We have a dream- a naturescape yard. We have unemployed construction workers, landscapers and various professionals. We have the land, they have the skills and now some time. We are organizing our own Conservation corps as happened in the Depression. Some will work for tuition, all will work together as a community of caring families. An integrated multi-surfaced trike path will wind through one area. Some of our trikes are 20 years old, a thousand dollars could make some nature riders very happy.
CVA Preschool Helps Stimulate Its Community! Carbon Valley Academy Preschool recently relocated to downtown Frederick due to enrollment expansion. Our community consists of 3 small towns which include Frederick, Firestone and Dacono and we are known as the Tri-Town area. We will be taking our pre-kindergarten students out into the community surrounding the school to help support all the businesses that are within walking distance. We will be calling this project, The CVA Preschool Stimulus Passport. We will be implementing our project during the months of April and May. Each child will be making a suitcase out of an empty cereal box. Our teaching staff will be constructing a map with directions and arrows that we will place in each child's suitcase.
The students will place a sticker on their map after they have visited each business. Each child will also be given a passport with their picture on the front. Inside the passport will be pages with the pictures of all the businesses that we will be trying to locate from our map. Our teachers our school and our parents have agreed to fund this project. Some have offered to make lump fund donations to cover costs of materials needed, and to fund the students whose families cannot provide the money needed to purchase anything. We will be walking to each business and each child will purchase something from each business. The business will then stamp each child's passport and we will continue on our "stimulus trip." In each child's passport, we will also provide pages with pictures of the businesses that are in our community, that are too far for us to walk to. For example the grocery stores, banks, restaurants, Dairy Queen etc. If a child goes to these businesses over the weekend or during the week, they will purchase something and bring back a "souvenir" to place in their suitcase. Some of the places that we will be walking to, and items that we will purchase will include:
Pink Southwest Florida has been hit hard. Families have been struggling just to keep their home and child care has become a luxury. To help our parents and our community we are offering After Hours care from 5:30PM-11:30 PM. We have found that many families are working 2nd shifts or are taking college classes in the evening. We provide a nutritious supper and evening snack for the children. Children continue to receive the same level of quality care and developmentally appropriate activities, that as a Gold Seal program we offer. We have found that many of our parents need only an additional hour in the evening, which we offer for $4.00. Parents are thrilled that their children receive a nutritious supper, which makes time at home less hectic.
We have also become family friendly with our rate structure, offering daily rates for families who have part time jobs with varying schedules. We are fortunate that our community has provided some grant $'s for families that are struggling, yet do not qualify for subsidized funding. We will continue to listen to the needs of our families during this economic downfall and make every effort to meet the needs of the 21st Century family in sunny Southwest Florida!
The name of our company is "Childcare Network" Child Development Schools. Last year we began to see our families begin to struggle to pay their child care fees and keep their jobs. We took another look at what our name represents and decided we are indeed a "network" for families. We began a proactive approach to educating the whole family unit. In many schools we have found ways to provide access for parents to learn new things about the community while networking with other families. We have invited local agencies such as WIC representatives and GA Peachcare (low or no cost health insurance provider) to set up tables at the schools for parents to apply for assistance. We have held financial planning classes with bank representatives and have home-buying seminars scheduled. Local college representatives will be coming to help parents that want to further their job skills and education learn about Fall classes and funding available. .
We will be teaching classes on creating a resume and interviewing for jobs. Many funding sources that provide assistance with childcare fees have depleted their funds. To solve some of the burden on parents we have implemented a sliding fee scale that bases our tuition on the parents’ income. As a private company we feel that to make an impact on our economy we want to help stabilize the workforce. When parents have stable childcare, they continue to be a viable contributor to the work force and a consumer that can purchase goods. We are all wiser when we gain life knowledge. By providing families the opportunity to access valuable information and services, together we are stronger! Our contribution to our country is to educate children and families for a brighter tomorrow.
Our current garden project soothes the soul by getting in touch with nature. We have recently built some square-foot gardens, in which the children will soon plant the seedlings they started in the classroom. Some of the seedlings include lettuce, onions and herbs that we hope to harvest and use for cooking. We continue to renew our compost pile every day by adding our snack remnants, which teaches the children about building soil and conserving resources. We have plans to add a xeriscape to our backyard, to teach the children and families about drought-resistant gardens during this year of record-low rainfall. It is extremely important for all families to gain an understanding of the concept of water conservation: the school is serving as both model and inspiration.
Each parent digging in our garden marvels at the calming effect of simply putting one's hands in the dirt, sifting through the clumps and settling a young plant softly into its new home. Each child enthusiastically digging for critters and treasures of the earth exclaims anew with the sighting of bugs and worms, roots and bulbs. Newly-planted rosemary and lavender plants are lovingly stroked by 3- and 4-year olds: hands are sniffed and then rubbed on hair and skin "to make us smell so pretty!" These activities serve as reminders of the simple joys in life.
The school's budget remains small, but revitalizing our play-scape, building and playing IN nature has a marvelous way of helping adults maintain a healthy perspective during rough economic times. Though we cannot directly change the direction of the economy, we can continue to find ways to find happiness and strength by working in the garden and staying close to nature.
We had a little brain storming session at our staff meeting and the staff came up with several good ideas. this one is my favorite. We are a downtown urban center. There are events offered on Friday nights once the weather warms up in the center city park downtown. They offer music and a place for people to gather. Our teachers have agreed to volunteer to keep the children here in the center so parents, who can't afford a babysitter or money for a date, can have a night out. The concerts are free and the childcare will be too.
Since our center is a non-profit agency we are always looking to stretch the proverbial dollar. We have instituted a few of these ideas and are planning to have them all in effect by May 2009.
As the Director of our Preschool and Afterschool programs, I hear first hand from our families, the consequences of the current economic crisis. Parents come to me to withdraw their child(ren) from the programs because they have become unemployed and can no longer afford tuition. With the financial instability occurring at home, this is the time children need consistency in their caregivers. My immediate reaction is to encourage them to allow their child to remain in the preschool or afterschool program while they are attempting to find employment.
With other "bill collectors" at their door, they always seem shocked that such an offer is made. I tell them to keep everything in their child(ren's) day to day schedule as normal as possible and when they do find employment to begin paying half a week or half a month's fees at first, hopefully, working back to the full amount.
As a faith-based program, I am able to let members of local churches know the financial situation today's families are facing. We now have a woman who graciously gives us donation checks every few weeks to cover expenses for our families. We also have a stay-at-home Mom whose husband's job was recently cut back. She called to withdraw her child, but I asked if she had considered volunteering in our school. She was very excited about the prospect and has been a tremendous help to us. She is gaining valuable experience in the classroom while feeling that she is making a contribution to the program. The stories I hear from our families once their personal financial situation has stabilized are heartwarming.
We are starting a grass roots bartering system within our family child care program. Parents who are out of work are posting what their skills are, both professional and personal, in our newsletter and on our family bulletin board. One dad was a web designer and another family hired him to do a website for their upcoming family reunion. Because he was out of work, this gave him a chance to use his skills and bring in some income while helping the other family with a service they needed at a reasonable price. The same has been true of painting, snow removal and other odd jobs.
There has been networking going on when one parent finds out that another is looking for work and they know someone who is hiring, they have connected and tried to help each other out. Other families have been able to go on field trips, help out in the program, and be involved in ways they weren't able to when they were working full time. They have dubbed this "the silver lining club" and it has helped them find the positive in these tough economic times. Another activity that has helped build community are regular outings that let parents connect with one another on a more personal basis, rather than only having time to wave as they passed at pick up and drop off times.
Some have been at a local diner with two for one coupons, a park gathering to build snowmen and go sledding, and a harvest gathering where everyone brought soup or bread to share and we all focused on gratitude instead of what we didn't have. All of these ideas have helped to strengthen the Heart n' Home family and reminded us that being there for each other in good times and in bad, is what family is really all about!
Last year we planted a garden, The children work and also ate the vegetable that they grew. It was a great experience for all. The children were very proud of what they had grown, many time taking their parents to see and taking vegetables home with them. We would like to increase the size this year, and pull in community volunteers. Many seniors have a wealth of knowledge that they can pass on but are limited in physical work that they can do. Being able to bring generation together for such a wonderful project would help both families.
A larger garden would produce more and allow us to share and give back to the community. We are next door to a food pantry and we would be able to provide fresh vegetables to their families. Promoting healthy eating habits and having fun with each other will begin building relationships that will grow and produce much more than just vegetables.
At the JCA, we took steps to prepare for this economically challenging time last year. I don't know how much we are stimulating the economy but we are certainly saving money at school and in homes. Here are some of the ways we are saving money at school and in homes and being planet savers:
Our center is located in a low-income Hispanic area on Long Island. The Brentwood Community as a whole has always been recognized as a place where cultural diversity is a way of life; not a politically correct catch phrase. Since Learning Adventures opened its doors in 2005, we have been privy to all that diversity has to offer us. Economic stimulus has been a need here -a dream here- for most of the residents and families at our center. We have implemented a few small steps to assist our families and the community with the effects of the economic downturn. First you must realize that the economy for most of our families has always been on the lower end of "poverty level". This said, we have always offered what we call "adjustable rate" tuition. We all know that Social Service payments in New York have been cut back and hard to qualify for. Some parents miss the mark by five or ten dollars, and although they apply many times; they are turned down.
