The Importance of Childcare in Disaster Recovery

Remember, infants and young children grow, develop, and recover through relationships with the adults who care for them. As part of the childcare community, you provide services not only to the child but also to that child’s family. Following disasters, you are likely to interact with parents who are experiencing distress and who will seek support and resources from you. Because of the importance that families place on childcare and because childcare facilities may be one of the few services operating following large-scale disasters, families will benefit if childcare providers offer information on children’s disaster recovery. Your positive interactions with parents will help support parents’ positive interactions with their children.

Following a community-wide disaster, children, families, and childcare providers are all likely impacted and recovering. Each may be dealing with their own stresses and concerns. This situation occurs with all major disasters and has certainly been evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, recovery services need to consider the stress that childcare providers and support staff may also be experiencing. 

While this toolkit focuses on the importance of building supportive relationships between young children and childcare providers to aid recovery following disaster, supporting children’s well-being requires having and rebuilding strong communities with adequate resources and supports, and that these supports are integrated into childcare settings. Recovery depends on advance preparation that includes not only having adequate resources, but also preexisting relationships and ways to communicate across systems (Murray et al., 2015). When communities are strong and provide childcare with support, the childcare providers have the internal and external resources to meet the needs of children and families.