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wellingford family YMCA
The Hechinger Report
Early Childhood: Nonprofits help with “impossible choices”
By Jackie Mader
When schools in northern California shut down in mid-March due to the
coronavirus, Casino Fajardo and his wife did their best to balance
watching their children while working full-time. For several months,
they switched off supervising their children, 5 and 9, while taking
back-to-back video calls and responding to in-person work
responsibilities, which were at times required for Fajardo in his role
as construction director for a local school district. Both often stayed
up until midnight or later to catch up on work.
It was impossible to provide much attention to their kids. “Honestly,
other than turning around to make sure they’re not breaking something
or making sure they have a snack, it’s difficult for us to really be
engaged with them,” Fajardo said. They knew they needed help,
especially with more distance learning looming as the school year began.
But they had few options. Their children’s grandparents are elderly and
more at risk of contracting coronavirus. Joining a “pod” with several
families would be complicated and expensive; some parents are spending
upwards of $1,000 a month per child to do so this year. Instead, the
Fajardo’s turned to their local YMCA for help. Their children began
attending a local center for daily care that evolved into distance
learning support when school started in August.
At the Y, their children receive meals, time to play outside and
extension activities, like science class, all at a cost that is
subsidized for many families and free to others, depending on the
location of the center and each family’s income.
The continuation of distance learning has put millions of families in
an untenable position: in 2019, 76 percent of mothers and 92 percent of
fathers whose youngest child was between the age of 6 and 17 were
employed. Affluent parents have turned to pricey options such as pods,
tutoring centers or karate and dance studios that have transformed to
offer distance learning supervision (some advertise prices that run
upwards of $14,000 each semester). But a few organizations, including
the YMCA, have stepped up to provide crucial, free or affordable child
care assistance.
Urban Promise, a nonprofit that runs a summer camp, afterschool program
and mentorship program for children and teenagers in Charlotte, North
Carolina, is one of them. This school year, the organization has
pivoted to all-day care and distance learning support for more than 200
children who live in low-income neighborhoods in the city.
“Normally, it’s only in the afterschool hours [when parents decide],
‘Do I go to work to earn money for my family and leave my kids at home
alone … or do I forego work during those hours and be present with my
children but forego making a salary to support my children?’” said
Jimmy McQuilkin, executive director of Urban Promise. “Now instead of
making that decision three hours a day, they’re making that decision
the entire day.”
McQuilkin said Urban Promise hopes to solve “the impossible choice”
parents are facing. This school year, the nonprofit will host small
groups of students at several churches around the city supervised by
classroom facilitators at no cost for parents. Children will receive
breakfast and lunch each day and enrichment activities like art in the
afternoon.
As these organizations step up to provide child care and supervision,
there are still immense challenges. The YMCA typically relies on
college students to staff its afterschool program, but those students
aren’t necessarily available during the day. And Urban Promise will
spend more than $200,000 this year for 30 to 35 new staff members who
will supervise small groups of students, on top of its regular program
expenses. Organizations also have to account for added costs for
cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment for employees.
Program officials say they’re determined to overcome these challenges.
“The reality we know now is children in low-income families fell
further behind in the spring and I think that was accentuated with the
normal summer learning loss,” McQuilkin said. “There is academic
urgency of making sure this is a school year when students don’t fall
further behind.”
For Fajardo, having affordable child care has boosted the academic
success of his children. It’s also helped everyone’s mental health. He
and his wife have been able to work full time once again during the day
and his children have received more attention and support with their
schoolwork than they would have received at home. “I don’t know what we
would do without the YMCA being available,” Fajardo said. “It’s reduced
our stress tremendously.”
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