The other instance is the rise in parent fees. How do we help support the family and still run a quality center ? We take a look at affordability. There is, of course, a cap on lowest rates for the most hours spent in care. Some of our parents pay less than others, and yet no one complains. Why? Because we offer a "helping hands" alternative to offset costs. One parent taught music to the children. One came in to teach dance. One family provides cereal, juice and snacks. We have even had a family make a new sign for us - great advertising- and work up a new web site. These are not new ideas. They have been going on between communities and their inhabitants since our country's beginnings. The difference is we consider Learning Adventures to BE a community for parents and children. Now for the "dreams".
We have encountered an amazing amount of children with special needs here in the Brentwood area. The cultural differences often lead to misunderstandings between the school district and those families . With experience behind us we have been able to guide the families toward the agencies they need. Several of our children begin their day with us - happily and successfully blended in our classrooms- and then take the bus to early intervention, programs for autistic children, boces programs, etc. It does not end there. Many of our children come back again because there is no full time facility for these children. Other centers and home based day care centers are reluctant to follow suit for these children. I have a wonderful staff who remain focused on including these children while servicing the needs of the others. I also have contacts in several other agencies to help me get the right services for these kids. What's the dream?? To be able to afford to pay staff who are trained in early childhood special education and set up "true" inclusion classrooms for these children. All the possible steps have been taken to begin this process- social workers, advocates, teachers are ready to come on board. An economic stimulus of the magnitude mentioned would most certainly allow us all to pursue that dream. Ahhh, what else? This past year we have begun to plan our "Out door Classroom".
We are very fortunate to have a large fenced play yard with a beautiful surrounding campus. The children have been enjoying water-play, a "messy area", and some natural elements like tree cookie paths and a large sand box. We are planning a garden this year. The plan for now includes using recycled tires for our raised beds, planting our seedlings inside in containers, and asking parents to help with the start-up. I have contacted a local "tree man" to help us with creating a balance beam and more of the elements involved in this type of outdoor area. It is our intention to contact the school district and the chamber of commerce in order to offer "time in the garden" to some of the school aged children in the community. We see that a small garden would be something these kids can help our little ones with while they enjoy the "fruits of their labor".
We also thought these older kids would enjoy helping us erect some of the structures with our families. Perhaps if they see what goes on behind our fence, vandalism to the church that houses us might be curtailed. Kids need positive things to participate in -with tangible results ! With the stimulus we could establish an outdoor space that encompasses all the elements needed to become a certified "Nature Explore Classroom". This could lead to us being able to use our center as a "test site" for other centers so we could share this idea with the community. This is only part of the reality/dream that we have here at Learning Adventures. It is my hope that we will be considered for this stimulus -we would love to be an example of how a little goes along way.
Since the Justice Dept. doesn't seem inclined to arrest those Wall Street executives who, I think, broke laws as they were greedily creating this mess, those of us who haven't been hit as hard by the crisis are going to have to be kind and creative. One idea is to ask parents who are using child care if they would be willing to pay $10 or $20 more a week to temporarily help people who might otherwise have to take their child out of care because of financial hardships, job loss, etc. Finding a new job while dealing with the associated emotional stress might be easier if your child is still being cared for in a program you trust by people you know.
Programs and directors Northeastern PA are struggling with many issues as a result of the economic downturn: declining enrollment; the need to reduce staffing; staff and parents stressed, teary and fearful that they or a family member will be laid off, be unable to pay rent or mortgages, and lose healthcare benefits; decisions about cutting costs; and how to support children impacted by the stress in their families. In response to theses needs, Northampton Community College's Program for Leaders in Early Childhood Education offered a free seminar, "Leading Early Care and Education Programs to Thrive in a Challenging Economy".
More than 30 program directors and owners came together to identify their challenges, learn how to apply exemplary practices to lead their programs during these challenging times, and to share strategies to help their programs thrive. Participants indicated an interest in further professional development related to this topic, so we created a "Thriving in a Challenging Economy" follow up workshop series. These workshops will addresses issues such as collaborative management, marketing, developing new services, dealing with change, and cash flow (see the following link: http://www.northampton.edu/academics/departments/ece/Thriving+in+a+Challenging+Economy+SP09.htm).
Additional sessions are planned for the summer. Our dream would be to offer these sessions for free or a reduced fee and to be able to follow up individually or with small groups as directors and owners work to face these challenges.
Pink & Blue Child Care & Learning Center is a family owned and operated child care center in Helena, Alabama. We are self funded...except for the preschool classroom. That room receives services from the United Way of Central Alabama's Success By 6 program. We serve children ages 3 weeks to 13 years. Our hours are from 6 A.M. until 6:30 P.M. Each staff member is hand selected to be employed by Pink & Blue. We are a small town center with a big heart...a heart that loves our children and our families. During this "time of economic crisis" we have seen many families impacted financially, personally, and emotionally. We have children that's food is being rationed at home. Parent's who have lost their jobs...and some who have had their hours and pay drastically cut. I couldn’t tell you the number of days that I go home in tears. Financially...there isn't much we can do.
Currently...it is all we can do to keep our doors open. But as we are watching and feeling the struggles...we are not just standing by. We do not turn children away...we just love them...hug the parents and tell them that things will get better...it's just a matter of time. So to help out with the families we started a clothing swap. As one child grows out of their clothes, shoes, and accessories...the parents bring the old clothing to the center. We bag them up by size and redistribute the clothing to other children in the center that need them. There is one stipulation...we ask that parents do not point out when another child is wearing their child's used items. Some of our parents don't even know where the clothing comes from...nor do the children. We also have a baby food swap and formula swap. Again, when one child out grows these items, we pass them own to another. We are also making sure that our children are fed a the center and at home. We have contacts with Angel Food Network and a local church. We pass these contacts on to our parents for assistance...Angel Food is a low cost food purchasing program that is administrated through a local church. (I would like to also start a back pack food program...where children are given canned food to take home for the weekend...just a thought for the future...I saw that a local elementary school was doing this and thought it would be a great idea for our center) We also serve as contacts for parents.
One parent needs a good or service...and another can provide it...we try to keep business, goods, and services within our center. Another words...we try to keep our parents working for each other. Our center is not low income by any means. Our parents are honest hard working people who live check to check. They have little or no room to provide extras at this time. Most of our parents are just out of reach for financial assistance through the state subsidy program...food stamps....or welfare. Through the United Way...we are making sure that parents and children have access to medical, dental, and educational services they need. I couldn't tell you how much the United Way means to our center and family. We are blessed at this time. I only hope that we can continue to serve this community and it's children. My heart hurts every time another child has to leave the center...either to stay home or to go to a lesser place...no child should have to be pulled from their comfort zone because parents are not able to pay. Pink & Blue does work with every parent to make all possible efforts to keep their children in the child care setting. For some children...we are their only stable environment. We love our children...but we cannot survive on love alone.
"Every person needs a place furnished with hope" Maya Angelou Founded in 2006, Sound Child Care Solutions is a young non-profit consortium of centers joining together to share the business and professional development functions of child care while preserving our own identities and unique cultures. We are better together as we gain economies of scale and direct savings to improve our classrooms and serve more low income children. With the recession it’s tempting to contract and put the brakes on our big dreams. But, ultimately, we know that holding back won’t bring out the best in our teachers, nor reassure families that we can all pull together and be creative, rather than fearful and depressed, in these difficult times. An opportunity to be creative and generous came when we responded to a center in our community who needed a temporarily classroom to allow repairs of the extensive damage from a burst pipe in their building.
Due to parent layoffs the enrollment at one of our centers was down so we offered them a room. It was tempting to charge rent for this space, but we knew they were financially struggling as much as we were. As it turned out, the six week experience of having some new teachers and children in our building became a valuable experience for our staff- others see the gifts we each have differently and sometimes better than we can see them ourselves. The visiting teachers, too, got expanded perspectives from the diversity in our center, which they took back to their coworkers as they returned to their repaired classrooms. Our enrollment and finances continued to decline, but we wanted to keep spirits up and build on this experience of seeing new possibilities. We asked two local early childhood consultants to volunteer time to help us rethink our use of the again vacant space to be more nourishing for kids, staff, and families in these difficult times.
