United Way Logo
Search
Search
Menu
Newsletter
Keep Me Informed! Sign up for updates from United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley.
Join Our Mailing List
Events
News
Donate
Search for:
See The Impact
Education
Food Access
Healthy Aging
Emergency Services
Results
United Way Partners
Take Action
Give
Advocate
Volunteer
Racial Justice and Equity
COVID-19
Find Resources
Resource Center
For Individuals
For Corporations
For Campaign Coordinators
For Nonprofits
For Community Schools
Media Center
Learn About United Way
100th Anniversary
What We Do
Why We Do It
How We Do It
Who We Are
Financial Reports and Policies
Investments
Search for:
News
Home
|
News
|
October 2020
|
Build a Stronger Community by Investing in Early Learning
Build a Stronger Community by Investing in Early Learning
Published: October 28, 2020
Every morning in downtown Allentown, two long-time staff members stand at the driveway door to The Children’s Center on Union Street, waiting for children and their grownups to arrive.
Temperatures are taken, symptoms observed, health and travel discussed with families, and then the children enter into our care. Families must miss the long walk up the stairs and seeing their child’s classrooms but know this is best for now.
At The Children’s Center, we’ve learned and followed all of the new ways to keep our children, families and teachers as safe as possible. Now we are asking people in our community to stop and think about the early care and education system as part of a bigger economic picture.
The Children’s Center, usually just known as “VOA”, for our parent agency Volunteers of America of Pennsylvania, has been caring for children and families on Union Street in downtown Allentown for generations. One of the things about our program that makes us proud is having people who grew up with us return with their own children.
When I first came to The Children’s Center in 1978, the families of the children we cared for were working in garment factories or textile mills, with a lucky few employed at the Mack Truck factory or Bethlehem Steel. I’d drive home on Tenth Street in Allentown, passing a small sewing business that had industrial machines visible through the windows, and small children playing outside on the sidewalk while their mothers assembled pieces of clothing inside. Some of our families at The Center would come to pick up their children at the end of the day, and we’d see bundles of fabric in the back seats of their cars; piece-rate work meant that sometimes they would sew at night at home.
Now our families are working in the many health-related fields available in the Valley, in warehouses or front-line service jobs. Some are community college students working for degrees that will provide a better life for their children. As their needs have changed, what we do has changed; as of September, more than two dozen children arrive at The Children’s Center every morning with their computers or tablets, headphones, whiteboards and workbooks tucked into their backpacks to have virtual school in our Center. It has been a huge but important challenge to meet.
As the United States and the Lehigh Valley both move closer to a consequential election, perhaps this may be a rare opportunity to put children’s and families’ needs in the front and center of community discussion.
Do we want to return to exactly the way everything was before, or have we been given an opportunity to reflect, reconsider, and rebuild in ways that support children and families, and help to heal the damage of poverty and social injustice? And how will our providers of early education and care survive so that we can be there when families continue to return to their work?
We know that in Pennsylvania, almost 70% of families include two working parents. With a lack of high-quality, affordable childcare, they have to choose between earning income and their children's wellbeing.
Almost half of the child care and early learning programs in Pennsylvania have indicated that they are at risk of permanently closing in the next few months. Dozens of programs in our own community are endangered, including many that have survived previous financial challenges. In the best of times, child care centers large and small operate on very thin financial margins, even if they are technically “for profit” programs. Reductions in enrollment and other changes needed to keep all of us safe have increased costs, cut hours and threatened survival.
Since the onset of the pandemic in March, there has been more attention given to the child care and early learning system than at any other time I can remember. There has been temporary financial support through the CARES Act, and presidential candidates’ plans that acknowledge the importance of the first five years of children’s lives and the benefits of early learning for children and communities. But additional public investment is needed. In Pennsylvania, Start Strong PA is advocating that child care providers get the financial support they need to provide high-quality care and make sure access for children increases rather than decreases. Now more than ever, they need the support and voices of community members to help lift them.
