One of the main barriers to young sole parents gaining employment is the difficultly they can face finding childcare to match entry level work, where rostered and weekend working is the norm. SBC worked major employers, Countdown Supermarkets and SKYCITY and the child social service provider Barnados to develop a new childcare entity, CareED4. SBC is now well underway to creating a social enterprise that will become a trusted and scalable childcare organisation, providing flexible care to some of New Zealand’s 18,000 sole parents.

The work has not been straight-forward, but business stands to benefit in a number of ways. For Countdown Supermarkets, its involvement is a long-term investment in both its workforce and the wider community. CareED4 will help strengthen its deep links with communities and reduce the consequences it sometimes sees first hand of troubled youths not being in work. Likewise, SKYCITY is excited about the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the community and future workforce while strengthening its pipeline of talent.

Collaboration has been the cornerstone of this project. Working alongside an established NGO and government, business has been able to provide the critical link to jobs and the commercial and employee expertise to help the project progress. Once due diligence has been completed and the service is upand running, SBC plans to bring a number of other member companies on board.

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