We used our staff and team meetings to spark ideas from teachers and our consultants, and then with a meager $300 budget (and several trips to the thrift store), began to transform our temporary spare room into a beautiful new environment to nourish our spirits. In three short days our consultants, staff and other volunteers cleared out the room, painted walls, and carefully set up new areas to demonstrate the values and principles we want to be influencing our time together in our early childhood center. We are trying to avoid laying off teachers, so some teachers who are temporarily not needed to maintain ratios helped make this all a reality. During the "room make over process" our consultants brought teachers in for dialogue about how they were thinking about the space, why certain lighting, colors and arrangements were used, and the social-emotional, dispositional, and cognitive outcomes the room was being designed for. They especially focused on the role of de-cluttering and creating possibilities for focus and relaxed engagement. And, especially in these times, they considered the importance of focusing on relationships rather than possessions. Over the few days, as she listened and looked on, one teacher reflected on a shift in her thinking, "In our child development classes we were taught to have more of things so kids didn’t fight over stuff. Now I’m understanding that maybe all this stuff is too stimulating and causing some of those fights." A child walking through the room exclaimed, "Hey, this place is beginning to look like an apartment." Our consultants ended their volunteer time with us by leaving photos and little signs around the room with simple reminders of the principles at work in its design. Within hours some of our teachers began reassessing how their room could be more nourishing and calm in these difficult times for families. The creativity and inspiration of the consultants and the teachers using our classroom temporarily who saw our space in a different way that we do, inspired us further.
We organized a big volunteer work party with parents, teachers and volunteers spending their Saturday thoroughly cleaning and beginning some further revamping of our entire center. Our local Americorps (Washington Reading Corps) program was a huge help with enthusiastic young people working really hard to make the place shine. Within weeks many of the ideas present in our 'make-over room' are showing up in other classrooms as teachers went back to thrift stores to get great (cheap) things to replicate the ideas that inspired them most. Some parents felt so inspired they decided to coordinate some special projects in classrooms and another volunteered to help with marketing our beautiful program. A community partner with resources who supports us periodically noticed what we were doing to increase quality and felt inspired to help us with some additional purchases. No one of us has a lot, but giving hope has kind of sprouted other ideas. The key idea here is that instead of taking our low enrollment as a time to narrow our thinking, we are trying to use resources we do have, like an empty space, or volunteers, or the staff time low enrollment frees up to improve our quality, stimulate our creativity, and strengthen our work with children. By offering what we had to the center in trouble, we ended up being the recipient of so much more than we dreamed.
We are actively working to avoid spiraling down into hopelessness, and our environmental improvements are visible reminders to help us feel more positive every day. While it might be some months before we are able to enroll children in our now spare room, it is no longer a dumping ground for broken toys and unwanted items, but rather a place "furnished with hope". For the interim, our families will be invited to use this room as a place to relax; teachers will spend their break and planning time there, finding nourishment and new sources of professional development. Opening our minds has continued to open hearts. Support is continuing to come in large and small ways- from a total stranger offering us the perfect basket for a dime when she asked a teacher what she was shopping for …. to our community partner noticing our efforts to enhance quality and supporting us with some with new equipment …. to a floating teaching offering a simple cost saving solution …. to the families offering to recruit other families. We are in this together, and we are teaching our children that they are important enough to mobilize a community.
We have done several things to help out our parents and our community during these "hard times". We have had several families who have had a member laid off, due to cut backs. We decided we needed to help them out, so we started a resume & job information exchange. We started asking our families if they knew of anyone hiring, explaining to them we were trying to help out fellow parents who had been laid off. we collected information on those companies to hand out to anyone in need of a job.
We also collected our families’ resumes who were in need of a job. Companies & our families who knew their companies were hiring, were able to come by and pick up a resume or call and get a resume emailed to them for any job openings they may have. Even the teachers are in on the action reaching out to their families and friends to help find jobs for anyone who needs it. Several parents have gotten calls for interviews, and hopefully many will be able to find new jobs.
We also hosted a family & community financial night. We had an advisor come in and do a presentation on how to save for college, a home or how to do a budget in these tough times. The advisor also answered any questions the families might have.
The Sunshine House has implemented a program in selected markets, that we are calling "Families First". This program is a program geared for our families who have experienced a lay-off or reduction in work force due to the economy. The program allows a family to continue their regular enrollment at 50% of their weekly tuition for a set period of time. This allows the family to adjust to their situation and gives the parent(s) time to work on their job search.
It's beneficial to the children too, since they have the continuity of care and can continue attending school with their friends. It also keeps the families in touch with the parents of children in their child's class. The support that it offers the families has proven to be greatly appreciated and we have had families who are participating in this program tell us what a difference Families First has made in their lives.
We have also called parents who withdrew their children due to a lay-off prior to the implementation of this program to extend the benefit to them as a former member of The Sunshine House family. We have systems in place to verify that the families have experienced a lay-off and we also have policies related to the program that we make the parents aware of before approving their discount.
To help "stimulate" the micro-economy of our families, our Center has created a parent community board. The purpose of this board is for parents to promote their own businesses within the greater Center community. We have many self-employed families here. We also have some that have turned their hobbies into a second business to earn extra cash.
Having a way to promote these within our Center is a great way for them to pick up new business. It is also handy for families looking for a service to learn that it can be provided by someone they know.
The community resource center provides preschool, direct services, and resource and referral services to families in our small rural community. Most of the families we serve provide the labor in the oil fields and we have experienced hundreds people being laid off. Through the Resource Center we are developing a clearinghouse for parents and clients that posts small jobs that are available in the community. Post jobs such as handyman, lawn care, minor home repairs, child care, housecleaning, and other short term jobs.
This allows people who are out of work an opportunity to make at least a little money to meet basic expenses, and has the extra benefit of building their self esteem. In turn it also provides businesses and individuals with a resource to fill the short term jobs they need. We also provide work clothes people may need for the job through small donation funds. We then refer the parents to our local community college so they can build and expand their employment skills. This could be done at preschools also, with a bulletin board in the office that links people to jobs.
At Cozy Critters we are not only involving the staff but the chidlren and their families as well. The way we see it; we're all in this together and we're one big family. We've really started to teach about "recycling" with everything and we are starting our own garden for the children to help with this year. The fruits and vegetables will also be available for the families to purchase.We are composting (shredded paper, scraps, etc.) The children will see from the very beginning how to start, take care and eat their rewards of growing "organic" and hopefully saving money!! This is just a small start--but hopefully it will help all of us and teach them from a young age.
Our idea is to bring in area business owners and employers who have staff with children in our program. We would ask for donations to fund a scholarship program to help offset tuition for some of our families. Several of our children receive state funds that help with their childcare costs, but many other families earn just a little too much to qualify for assistance. I would like to set up a scholarship program funded by area businesses that could help these families keep their children in quality child care programs. This would be a win-win situation for all. The kids win by remaining with our program and the business owners win by having the full attention of their employees on the job knowing that their children are cared for by a wonderful, caring program.
Family Respite Care Cooperatives: The idea is that four to eight families, who each have a child with a disability, form a cooperative so that each could have respite. The cooperative meets for a half day on the week-end (ex. Saturday morning or afternoon). Each family works in the cooperative once a month and has respite the other days. Volunteers are solicited so that there is a good adult-child ratio. Families share pertinent information about caring for their child. Good cooperative locations are churches, community centers, and day care centers.
Problem: During June through August our enrollment dips down dramatically due to the hight percentage of our families who are teachers in the public schools and not needing care during the summer. In addition, the enrolled families with school-age children needing summer care withdraw the younger siblings to be cared for by college students or others family members. A great savings for families but not good for our budget. Solutions: This summer we will guarantee fall positions for current families only if they enroll their children, or pay for, two full days each week rather than charging the full rate. So far all of our families who planned to withdraw for summer have agreed to this policy. After I shared my concern with teachers regarding summer enrollment, in February, they got together and planned a school-age summer program which exceeds anything we have offered in the past! We are spending money to advertise our action packed summer which includes sport clinics, special visitors, field trips and weekly trips to the pool. So far, so good. Our phone is ringing with new families in the community. Many are signing up for all ten weeks! For families who would like a morning only program for children ages 3-5 years, we are offering eight fun filled weeks of great activities which include a variety of art projects, games, music, all which follow a theme of the week with an exciting culminating activity on Friday. Parents can choose which weeks that they would like their children to attend. I am proud of the teachers for their enthusiasm and willingness to work even harder and to help solve a problem. Many of us have worked together for ten or more years and it's great to see that we open to change which can be difficult. We all feel stimulated by the new ideas and actions.
We have done several things to help stimulate our local economy and the School's economy also. We worked with a local restaurant to do a "Dining to Donate". Our families, Board members, staff and friends could all go out to eat at the restaurant at a time convenient to them and the school would get 20% of the food bill. Everyone had fun seeing each other out of school and many families brought relatives and friends of all ages. We've done this with a local fast food place as well. Although these places are chains, they employ local people- friends and neighbors. We work with local agencies who may have money for food, or shelters or help with heat to refer any parents to them if needed. We use local people to do any jobs needed around the school and try to buy our supplies from local stores. This way, we are helping our community survive and in a small way, prosper.