Child care programs are a foundation – the infrastructure, if you will – that will help support an economic recovery when it’s possible for the community to move forward. Investing in early learning will help children be more successful in school, and become productive members of a stronger community. Academic studies tell us the financial benefits of this investment; our hearts know the benefits of curiosity, healthy meals, outdoor play, and strong relationships among children, families and teachers.
Without a supported child care system in place, economic recovery will be impossible.
Children can’t vote, so it’s our job as their grown-ups to help them grow and learn and to keep them safe. We all need to be their voice at this important time of challenge and change. Let your vote speak for all children and help build a stronger community for all of us.
Betty Druckenmiller is the Director of The Children’s Center, Volunteers of America, located in Allentown. The Children’s Center is a partner agency of United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, and provides the highest quality early learning and care to a diverse center city community of families facing economic and other challenges.
For more information on how to support and take action, visit
Pre-K for PA
.
Comments
Blog post currently doesn't have any comments.
Post archive
February 2023(
1
)
January 2023(
4
)
December 2022(
7
)
November 2022(
4
)
October 2022(
7
)
September 2022(
6
)
August 2022(
5
)
July 2022(
6
)
June 2022(
9
)
May 2022(
3
)
April 2022(
3
)
March 2022(
9
)
February 2022(
2
)
January 2022(
5
)
December 2021(
9
)
November 2021(
7
)
October 2021(
4
)
September 2021(
6
)
August 2021(
5
)
July 2021(
9
)
June 2021(
7
)
May 2021(
2
)
April 2021(
9
)
March 2021(
7
)
February 2021(
3
)
January 2021(
4
)
December 2020(
5
)
November 2020(
6
)
October 2020(
6
)
September 2020(
5
)
August 2020(
7
)
July 2020(
6
)
June 2020(
5
)
May 2020(
3
)
April 2020(
2
)
March 2020(
3
)
February 2020(
3
)
January 2020(
3
)
December 2019(
6
)
November 2019(
11
)
October 2019(
3
)
September 2019(
7
)
August 2019(
9
)
July 2019(
1
)
June 2019(
2
)
May 2019(
8
)
April 2019(
5
)
March 2019(
4
)
February 2019(
7
)
January 2019(
4
)
December 2018(
2
)
November 2018(
3
)
October 2018(
3
)
September 2018(
10
)
August 2018(
5
)
July 2018(
3
)
June 2018(
10
)
May 2018(
4
)
April 2018(
5
)
March 2018(
10
)
February 2018(
3
)
January 2018(
4
)
December 2017(
5
)
November 2017(
3
)
October 2017(
3
)
September 2017(
2
)
August 2017(
5
)
July 2017 (
4
)
June 2017(
3
)
May 2017(
9
)
April 2017(
4
)
March 2017(
8
)
February 2017(
12
)
January 2017(
8
)
December 2016(
11
)
November 2016 (
19
)
October 2016(
15
)
September 2016 (
5
)
August 2016(
5
)
July 2016(
6
)
June 2016(
9
)
May 2016 (
6
)
April 2016(
7
)
March 2016(
9
)
February 2016(
12
)
January 2016(
3
)
December 2015(
9
)
November 2015(
11
)
October 2015(
3
)
September 2015(
4
)
August 2015 (
1
)
July 2015 (
1
)
June 2015(
4
)
May 2015(
5
)
April 2015 (
2
)
March 2015(
5
)
February 2015(
6
)
January 2015(
2
)
December 2014(
5
)
November 2014(
4
)
October 2014(
4
)
September 2014(
8
)
August 2014(
9
)
July 2014(
3
)
June 2014(
4
)
May 2014(
5
)
April 2014(
4
)
March 2014(
7
)
February 2014(
5
)
January 2014(
4
)
Share this Article
Tweet
Show me how my $$ Makes A Difference
Please insert a dollar amount below
$
could help United Way provide:
Make a donation today