Fifteen minority-owned, home-based childcare centers in Akron are receiving grants, according to city officials. The funding is a step toward Akron Mayor Shammas Malik’s goal of universal preschool.
Malik ran on creating a path to universal preschool in the city, stating that the earlier a child starts to learn, the better their educational outcomes are.
The nonprofit Early Childhood Research Center is distributing $199,990 in grant money from The National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Fund for Our Economic Future and the GAR Foundation, and Akron is providing mini grants for childcare centers, according to city officials.
"We wanted to also make a small investment into some of the things that they could do for quality improvement, so it could be equipment or curriculum or maybe professional development," Akron’s Education and Health Strategist Richelle Wardell said. "Anything that would help them to improve or maintain their quality ratings through the Ohio Step Up to Quality system."
One of the recipients is Jo White, owner of Circle of Life Child Enrichment Center. The money will help upgrade her backyard, she said.
"Just making my backyard, the playground space for the children, more robust," she said, "so right now, I have activities back there and climbing and everything.”
Currently, White has capacity for six children, but she's working to expand to 12, which she said the grant money will also help with.
“I’m having to purchase more materials in general," she said, "because I’m going to have more children.”
These grants move toward the goal of universal preschool by helping often overlooked childcare options – like home-based facilities, Wardell said.
“We want to make sure as a community we’re lifting them up as much as we are the large centers," she said.
Investing in existing providers will help the city build a robust childcare center network, Wardell said.
"One of the main things about a successful program that we see through research and best practices is that it is a mixed delivery system, meaning it is not just one type of provider that is part of a universal system," she said.
White is appreciative of the city's support for her business and early childhood centers across the city, she said.
"You don't have to sell to them the importance and the criticalness of investing in children when they're young," she said.
Support in the early childhood years is crucial to setting kids up for success, White said.
"When we invest in our children on the front end, then we're not having to maybe in most situations after they're properly invested in on the front end, then we're not having to do interventions so much," she said. "Or we're not having to do so much as far as bringing them back when we've invested in them the whole time."
The city will be hosting focus groups with families this spring to learn more about early childhood education in the city, Wardell said.
"To talk about their hopes and dreams for childcare, the barriers for getting them in and what they would really like to see to help support their families from a universal system," she said.