As many childcare centers know, there is subsidy money out there for low income parents who want to work or go to school. This CCIS subsidy is a great program to help parents, mostly single get ahead in life. My idea and what we do at Magic Cottage is really mentor these single parents. We help them fill out paperwork, we fax paystubs and we keep them on target so that they can keep their subsidy that they receive. In addition, we do not up-charge these parents. What I mean by that is CCIS pays us a certain amount and parents pay a copay. This amount certainly does not cover what our normal tuition is. I have found that many other schools will up-charge copays which is their right. We do not. We feel that these parents are on subsidy for a reason, financial difficulty. We don't want to add to that burden. In this way, we feel that we are helping parents in our community. Although this may seem like very little contribution, every drop counts and makes a difference.
*Childcare programs can offer potluck family fun/game nights or weekends to the community or other social gathering to encourage a sense of support and community. * Programs can offer a toy and clothing excahnge or sale. *Programs can offer professional informational metting on various topics like stress, financial issues, cooking on a budget, etc. Get local professionals or parents to donate thier time and expertise. * Encourage buying local to promote the success of local business and support local jobs. Although it may be a bit more expensive the money stays in the community. * Use the barter system. Offer families to trade child care services for their expertise to utilize in the program. Services like cleaning services, counseling, cooking/baking, bookkeeping, massage, etc. Although this may not be able to be done often it could be helpful for a struggling family.
Fair Share Program: Parents all give volunteer hours at the school to participate in areas that the program would spend money. Examples include painting classrooms, mowing the grounds, spreading mulch on the playground, sewing curtains, doing things in the classroom to free up the teaching staff to do other things, filing library books, classroom parent, copying information, cleaning, answer telephones......What ever activities are program specific that you would not have to pay an outside source. Established this program in early 1990's and isstill working today.
In our center, we wanted to find solutions for the economic challenges of the times, because we did not want to raise our tuition. We held a school-wide community meeting with participation from staff,administration, and parents. During our community meeting, we decided on two ideas to implement, and they have worked really well: Family Participation Snack: We provide all natural, whole grain, organic snack to the children in our care, and that is expensive! This year, each family donates snack for the whole school two times each month. The school supplements the remaining snacks. This has cut our food budget by about 90%. School Wish List: Every month the director takes requests from the teachers for items that they would like to have in their classroom. She compiles a "Wish List" with spaces beside each item for putting the names of the families that donate. As parents donate items that we need, their names are added to the "thanks!" column. We have had so many beautiful CDs, plants, toys, supplies, and stickers donated. Parents really love being involved and feel good about contributing to the success of the school.
We have a toy and children's book lending library as well as a teacher resource lending library. We also encourage providers to hold equipment and toy swaps and to share resources. We also encourage providers to use unwanted items in art projects and to create homemade equipment in their programs not only saving money but the environment also.
An Intergenerational Gardening Program Seniors from the community will be invited to share their gardening expertise with the children in our preschool. This program will serve many purposes: *Give seniors an opportunity to mentor young children and forge strong relationships *Create community *Give seniors purpose *Allow children to interact with nature *Provide healthy, organic vegetables for our center
In Pinellas County, Florida, Dr Walter Drew will present his interactive workshop on the importance of constructive play using reusable resource materials which we have collected locally. The workshop is part of our Reusable Taskforce. The vision of the taskforce is to design, open and operate a public/privately funded reuse center that is open to community agencies serving the children of Pinellas County. In these economic times, the taskforce truly believes that a reuse center would help provide free materials to many agencies serving children.
Rethought how we approach spring fund raiser opportunities for parents and will allow parents to "apply" their raised funds directly to tuition. Will not raise costs for summer programs to parents who are committed to continuing in September of 2009, which will be handled as a "credit" to cover school year supply costs. The credit will obviously not be applied if they do not continue. Allow parents to "work off" some portion of tuition credits as we approach spring and work needing to be done in and around the school. Mural painting on the playground, refresh paint on doors, windows, etc. Trimming of trees and brush clean up on playgrounds. Planting of flowers and reseeding grass and parkways,etc. Putting a dollar value on hours worked x # of family members. A win for the family and the program.
I challenged my staff to this very thing several months ago at a staff meeting. I have always felt that employees feel better if they can be the part of a solution. We broke into small groups and we came up with a lot of small but significant solutions. We now have children use both sides of paper when drawing, etc. Before ordering supplies we look at what we already have.-by doing this, we haven't ordered any art supplies in a long time. Monitor snacks-use leftovers and bits & pieces (cookies, crackers, chips, cereal) and combine to make "trail mix". We ask parents and staff to donate the pull-outs (subsciptions notices, etc) from magazines. They are great for cutting as they are a little stiff. We decided instead of a daily report for our 3's & 4's to provide parents with a weekly report thus saving on paper and toner. For diaper changing we now use paper that has already been used ie;memos, menus, drafts, faxes, etc. We're careful not to use any paper that has financial or personal information. We call it "butt paper". It's amazing how much paper was previously thrown away. We've asked parents to donate books. Any that we can't use or that we already have are taken to a used book store and we receive credits to get books that we need. I have used the some of the credits to get table books on subjects that the kids are studying such as a book on trains, castles, peoples from different countries, etc. We've also gotten cook books with pictures for our Housekeeping areas. We helped the community by participating in a food drive for our local food banks.
One of the concerns that I hear families speaking about the most is the high cost of groceries. As we all start looking at ways to cut costs, food isn't one of those items that falls in the "wants" category; good, healthy, tasty meals are a need! The idea that our preschool has had is to implement a monthly cooking day on Saturday: "Suppers at SweetPeas". Similar to the idea of a Christmas Cookie Exchange, each family brings the recipe and ingredients for one economical and freezer-friendly meal - enough to make one batch per family. We plan to chop, prepare, and bake several dishes together, while enjoying each other's company and learning from each other's parenting experiences. Each family that comes would leave with about a week's worth of frozen meals. That not only lessens the everyday stress of trying to get dinner on the table, but also creates a sense of community and a helpful lightening of grocery expenses. If you're thinking it would cost too much for a family to bring the ingredients to make 5 batches of a recipe - think again! To make a delicious homemade macaroni and cheese, a trip to Costco or another warehouse store would be a fabulous place to buy a large package of cheese (about $20), and a trip to the bulk food aisle would be perfect for a huge bag of elbow macaroni (less than ($10). The other incidentals needed like butter and spices can be shared or purchased at nominal cost. So, in this example, we have a family investing around $35 to go home with 5 meals! It's a great idea!
Children need play equipment and schools are responsible for offering a wide variety of materials. Budgets have been cut and schools are spending less. My idea...to offer parents the opportunity to work with the school to provide needed new materials. A tree is made with leaves or wishes. Each leaf has the picture and price of the equipmnet from a specific company, lets say Community Playthings. The tree is filled with leaves with blocks, toy cars, or loft peices. With many families working together with the school community a loft could be purchaced for the classroom. When everyone spends a little we start to reverse the economic downturn.
We came together and offered free breakfast and clothing to the people of our community every third Saturday of the month. Food and other items are donated from parents of our school and church. The community is free to come in and eat as much as they want and take home needed items. The concept has caught on throughout the neighborhood. People are not only coming out to receive, but they are offering to donate items to help others. We have been able to counsel, feed or just lend a listening ear. Our neighbors have stated how much they have appreciated and needed the helping hand.
My program is an on-site child care center for the furniture manufacturer Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. The majority of my children are children of employees. During these tough economic times our factory does not always get to work a five day work week. The owners of the company, Mitchell and Bob, have continued their family friendly practices by allowing me to charge only for the days that we have work available for the parents. This is unheard of in my area of the country. I am so proud of the fact that we are able to help our families by offering this benefit.
I run a family child care home. With the scare of lay offs parents are working longer hours to try and keep their jobs. I have done this as well. I am opening earlier and staying open later for those parents who are doing the same. I have also not raised rates this year but instead put out a supply list that parents can donate to when they run across a good sale. Things such as paper supplies and cleaning items. The last thing I have done is offer a parent's night out once a month for a very small fee. With all the stress everyone is under it is a nice perk for the parents to go out and enjoy each other and know that their children are safe.
The idea that we came up with and which we are all excited about is our Fund Raiser garage sale. We are asking the entire community to donate clothing, furnitur, and household items to our center. We are then, on March 28th going to have a garage sale to raise money for equipment in our center. We are also going to be giving away clothing to families in need. This idea will reach a lot of families and children. The toys and equipment we purchase will allow children to progress in thier development and they will be excited about getting new toys and it will also help the teacher teach in the classroom. The free clothing will help families who are struggling to make ends meet. It will take away a little bit of stress on parents thus letting them focus on other needs. The children will get new clothes which will help with their self esteem. My entire center is on board with this idea and we are excited to have the opportunity to reach so many in just one day.
At my school, I started a Job Bank. I invited all my parents who had openings to send me the description of these and I placed them in a notebook. When a parent thinks that they might get laid off or actually has, they can go through the book and apply for as many jobs as they would like. Two of my parents have found jobs which has helped them maintain their homes and way of life. At my school, it's about us helping each other and growing as a community. I hope this helps other schools.
