations - upper campus, Health Sciences and Harborview. If student schedules conflict, additional seminars will be offered at other times.

Student concerns may lead to the office getting involved in other new activities. For example, it now offers an informal nanny-share network, placing University families in touch with other UW families interested in sharing a nanny. Students, Shapiro says, have expressed interest in babysitting co-ops. “Our office can help organize those efforts,” she said.

With the expansion, Shapiro believes that Work/Life Services will be able to be more proactive. “We see Work/Life as strategic to many of the issues the University is grappling with - important issues of recruitment, retention and workforce diversity,” she said. “We have many family-friendly policies and programs in place on this campus. We want to be sure that employees are aware of them and have support from the top to use them.” ¶

Nancy Wick