Grant funds child care classes

ALBERTON – A grant was recently issued by the Mineral County Community Foundation, which will help fund babysitter and child care assistant training programs around the county.

Dess Werst, the recipient of the grant, is a psychiatric nurse and former American Red Cross instructor. She wanted to provide the county’s kids with an opportunity to learn important skills and possibly earn more money with their own babysitting business.

To this end, she requested a grant of $500 to fund classes for people ages 11 to 22 with a focus on Red Cross CPR, first aid and child care training. Werst’s goal is to arm area youths with the skills needed to care for younger kids.

The MCCF would not award West the $500. Instead, they gave her $200 for her project. She received another $200 from the Alberton Community Foundation and another set of matching funds from Sound View Counseling, the counseling center where she works. She has approximately $600 and is trying to bring in more money.

“I’m trying to get some more money to subsidize [the classes],” Werst said.

There are no programs for Red Cross training and certification in CPR and first aid in Mineral County. Werst’s goal was to present a free, local, option for Mineral County residents to take advantage of.

There are online classes to help people get the CPR or first aid certification without going to the in-person class. The group will base their curriculum on the online classes with certified instructors guiding the lessons.

Her goal is to get participating youths certified in CPR and first aid at no charge. She said many kids take an introduction course to the subject but never get certified. Some people have also encountered roadblocks because the Red Cross charges a fee for certification. The difference of being certified can be important to future employers and parents who hire a babysitter.

“I’m a certified trainer and can train for free and give them certifications,” Werst said.

She is unable to give Red Cross certifications for some areas without getting a waiver on the fee. This would require talking to someone in Missoula and going through negotiations to get waivers. Werst has made arrangements to have some training and certifications donated by people she knows but could not find someone certified in CPR.

“I was kind of assuming more people would have CPR training,” Werst said. “But as I was listening, they may have had a little exposure but not had the regular training.”

She felt smaller communities did not get the same opportunities for Red Cross certification as more populated areas.

One of Werst’s goals was to give the participants in the classes necessary skills for running their own businesses. She felt many could take advantage of the training to be babysitters while in school. Apart from being a source of extra money, it would also look good to future employers during job-hunts.

“Any job is a good job,” Werst said. “There are lots of children who need confident caregivers in Mineral County, even if we don’t have lots of big business.”

With parents often busy with work or volunteering, sometimes older kids are the only available option for child care. Babysitting is also a natural first job for many youths and can easily accommodate class schedules.

Werst wants to raise the confidence of kids so they can recognize their own abilities to run a small business. She also wanted to get more males involved in child care where they may not like the work. Werst would help them realize there is nothing wrong with providing child care and babysitter is just a word without any bias to gender.

She also wants to make sure people have a plan during a community-wide emergency. If something happens, it would benefit everyone if there were people with certified first aid and CPR training. This includes making sure there are considerations for special health needs in disaster plans for shelters.

While the Alberton Community Center has allowed her to use their facility, Werst still needs a place to hold the training sessions in Superior and St. Regis. Until locations are arranged, she has not locked down a set schedule for the classes to take place.

For more information, contact Werst through the Alberton Community Foundation’s facebook page. She can also be reached by calling 541-4436.