1. We are offering free child care for parents to interview for a job. they can use the service for up to 10 hours a month. We have 7 full day centers that are participating in this so there should always be a space to accomodate their needs. 2. When we learn of a need from our families (a bed, crib, stove, fridge, etc.) we will send e-mails to all our 700 plus employees and to our contact lists to see if we can fill that need. 3. Our centers will plan family nights once a month. We will provide a light supper and games or movies so families can have a no-cost night out.
At C'burg Childcare, for each parent birthday, we offer $25 off their childcare account for the week the parent birthday falls in. Also on the C'burg Childcare Web Site (http://www.cburgchildcare.com ) we offer a money game each month. All parents have to do is go to the web site each month, and find the floating dollar bill. Then email C'burg Childcare to let us know where the floating money is located. The first day of the month, if a parent plays, they get $25 off their account for that month. And as the month goes on, the amount of money to be taken off the account goes down. Also this month, we are offering a "My Birthday Game" if a parent can answer the five questions, (answers are found in the web site) correctly, and email me the answers, they get a gift certificate for $20 off on a Domino's Pizza the month of March. Each month, we offer some type of online game to be played on the C'burg Childcare web site, along with the money game, which allows parents to take money off their account or get a discount at a resturant or grocery store. C'burg Childcare web site also offers frugal tips and hints for parents, providers and anyone else who might be interested. At C'burg Childcare, we teach the children about recycling, all of our arts and crafts are made from materials that would otherwise be trash, that parents and friends have brought for us to use. Not only on Earth Day, but several times a year, C'burg Childcare takes the children on walks to clean up and pick up trash along our walk, this also teaches the children the importance of keeping our environment clean and safe. Another step we take at C'burg Childcare, only cloth diapers are used. It takes 500 years for a disposable diaper to disintergrate. This is just one of the many ways we try to keep our environment clean and safe. By using cloth diapers, we are also able to keep our rates lower, since it is C'burg Childcare's policy to furnish all diapers and formula. We encourage new parents to breast feed, and to use cloth diapers, if at possible. C'burg Childcare also offers nutrition hints and tips to parents, to help lower the cost of their food bill, but still serve nutritious meals and snacks to their families. By doing many small things, and offering help with the small things, it is our way of keeping costs down which helps keep our rates down.
My father always used to tell me to spend my money locally --go to the local mom & pop hardware store instead of a home center two towns away. Spending my money in my community improves my community by assisting local business which in turn improves overall quality of life. The idea I have for centers is to create a Business to Business Directory. Invite all parents and staff to list themselves and their businesses/skills/trades in the directory and distribute it center-wide. If I need a moving company, for example, I would rather start with someone I know than with the Yellow Pages. I would include a statement or disclosure indicating that the center did not endorse any listing in the directory per se, and encourage families to carefully research any business before choosing them. But I would also include a statement about the impact of choosing to work with local businesses and the benefits of that choice for our families and our center.
Invite parents and staff to post an item, business card, or flyer on a bulletin board. The board could be divided into "Services I can provide" and "Needs I have". Examples of services could be sewing, child care on weekends and evenings, car-pooling, tax preparation, yard work, catering, birthday parties, or any other skill or need. Ask parents to post any job notices from their business or company so that parents who are job hunting can find contacts more easily. Recruit qualified parents as a daily or substitute teacher, cook, janitor, painter, accountant, etc. at the child care center. These ideas might help parents stay employed and help stabilize the enrollment of the child care program.
We propose to have a "2nd Saturday Stimulus Swap or Purchase". This should provide a gigantic opportunity for parents to exchange or purchase items to help meet their individual family needs. There will be items of clothing for all ages, toys, nursery furniture, children and adult furnishings, and other items which some families do not need but which others do need. Weplan to also purchase some very essential items - diapers, training pants, bedding, children's books, etc. for discount pricing. We plan to invite other childcare homes and centers to participate in our project. There will be information packets available for all attending with good information such as nutrition, child guidance, - similar to the information pamphlets which we have available in our parent centers in addition to new ones which we are soliciting from local support agencies. There will also be appropriate activities for children while parents mingle, shop and enjoy other adults' company. Thank you.
Make Change Happen by Angela Bayer, ece professional.
As a small business owner myself, I feel the pain of the recession acutely. I have strived to achieve the highest standards of care within my profession by becoming nationally accredited through NAFCC and achieving a Four Star rating status through Keystone Stars. The standards keep adjusting to improve quality of care and education for children and prices for supplies and supplemental keep increasing as well. The relationship that I have with the parents/ guardians in my program is unique and very individual since I am a family child care provider, who works extended hours for working parents on different schedules. There is more one on one interaction than at a big center; we become an extended family. In order to help one another out during this time there are several methods that we have taken to weather this economic storm. If a parent works at a retail store, they let everyone know when sales are coming up and give out 'Friends and Family' coupons to all. Clearance items and sales are up for all to take advantage of. Sunday coupons are clipped and put in a basket for all to share and use. On a business level, my rates are the lowest in the county to allow for parents who are not on the subsidy program to participate without too much of a strain. If someone is having an issue with payments, we talk it over and work out a payment schedule to fit both of us. I am also now involved with a Tax Break program which allows me to offer scholarships to needy parents when funds are available. Another way to keep my costs low, we work together in collaboration to buy art materials at the Dollar Store; we also use recyclables (milk cartons, magazines, containers, etc.) for art projects and science experiments.
Families still like to go out but the cost of going out has become something that is not affordable. In order to take trips that are cost productive, we take field trips in groups to get group discounts, which are half the regular entrance fee. Extended family and friends are always welcome. We carpool to the trip help the environment and the cut down costs. We all bring our own food to the zoo or museum to cut down on the cost of going out and it also avoids standing in long lines with little ones. I know that several people have been in danger of losing their homes, becoming another statistic due to loss of job or hours on a job. I keep a referral list of lawyers who help out with foreclosures or bankruptcies. There are also several home saver programs that I have become familiar with that help families stay in their own home if they are able to afford the payments. Advocating on a state level to State representatives is also another way to help families who are in trouble. I have worked with several state representatives and senators in my own work and have a built a rapport with them. I utilize this to make contacts when people need help and resources that I may not be aware of or have asses to. Several small business owners have wanted to expand or just maintain their business. With larger corporations coming in, small business owners suffer from a downturn of clientele. My Pocono community is one that is evolving and changing with big business moving in. One way that small business has banded together is to advertise for each other through business cards and flyers in each other's business. Word of mouth, and through emails, truly does help the small business person. The Chamber of Commerce and SAG's promote business card exchanges and advertising which I promote. On top of all of this, when I am aware of small business grants or low interest loans available for the small business owner, I help spread the word to take advantage of the benefits.
There has been a growing need in our Community for a Food Bank and especially now with the current enconomy crisis. The Oregon Food Bank of Washington County Oregon, has wanted to have a Food Bank Outlet in our town for some time now, but could not find anyone who was willing to operate it. This Sunday, March 15, 2009, our church, Abundant Life Community, announced their sponsorship of a Food Bank for our community, which will be run by a couple from the church with several volunteers assisting. The food will be supplied by the Oregon Food Bank and distributed at the Church, however, our preschool, Abundant Life Preschool-Learning Center, will be a part of this Food Bank by making the basement area of our school available for dry storage of the food and canned goods and setting up an area for the sorting and bagging of Food Bags which will be distributed weekly at the Church. We will also have a food barrel set up in our school for canned or box goods donations. We see this as a wonderful way for our school and church to reach out to our community by offering our facilities as operation bases for the Food Bank. The school basement has a separate entrance and exit from the school and food bank activities will only be done after school hours, thereby eliminating any interference with our daily school routine. We are excited to be a part of this outreach to our community and we are sure this will be a great learning experience for all involved.
Primavera Omelet Community Garden Proposal One reason why Americans are so broke is because of the high cost of healthy organic foods and this is why we propose a Primavera Omelet Community Garden. We own two lots and can designate the smaller one as a community garden and build a chicken coop to house chickens where anyone who lives in the neighborhood can come and handpick all of the fresh produce and eggs they need for their family that night for FREE. The only cost is volunteering a certain number of minutes per week for the gardens up keep. As with all things community there must be rules & standards: #1 Only take what your family needs. Say you want to bake a cake; no eggs, you say, "Well, I'll pick up a couple at the Community Garden." So keep your $45.36 to $76.56 per year in egg money and stimulate your neighborhood's economy. #2 Bring your own bags or baskets. #3 Put your time in; volunteer to keep the garden nice & healthy. CLOSING REMARKS: Think about how much time and money we spend in the grocery store each month buying nutritious plant-based meals for our family dinners. This Exchange Stimulus Package not only keeps our wallets fat, it also keeps our waistlines slim and this keeps the medical bills & prescription medication costs low. "If everybody chips in, then everybody will win!" Thank you, and may you choose this package because as soon as the weather man gives us the go-ahead, my husband & I will implement this proposal and welcome first, our clients from our day care business and as we grow progress outward to our neighborhood and community.
