6.5 - Other Options

Lettecia was breaking up with her boyfriend, and with two children between them she was worried about staying afloat as a single mom. Her son Alex was about a year old, and her son Mason was two. Lettecia was worried about paying for childcare, working, and also going back to school so she could change to a more lucrative career. She clearly remembers the moment she found out about a nonprofit subsidized childcare center available in her town.

She was working in an H & R Block office with the standard green accent walls and crisp setting. It was a rainy winter day; there was just enough of a chill in the air to combine with the rain in a way that sent the cold under doors, through windowpanes, and directly to the bones. The office was slow that day because it was the beginning of January and people weren’t rushing in to file their taxes.

One woman did walk through the door that day, though. It was a client with an unscheduled appointment, and Lettecia walked up and introduced herself. Then they both went back to Lettecia’s desk to look at the client’s tax documents, “She pulled out her tax documents and W-2 form, and I asked her if she had childcare for her kids because that’s a credit.”

It was this simple routine question that opened a door of opportunity for Lettecia. She and the client started talking about children and it turned out the woman worked for Hope-Link, a nonprofit organization that serves homeless and low-income families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. The client suggested that the newly single mother of two look into a childcare program they provided just a few miles from Lettecia’s office.

“She definitely was like an angel in disguise for me,” recalls Lettecia.

At the time, Lettecia was mainly working nights part-time. Because of her break-up, Lettecia knew she was going to have to work full-time in order to support herself and her kids. What she didn’t know was how she was going to afford the childcare, and where to find high-quality care on her budget.

That’s where the Hope-Link Adelle Maxwell Child Development Center came to the rescue. The Center serves about eighty homeless or low-income children, from infants to eight-yearolds, and charges qualifying low-income families on a sliding scale based on their wages. Funded through a combination of sources including public and private foundations, United Way, government support, and by donations from individuals, organizations and corporations in the community, Hope-Link provides small class sizes with individual learning plans for students. They also provide before- and after-school care, hot meals, onsite medical and mental healthcare, parent education, and a nutrition program. Needless to say, there’s often a waiting list for space in this childcare center.

After hearing about the center, Lettecia went in and filled out an application for each of her two sons. “They were really sweet and smart,” she recalls of the staff. The in-house childcare advocate helped her apply for a subsidy program though the state. The cost without subsidies was about $1,100 per month, roughly Lettecia’s monthly take-home pay. She remarks, “That’s pretty much what I was making after taxes.” So when Lettecia applied and qualified for a subsidy she ended up only having to pay $350 per month out of pocket.

“It was incredible. It was like, ‘Wow, we can eat!’ ” She notes, “I probably wouldn’t have been able to work and would have gone on welfare if not for the subsidies. I just don’t know. I hate to think of what would have happened . . .”

Her son Mason started first at the childcare center, while Alex stayed on the waiting list for a while and then started too. Not surprisingly, Lettecia’s children are thriving in the preschool. Her son, Mason, at age four is now an avid early reader. At a recent dentist appointment he surprised his mother by reading, “I like to brush my teeth” from a poster in the dental office. The preschool creates an individual curriculum for Mason to keep up with his speedy learning. And Lettecia also feels supported. “They make an effort to help me because they know it’s difficult to combine work, going back to school, and being a mom.”

This is a prime example of a childcare center that’s truly supporting families—a worthy goal for all families. Without the public and private partnerships, extensive funding network, and sliding scale subsidized care, this center with its excellent academic and community programs simply wouldn’t exist. Frankly, it doesn’t exist for most parents.