Our community needs:

Affordable, quality childcare;

Increased capacity for childcare, especially for infants;

Education for young parents to give support of child development and parenting skills; and

Services for young working families with limited support systems.

The Need

Families face difficulties in finding affordable child care, particularly in a multicultural setting. The result is a patchwork of care arrangements, few of which contribute to the best development of the children. Some children are in the care of an older child, who should be in school. Others stay in homes where as many as 20 youngsters are under the care of a single adult or older child, often tended by a television set, making it nearly impossible to meet their most basic needs.

Early childhood experts often note that the children of lower socioeconomic-status families have a significant disadvantage in school because of their lack of vocabulary and pre-reading language skills. The time from "crib to kindergarten" is the most important period in developing these skills and has the greatest impact on their ability to be successful in the early school years, when the basic love of learning is established.

Some families are facing a multitude of problems that impact negatively on their children. Many have incomes below the poverty level-- earning $7,400 to $24,000 per year-- but this is often above the income restrictions for Headstart, making access to good child care services impossible, if indeed they are available. Surveys indicate that local child care facilities are full and have waiting lists, and even the best ones don't have bilingual staff or culturally sensitive programming.