At Endeavor we are working on teaching our children about being a part of their community. A house was on fire in the neighborhood across from our school. We saw the smoke and flames and watched the fire trucks arrive. No one was hurt! We asked for donations from our families to help this family and spoke with the children about the consquences of the fire and everyone reaching out to help them. We are a new center and unfortunately we are struggling too, but one of our goals in the future is to adopt a child care center that caters to lower income families and assist them with resources. Our main mission is teaching our children to appreciate and save their enviroment by recycling, being energy efficient, and preserving the natural habitats around them. We believe these teachings will save money and our world if taught at the youngest age possible.
When our daycare staff and families found out that one of our own was facing one of the most difficult trials a family can go through we jumped into action. Little Hope is 6 yrs. old and has been in our daycare for several years. She has had several heart surgeries while in our care. Last fall, Hope was life flighted to a hospital in St. Louis. She and her parents were told she would have to have a heart transplant. The wait is usually 6 months to a year and after the transplant Hope has to stay in St. Louis up to a year. Her parents left their jobs and mortgage here in Stillwater, packed up Hope's one year old brother and headed for St. Louis. Hope's parents were faced with finding new jobs in an unfimiliar city during this economic downturn, and paying $1500.00 per month for the medicines not covered by insurance that are keeping Hope alive until she receives a new heart. Our individual problems seemed small in light of what this family was going through. We decided to put our problems aside and see what we could do to help. We started a coin drive. It was heart warming to see parents and their children adding their change daily. When a local church heard about our coin drive they matched the money we raised. A staff member contacted a local University organization that raises money each year for charity. They made Hope the recipient this year. One of our children's mothers made a quilt and donated it for a raffle in Hope's honor. Our daycare staff donated their time and raised money for Hope by watching children on Valentine's Day. We have more fundaisers planned. Our goal is $10,000. We raised nearly $7,000. It's hard to believe that each of us doing what we can has had this kind of impact. As long as the people of our nation have this kind of "we can make a difference" mentality we can weather this storm together.
Invite the parents of our 259 Head Start and ECEAP familes to start an exchange system of items including household items, children's clothing, sports equipment, gardening tools, and baby furniture and items. Individual family partnerships can be formed or items can be borrowed through a check out system. As more and more people are losing their jobs a list of the parents skills will be made available so that individual families can work together to support each other in getting tasks done through negotiating prices or bartering, i.e. carpet cleaning, flooring installation, maintenance, etc. With the financial climate there has been a reduction in community services and programs to support families. This exchange/bartering system will provide an opportunity for the families to meet the needs of their families while building a sense of community and volunteerism.
Our center is located in Owensboro, KY. We are a crisis prevention child care center that offers 100 hours of free care to parents who are experiencing a stressful circumstance. Parents also use our services for job search, interviews, school, work, etc. In this desperate economic time, parents are desperately searching for employment to provide for their children, most of who we serve are single parent families. On a daily basis during our hours of operation, we are giving parents an opportunity to apply for employment, attend a job interview, go to school, or be at work when the sitter isn't able to care for their child. This in turn is how Grandma's Corner is trying to reverse the economic downturn one family at a time. If parents are not given the chance, they are less likely to search for employment. Owensboro is the third largest city in the state of Kentucky. If every community were to offer similiar care for a limited time frame, maybe we make a difference for all.
Hi, my name is Donyell Trapp and I am a teacher at the Gum Springs Head Start. Our Children center has nine classrooms and each child has a family service worker, who works with the family in various areas. One idea that I have shared with my co-workers is to have a survey or questionnaire given to each family about their wants and needs through the family service workers. Once the staff knows what each family may need, we as a whole could come together and collect items such as gently used clothing, furniture, can goods etc. Instead of giving our items to good will we could create a family closet for our student's families. Families could come in and exchange items or have the items that they need. To help out the small business in the community we could invite them to participate in our closet drive as well and ask for discounts (coupons) exclusively for the head start families with the community to help with their business.
Make Change Happen: Helping Families Tame the Video Monster Our program has two Children's Centers that serve primarily low-income working families. We have become more and more concerned in the past year at the many negative effects of commercial media on our children and families, including the stress that families feel with all the commercials aimed at young children for commercial toys, junk food, and video programs aimed at babies and toddlers. We brainstormed some ways to help our families tame the "video monster” and came up with the idea of having a Toy Lending Library for our families to have quality learning toys (nothing related to movies or television and nothing requiring batteries) that they could borrow to give them some good alternatives to screen time and to help parents experience the benefits of play. When an area elementary school student council heard about our idea, the 8-12 year old students wrote for a small ($750) grant to help start the Toy Lending Library. They're now beginning the process of getting toys and containers and will be presenting the idea to parents at a Family Dinner during Week of the Young Child. This is a rural school with very little economic and cultural diversity so we know there will be a real benefit to the elementary students as they recognize the needs of the working poor. We also held Family workshops with dinner and child care this past week on Taking Back Childhood: Ideas of Alternatives to TV and had 24 parents attend. Parents were enthusiastic and seemed to really appreciate that we weren't blaming them or simply telling them to turn off the TV, but were relating to their struggles and trying to help. We know that this small change will not make the stresses of our 200 children and their families go away, but we hope that this is one way we can stand for our children in these tough times.
The University of Houston Child Care Center (UHCCC) is proud to share our ideas on the steps our program is taking to: start reversing the downturn one family at a time; assist each other; help families weather the storm; plus support small businesses in our community to start growing.
1) To begin with, UHCCC offers on-site enrichment classes for the children and diverse enhancement programs for the parent and child together. The benefits from this practice are multifaceted: By recruiting local small businesses such as: Tumble Tykes a traveling gymnastic school bus; Arts Alive a traveling dance and movement class; and Mundo Amigos Language Programs a traveling language instruction organization; we are able to offer invaluable support to small community operations.
2) Next, UHCCC offers on-site training for the Center's staff members. The benefits from this practice are:
3) Finally, UHCCC's parents created a Lunch Co-Op. The idea behind the co-op is that each parent only brings lunch once a week. The benefits for parents and children participating in this co-op are:
When we began to feel the "children are leaving because their parents are losing their jobs" effect last fall, we began weekly focused conference calls with all our program directors. We started these calls on Thursday 9/ll/08 (remember that date>) at 9:11 a.m. and have continued these "911 Calls" every subsequent Thursday @ 9:11 a.m. The focus of these calls is singular--what is your enrollment status this week? The call lasts approximately 15 minutes & includes cursury reports regarding the number of inquiries, the number of tours, the number of enrollment decisions since the last week's calls. Addiionally, the number of terminations for the week & rthe reason for terminiation is also reported. Not to simply collect data, the call ends on what has been done to actively drive more inquiries to our schools. Each director is charged with creating an "out of the box" idea. The result of this focused approach is 100% ownership for maintaining & growing enrollment. In fact, we REPLACED 57 children from Septembe 11 to December 31 and our occupancy actually increased 1.8% for the same period. Translated, we were able to slightly grow our enrollment in a time when children were leaving at record numbers because of "these economic times." We have continued these calls in 2009 with the same result--our enrollment remains stable in spite of continued withdrawals due to job layoffs. From our perspective, the focus and accountability generated by this focus has created a very positive enrollment & subsequent economic health for our company.
Our county Coalition is a group of volunteers made up of businessmen, teachers, counselors, social workers and interested citizens who meet monthly to keep each other informed and work together on community projects to support families in Canadian Co. I propose our coalition recruit volunteers from area non-profit agencies to partner with businesses to position older youth who are transitioning into the work force to obtain apprenticeship positions. This will allow youth free training and the business' free employees.
My Home Daycare caters to low income families. I accept vouchers and families involved with Social Services. I have always worked hard to make the parents feel welcome, and to assist them wherever I am able, with their family issues. When a family comes to me privately I always let them know what my rates are for childcare and then I ask them if the rates sound reasonable to them. If they are troubled by the amount I will try to work with them and be flexible. I have one family that has sent their child to me for 2 years, they pay a low fee and we barter the rest of the services, dad does landscaping! Another family works in retail and they drop of boxes of tissues and baby wipes all the time. Also, if I recognize that a family may qualify for voucher childcare I try to refer them to the state agencies. My program also offers breakfast, snack, lunch and a pm snack, so that the parents don't have the expense of sending lunch and snacks. I feel that if you can understand where each family is coming from socially and economically, it is much easier to work with the parents, and to fill all my childcare slots! If we can offer affordable childcare that is one less thing these families have to worry about every day.
