Mennonite Central Committee News Service
(5)
February 16, 1973
ATLANTA VOLUNTEERS HELP DEVELOP DAY CARE CENTER
Akron, PA--Mennonite Central Committtee
(MCC) volunteers in Atlanta, GA, helped make a day care center
in the city a reality. The center, located in an area of Atlanta
known as the Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development
(BOND) community, opened its doors at the beginning of February,
1973.
The BOND Community is a mixture of
socioeconomic, racial and cultural groups which are working
together to improve community services in their neighborhoods.
Two years ago a task force made up of leaders from the BOND Community,
Vernon King, NEC Atlanta director, and Starlyn Gipson, MCC volunteer
from Wichita, KS, were given the responsibility to develop a
proposal for day care services for families unable to afford
private, fee charging centers.
The need for day care services in
the BOND community is acute. Because day care facilities are
scarce, parents are forced to use school age children to take
care of younger siblings, to bypass job opportunities or to provide
no supervision whatsoever for their cktldren.
As highest priority, the day care
task force chose to establish a center for 50 children in the
lnman Park Elementary School, which had been in disuse for a
year. The Board of Education agreed to rent the building to the
task force for $1.00 a month.
The next step was to find a way to
fund the program. The group wrote a proposal for Title IV-A money,
an arrangement in which the Federal Government provides three
fourths of needed funds if the local community raises one fourth
of the funds.
"With the help of Governor Carter
of Georgia, Mennonite Central Committee and several private sources
we were able to raise $24,000 for our quarter share," said
Star Gipson, who serves as director of the day care center. "By
August we had hired a staff and were awaiting the final signatures
on the contract when word came that Title IV-A money had been
frozen. Finally in December after much hassle and unrelenting
pestering, we were notified that our program would be funded
after all."
Two features of the day care center
will hopefully increase its contribution to the community. One
third of the board of directors consist of the low-income parents
who will most directly benefit from the program; self-improvement
and responsibility are emphasized. Also, because the school,
building is available, there are opportunities for developing
a community center or community health services along with the
day care program.
MCC volunteers put days of labor into
getting the day care facility ready. "There was no school
one week when we had an ice storm. Five MCCers and myself spent
the whole week working on the Center," Vernon King said.
Staff meetings for the center began
January 15. Fifty children, ages 3-5, are expected at the Center
by the end of February. Personnel from the local community are
hired to help teach. Star will contribute her salary to the Atlanta
service unit to help support nonsalaried MCC volunteers in other
projects.
"The questions we have to face
now are how long to remain under federal funding and guidelines,"
explained Star. '"The guidelines require us to serve only
children of one parent families and that percent must be working
and on welfare, looking for a Job or in training. Most people
on the day care board of directors feel this is economic segregation
and not what we want as an ultimate goal.
"We also want to coordinate child
care in the community, so we can share resources and overlap
services only when necessary. In the future the center will be
long into possibilities of adding infants and after school care.
We have also talked about using the center as a learning laboratory
and lending library fgr helping people set up home day care centers.
There are .an infinite number of exciting possibilities."
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gk16february1973