June Care Company aims to provide childcare services
The June Care Company — a childcare service that connects parents who need childcare with local stay-at-home parents — has launched in Yolo County and aims to give working parents more access to affordable childcare.
Gretchen Salyer, founder and CEO of June Care, is a mother of three girls who got the idea of creating a community-based approach to childcare after coordinating schedules on a weekly basis with local parents to create their own network of childcare-centered around paid playdates.
“As we come out of the pandemic, I want to enable this same connected childcare experience for other parents everywhere,” Salyer said in her bio on her website. “The June Care Company connects families who need childcare with families who can host fun, paid playdates for their own kids plus one to two more.”
Emily Monley, vice president of growth for June Care, lives in Davis but grew up in Woodland.
“I currently focus on getting our name to moms in the area and growing June Care by getting more and more hosts to sign up as well as families who need childcare,” Monley explained.
She said that the company is attempting to tap into the underutilized supply of care work that can be provided by stay-at-home parents, which she believes helps address the childcare crisis the nation has been facing.
“We’re creating this ‘careshare’ category allowing them to partner with other families in the area to provide care,” she added. “So it’s a win-win for both families.”
Monley said the company started recruiting and vetting potential care providers in Davis and Woodland a month ago and that the service is now available for people to use.
“There’s a lot of groups on social media, like Facebook, so we’re tapping into those and also relying on word of mouth,” she said in regards to outreach. “This is basically a grassroots marketing effort as far as speaking to preschools and partnering with them, partnering with local organizations that have a similar audience.”
Care providers who choose to partner with June Care would be contract workers similar to Uber or Lyft drivers but would be able to set their own rates and choose when they’re available.
Monley added that the average hourly rate that contract care providers working for June Care typically ask for is between $17 and $20 an hour.
Although the company is moving into Yolo County, Monley clarified that the key target areas the company is focusing on are Woodland and Davis and are working on branching out to Sacramento.
“Our focus is building up that volume to make it really helpful to then be able to provide those matches for people when they need them.”
Monley also assured that every house is background checked, must provide references and will have a trial playdate, video call, or phone call with the matched family that they’re possibly going to work with.
“It’s all very well vetted,” she reassured.
Parents who are interested in utilizing the service can visit junecare.co to create a profile that will let people learn more about their family and parenting style.
June Care will then attempt to link parents with local “like-minded” parents who can take care of their kids. The website manages scheduling, logistics and payments.