Between our staff of 15 and our modest student body of 70, we have experienced 10 layoffs. Dads, moms, grandparents, spouses and children alike have all been touched by these difficult economic times. One of our teachers, who's husband lost his job in the Circuit City layoffs, requested that we expand our online community to help out employers and job seekers alike. So we did. We have a forum that serves mostly for classroom updates, announcements and monthly progress reports. With our heads together, we created the "Parent Network". This network provides a place for people in our community to put their resumes online, as well as for employers to post openings. There is a place for helpful links about recruitment seminars, articles pertaining to job searches. There are places to give suggestions and comments and a safe place to find referrals and hope. For those not currently looking for employment, there is a place to barter your services, lend a hand or suggest ideas for volunteer opportunities. This has strengthened the bond of the preschool parents. Happily, it has also opened up the school to the community and embraced what we can do for them as well as what they can do for us.
Our center is going through transfer of ownership. We are searching diligently to find avenues of revenue to enhance our program. Our program currently serves 24 children from all backgrounds. We were sponsored by a faith-based organization but they are in financial restraints also. The center has formed a Parent Group who will become the new owners in July. This will be a first for the area. Our dream is to offer free childcare on some weekends to assist our families in some "down time". The staff will volunteer their time and activities will consist of Pajama Night, Pizza Night, Movie Night. The only costs will be to supply the necessary items.
As individuals, families, and businesses struggle in these difficult economic times, our early childhood education program recognizes the unique position we play in the lives of the children and families we serve, as well as our role in the local community. Our center provides child care and education for up to 51 children of working parents, who rely on us to love, nurture, teach, tend to, and keep safe their precious infants, toddlers, and preschoolers while they earn a living. These dozens of parents and family members come from a variety of cultures and economic backgrounds, but all have been impacted in one way or another by the country's financial difficulties. Our center operates in a part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that links city and suburban neighborhoods with the heart of the business district and the region's major medical facilities. As such, we are in a setting that serves families who live and work in a number of different communities. Recognizing both the number of children and parents we serve as well as our location as advantages, we believe that establishing relationships with and between families and businesses throughout our area will benefit everyone involved. Our families need places to purchase affordable goods and services. Our local businesses need people to buy their goods and services. Connecting the two together does not need to be complicated. The parents share a common bond, as they are all raising and supporting young children. Even the busiest of parents is likely to want to help out a fellow mother or father.
Thus, something as simple as asking that parents share with us the places where they eat, shop, receive medical care, have fun, and so forth is a reasonable request. Providing the ideas along with flyers, coupons, business cards, and the like that the families and staff have brought in from area companies gives parents the opportunity to learn about places they can go to stretch their money. Many of the places suggested may be familiar ones, but, often, it is the small businesses that few know about which are the most budget-friendly. Company information can be provided to the parents on bulletin boards, in newsletters, or through emails. A spot can be designated at the center where the staff can supply information about financial and career resources for families, while parents can post flyers, leave business cards (their own or from local companies), and swap coupons. Every business, large and small, that a parent refers gains from the word-of-mouth advertising, which is often the best marketing tool. The center, itself, can also approach local businesses that have been referred by parents and/or have goods or services that would be valuable to our program. The resulting relationships can benefit both sides, as they may receive our business and referrals, while we may receive recommendations to our child care center, donations, or discounts. These, in turn, again benefit the children and families. It is beneficial for working parents to communicate with one another about resources that make caring for their kids a little easier and more affordable. It is beneficial for businesses when such relationships are formed, as an increase in customers will lead to an increase in profits, assisting both the families who got the products and services they needed, and the businesses that got the sales. Child care centers have a unique ability to bring the two together, as they have access to dozens or even hundreds of working parents and businesses and awareness of family and community needs.
Idea 1 - Our Infant/Toddler playground project was previously submitted. Idea 2 - We will offer a night out for our parents that will not only provide a little relief for our parents but will also boost business at our neighborhood restaurants. Our plan is to provide child care at our center, purchase or ask for gift certificates for dinners at our local E. 200th Street restaurants and present them to our parents. This will be our Kiddie City Date Night. Idea 3 - We will host "The E. 200th Street Stroll" May 30, 2009 from 10 am to 2 pm (the Saturday after Memorial Day)- This is an event (our third year) that invites the entire city and our Cleveland neighbors to stroll up and down our street to not only visit our great small and large businesses but we also invite neighborhood organizations (youth sports leagues, public library, community rec., etc. to have displays on the sidewalks, on the lawns, in the parking lots, of the businesses. We show off all the great things that Euclid, Ohio has to offer. and we "kick off" summer.
Exchange Stimulus Package Entry for The Tobin Family of Schools The Tobin School, The Tobin Children's School, The Westwood Children's School, Tobin Afterschool in Westwood, Natick and Needham. www.thetobinschool.org 3/20/09 Here at The Tobin Family of Schools, with an independent school, two accredited early childhood centers, and 3 afterschool locations in Natick, Needham and Westwood, Massachusetts, we were excited to learn of your Exchange Stimulus Package contest. Individually, and as a group, our organization has worked aggressively to find ways to support families, our local community and beyond during these difficult financial times. When we started brainstorming, we realized our list was quite long! Here are all the ways that we feel we have actively worked in this regard:
In addition to all of those activities above, we have made a very significant effort to go green- cutting our costs, our impact on the environment as a whole, as well as teaching the children in our care about the importance of these measures and how we can all play a part. We strive to provide children with the foundation for early recognition of the importance of taking care of our environment. Included in these efforts we do the following 'green' activities are our locations: Curriculum based on environmental awareness Require the use of non-disposable utensils for children's lunches Recycle materials throughout the school Various Community Service projects done throughout the school Use limited chemical cleaners Recycle soda cans Use fluorescent light fixtures Working to reduce paper usage Have significantly reduced our paper usage through a 'virtual backpack' where we use e-mail versus paper for newsletter distribution. Also reduced paper usage by moving to an EFT system for receivables which allows email of invoices and receipts.
Added a new online payroll service to eliminate excess paper in our payroll system, for sign in sheets, etc. Actively seek parent donations of recycled materials for art and craft projects With children's lunches, we encourage the use of re-usable containers versus plastic or paper bags Do food composting Encourage the use of thermal lunch bags, to reduce waste of plastic disposable bags Do organic planting with the children - small classroom gardens outside Use recyclable materials to make games and activities for children to use Go on "trash walks" throughout our playground and grounds to help keep our community clean and take care of our environment. Implement themes involving recycling, Mother Nature and Mother Earth Use non-disposable cups outside and on the playground in the warmer months for each child to use Use scrap paper, backs of already used paper and both sides of paper for children's writings and drawings. Recycle paper from the Xerox machine for shredding and sensory table use Collect donations of old scrap paper, stickers and envelopes from parents' companies no longer needed by them Older children complete a unit on Saving the Rainforest and also read 100 books to save 100 acres in the Rain Forest through the Scholastic Book Program Use newspapers to cover tables for art projects, to stuff art projects and for papier mache Hold a themed monthly collection drive for a local pantry Hold a yearly classroom drive during the holiday season and graph the results of our collections with the children Incorporate a theme on "Giving" in which children participate in and complete several projects for others Read 100 books through the Scholastic Book program in order to donate 100 books to a classroom of children in need and discuss Installed a new boiler, piped in new insulation and hardwired in new C02 detectors be more energy efficient and cut down on heating expenses. Have switched form using paper goods to plastic ware and installed new dishwasher to keep up with e demands of more dishes but less paper product waste. When building our new playgrounds, we chose to install a non-leaded Astroturf and the overall cost of the Astroturf and it's longevity will far outweigh the cots of needing to buy pre-treated mulch or pea stone annually. Switched many of our light bulbs over to energy efficient ones. Installed motion sensor sinks in our bathroom classrooms to cut down on water waste. Switched from using rolls of paper towels in the children's bathrooms to tri-fold paper towels that dispense only at a time to cut down on paper towel waste. Switched to using email and distribution lists to communicate with parents, therefore cutting down on paper waste and the use of our Xerox machine. Switched our weekly Poland Springs water delivery system to installing BRITA water filters on our faucets instead. For staff payroll, switched from a sign-in , paper format to doing it all online and going paperless with our checks to a universal Direct Deposit system for all staff. Switched from sending home our used Infant bottles in Ziploc bags to purchasing insulated reusable lunch totes for each child enrolled. ; Ordered enviro-sacs for each family and staff member to use when grocery shopping etc. ; Have recycling buckets in each classroom and a recycle center located outside the school which is emptied and brought to the town transfer station weekly. We were very excited to learn earlier this year that our Tobin Children's School location earned recognition as the first Eco-Friendly and EDGE (Early Development for Global Education) accredited school in the area due to our commitment to providing a healthy setting for children and families and a healthy community.
