Two family-forward organizations, This World’s Ours Centre and Nestworks, take a compassionate approach to the childcare model

By the time I was dipping my toe back into work after maternity leave, I was still in the throes of severe postpartum anxiety. 

Among a host of fears and apprehensions, I only entrusted my daughter with family members when I went to work, and I demanded regular pictures and updates throughout the day. Sometimes, I hired a “mother’s helper” to play with her in her bedroom while I worked at home.

Needless to say, I did not get on any daycare waitlists until it was much too late (and with my daughter nearly two-years-old, I’m still waiting). 

But there was some alleviation of the crushing weight of working parenthood and postpartum anxiety when I learned of the pilot program at Nestworks, a co-working space opening up in Mount Pleasant that provided on-site childminding while parents could flip open their laptops and “hotdesk” for a few hours. This solution bridged a mental gap for me, and for the first time, I felt seen in my struggles. 

Nestworks is the brainchild of Koryn Heisler and Madeleine Shaw, two working parents who saw a hole in childcare services and used their respective professional backgrounds to envision a new type of model: one where parents could get their work done without the jarring experience of having to suddenly leave your child to go to work.

“To be able to come to a place where there’s no disconnect, there’s no goodbye moment, there’s no stress around that for either the parents or the kids — it is that stepping stone,” Shaw tells Loose Lips Magazine, at This World’s Ours Centre on the corner of Main Street and 10th Avenue.

Shaw is a social entrepreneur by trade, having developed a B Corp business, Aisle (formerly known as Lunapads). The genesis idea for Nestworks came from she and her business partner bringing their children to work with them when they were very young.

“Emotionally, it helps everybody to acclimatize to this idea of: parent working, kids playing, being safe, being cared for by another adult, and just kind of making that imprint.”

For Heisler’s part, she started This World’s Ours, an inclusive centre in the heart of Vancouver providing a safe, social space and a variety of programs for neurodiverse children and families.

“My youngest two are both autistic, so [TWO] came out of a need for my kids to be able to attend programming and camps in a safe environment,” Heisler, whose background is in education, reveals.

“I figured, if I was having this need, there had to be other parents having this need,” the former school board teacher says. 

“So that’s how this came to be. It was just because this is what I thought would be helpful for me and for parents like me… I’m like, I’m spending a lot of my day driving my children to and from umpteen appointments while working full-time.”

The format of Nestworks goes like this: kids ages 12 months to 5-years-old are cared for by experienced childminders employed by This World’s Ours (TWO), with one childminder per every 4-6 kids (depending on the ages of the registered children), while parents can set up at any table or desk. Because TWO focuses on families with children who are neurodiverse, the staff have a wide range of qualifications, from ECE (Early Childhood Education certified), to occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists and educational assistants. 

“Whether it’s neurodiversity, or whether it’s families with young kids who don’t have access to care, or who just needed to get out of their 700-square-foot condo to get some things done and move their careers forward, we are here to serve local families,” says Shaw.

Officially re-launched in September 2023, the space is now open to working parents and their kids.

Nestworks features three dedicated children’s spaces: a mini gym, indoor playhouse, and open reading/free play area. The childminding hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, with the caregivers responding to the needs and preferences of the children in an unregimented setting.

“The majority of our clients are finding us in that gap for childcare,” Heisler says, “but for some that work from home, they’re looking for that social piece [where] they can do their emails and things here, but their child has some time to play with other people.”

Nestworks is open Monday to Friday, with childminding available from 9 a.m. to noon. An adult and child pass is $50.