As Dennis Vicars stated in your recent article, "Times are Tough...and Opportunity Abounds!" We hope you think all of our actions are worthy of your time and consideration. We will continue to promote the best for the children and families in our community in what might be these difficult times ahead. Mary Beth Claus Tobin Founder, Executive Director and Head of School Nicole Willey Senior Director Robin Tamburrini Senior Director The Tobin Family of School 71 Cottage Street Natick, MA 01760 www.thetobinschool.org 508-655-5006
In order to start reversing the economic downturn and make change happen in our community, CentroNia will focus on the population of low-income, high-school aged youth interested in applying to college. CentroNia provides the local community with a multitude of services and programs including attentive and caring early childhood education services, before and after-school child care, management of DC Bilingual Public Charter School, tutoring in math and reading, youth development, a full arts enrichment initiative, professional development opportunities for adults, and resources for families. CentroNia now exists to serve an entire family, from infancy to adulthood, and to teach and improve the lives of children, youth, and parents within the community and beyond. At present, CentroNia is located throughout the region offering programs in eleven schools and three center-based facilities. Our programs reach more than 1,500 low income children and families annually. With a gift certificate of $1,000.00, CentroNia will create a college preparedness manual that contains financial aid information and essay-writing templates for college bound teens in our youth development program. By helping youth achieve their goals of applying to and enrolling in college, we will further their pursuit of higher education and financial self-sufficiency. CentroNia believes that positive social change starts with individuals, who then affect their local communities. Therefore, it is our belief that youth, who represent hope and change, must be properly educated, taught to make good decisions, and encouraged to take responsibility for their actions. By investing in our country's future, we will create more sustainable solutions to our current economic problems. Moreover, with communities full of educated and concerned citizens, we can recover from the devastating effects of the economic recession and make change happen one family and one neighborhood at a time.
ChildPro/BVS is a non-for profit organization that services children from birth to 5 with developmental delays. We provide speech and language, occupational and physical therapies as well as special education, social work and service coordination. We provide services in the children's homes, community sites, day cares, head start programs and preschools. We also have our own integrated (mainstreamed) preschool classrooms that collaborate with head starts, district universal pre-k programs and Monarch Little Learners Academy; a child care center that services children 6 weeks to school age. An agency that also services children for early intervention in our county is closing it's doors. To ensure that the staff there as well as the families that they service did not lose employment or services we contacted the managers at the other agency to say that ChildPro/BVS would happily hire the staff and take over the cases to avoid lapses in services. We have successfully transferred several children and have employed staff. Although there were additional administrative and managerial hours necessary to ensure a timely and smooth transition of the cases and staff; ChildPro/BVS feels that the time spent and the effort exhausted was worth not letting the children lose service and the professionals lose employment in these hard economic times.
My name is Amber Cartwright; I am the Program Director of Early Childhood Programs for Bronx House, a small community center in the Morris Park area of the Bronx, NY. During the last staff meeting, I added the Child Care Exchange "request for ideas" on the agenda. One of the teachers suggested a barter program. Teachers who currently have student loans or will incur loans can volunteer their time to work with children (individually or in small groups) during non school hours in exchange for financial assistance with their student loans. The Bronx House early childhood programs include three components: Universal Pre-K, Toddler Summer Fun Camp, and Toddler Center classes which are "mommy and me" programs. The largest component in the department is Universal Pre-Kindergarten. We currently serve 293 children. We have two sites and a total of 9 classrooms. All of the classrooms except two provide 2.5 hour session, which essentially means only 36 children, receive full day service. Two and a half hours a week totals ten hours and forty hours a month. Many of the UPK teachers earn less than NYC public school teachers, and FASA's loan forgiveness does not apply because our centers are not public school. A number of the teachers would like to go back to school but financially are unable and although loans are an option, many do not want more debt. Give Back Loan Program Mission The mission is two-fold. T he first to provide addition pre-academic assistance for 4 year old children secondly, enable teacher to work off their student loan. Program Design Any early childhood center can arrange 10-20 hours a week for individual children or a group of students to meet and work with a teacher who has agreed to volunteer their time. In exchange for the "give back" time teachers will collect hours which will be calculated into a dollar amount to be applied to their student loan. The cost of Give Back The cost would include primarily supplies and facilities needs. Who is eligible to participate in Give Back? Program director, security guard, and maintenance staff, all staff who assist with the program. Outcome/Evaluation Children and their families can draft goals together which should be submitted to the program director in the beginning of the program. The teachers are expected to hand-in weekly progress reports that are sent home. Teachers are also responsible for submitting a weekly time sheet.
IDEA #1: The Respite Center is a 24-hour child care center that provides crisis and emergency care for families with children birth through fourteen. By giving parents a break from the difficult job of parenting, we help them get back on their feet, especially now in these times of even greater stress. As job losses mount, consumer prices rise and household budgets tighten, many more families are in crisis. Parents become angry and frightened, and children feel the impact. Some parents withdraw from their children as they cope with financial worries; others take their frustrations out on their kids or each other. While stress is common within families, the current level of stress reaches beyond the limit, resulting in the entire family becoming unglued. In the face of current financial pressures, stress can lead to a rising level of child and domestic abuse. We create a "stimulus package" every day by providing a listening ear which helps parents cope. We provide a warm nurturing place for children which helps build their resiliency. An oasis from the storm, like the Respite Center, becomes an even brighter beacon of hope when times are tough. Due to these tough times, we are now starting to offer more scheduled time to families who are looking for work, to "go the extra mile" for parents who need us to stabilize their work situation. IDEA #2: Our own staff are having to cope with stress during these times. One staff member's husband lost his job right before Christmas. Another staff's husband is at risk. We are meeting to discuss ways we can provide additional support to these staff during these difficult times including exploring the addition of an Employee Assistance Program which we currently do not offer. IDEA #3: We are looking at trying to acquire donations for cab fare, bus fare or gas cards for families who may be strapped financially or transportation barriers. We have had success for this in the past and want to grow this aspect of our program due to the economic circumstances parents are facing.
Monarch Little Learners Academy is a NAEYC accredited child care center servicing children six weeks to twelves years old. Our program provides academically enriched quality child care starting with infancy, offers preschool education, services children with special needs, provides before and after care for school-age students and accommodates child care at a "moment's notice" for holidays, recess and snow days. Our package proposal focuses on the circumstantial needs of individuals and the families we service that may be struggling to maintain as much consistancy as they can in these difficult times. As a business we certainly have policies in place and procedures that build the framework. However, "special arrangements" can be made and developed on an individual basis based on environmental factors; the economy and it's effects being one. Our center is located in a low-income area, with approximately 70% of the residents qualifying under "free or reduced" meal eligibility, nearly 46% minorities and many families struggling to keep employment while ensuring that their children are well cared for and educated for a better future. Monarch Little Learners Academy has strived to provide proper nutrition, care and education; we were named "Center of the Year" in 2007 by the Child Care Resource Network, participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and do not limit the number of families that apply and utilize daycare subsidy within our center. We believe that every child deserves quality child care. Even with subsidy, we are providing this "package" by developing an individual "as needed" level of entry and continued registration with our program. For instance; typcially our registration is $40 (of which has not been increased at all since the opening of our program 5 years ago). The county does not include this fee in the approved subsidy. One way to support the family so that their child/children may enroll in the program is to work with them on the fee. $40 can be spread out over a period of time, with no penalty or chance of not being eligible to enroll. We will often encourage/allow the family to simply pay $5 per week instead of the flat one-time fee, for instance. Under that same concept of "as needed" level of "special arrangements", if a family is having circumstantial difficulty (i.e. loss of job, illness in family, etc.) we have provided temporary discounts, tuition credits, held benefit collections/raffles in their benefit, etc. Our theory is that we will communicate with the families to determine just how we can reach them and assist them to ensure that the quality of care doesn't get disrupted for their child/children due to circumstances as such. We believe in offering our time by getting adminstrators to take the lead in organizing a special event or "package" that will ulitmately help the family and child in need. Our administrators will hold the individual family as a priority in the business, at times setting aside other things in order to help in any way possible. Again, we have our framework of financial policies; but when it comes to the struggles that will otherwise effect a child's care and education, we want to provide for consistancy. The goal is to keep the child in the program without disruption. A package may be as simple as developing a plan of action, determining reasonable credits/discounts, giving time and balancing costs with what may help one family at a time. We say "it's okay to be "flexible", for that may be all a family needs to get back on their feet.
My mother is a pre-school teacher and is heavily involved within the community as the vise president of the Community Association of Pakistani Americans Ohio Chapter (CAPA-OH). She has told me about many of the different students she has come across in her classroom as well as current ones that have dealt with unfortunate circumstances. (ex. foreign refugees, loss of a parent, divorces etc.) I was then discussing with my mother that since she is the vise president of an organization whom of which it's members highly consist of people in the medical profession; she should get in contact with some of them, in particular a child psychologist, that could help educate the children that are in situations like this or have friends that are going to similar rough time. Also there could be another session held for teachers and parents on how to help a child cope with the situation they are going through. This could be an informational session held once a month over a given period of time that would allow question and answer portions as well. I believe this would have a profound effect on helping both child and parent dealing with the many problems that our society is facing in this day and age.
Home | Educating Online in ECE | Login | Contact Us/Report a Problem
© 2010 Exchange Press - All Rights Reserved
