This article originally appeared in the January-February 2003 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Ask the Advocate

Creating faith-based child care

By Marissa Brownell

Q. How can our church help meet the need for quality, affordable child care?

A: Many communities have a huge unmet need for quality, affordable child care, and a religious congregation-a church, temple, or mosque-has key resources: a group of caring people and a building with empty space. Creating a child care center was "just another way to use our facility," says Terry Hitch, the former director of First Steps Early Childhood Education Center in Fresno First Baptist Church. With the church contributing space, a child care center can charge lower fees and still provide quality care.

In addition, some religious organizations provide more resources. The California Council of Churches' Faith-Based Child Care Capacity Project does intensive outreach in a few counties but is available to give any congregation information and advice on starting child care centers and improving child care quality. The Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) in Los Angeles provides information and start-up grants to local child care projects.

People with experience in developing faith-based child care programs advise interested congregation members to follow these steps:

• Discuss the idea with the leader of your congregation. Often he or she receives information from faith-based organizations that offer advice, support, and sometimes financial resources for child care.
  
  
• Organize a child care working group. The group can contact the local child care resource and referral agency (R&R) to find data on the community need for child care and think through issues for the congregation: What is our goal in creating child care? How would a child care center affect our congregation and the community?
  
  
• Meet with the congregation's governing body. Dr. Leila Al-Marayati, a member of the Muslim Women's League, says a key step for groups starting child care centers is to go to the board of the mosque for authorization and support.
  
  
• Attend local meetings of the state Community Care Licensing Division. Armine Lalaian-Sanjar, improvement director of after-school programs for Los Angeles Catholic Charities, says the meetings provide valuable information on equipment, meals, staffing, facilities, and other topics.
  
  
• Hire a director-or find an existing child care program as a partner. Two-thirds of faith-based child care programs are run by a partner such as Head Start or the YMCA, says Virginia Greenwald, who works on child care issues for the California Council of Churches.
  
  
• Tackle the issue of funding. Your congregation may be able to get donations to cover some costs. Sometimes funds are available from a religious organization-when Batsheva Spector set up a child care center with the Jewish Iranian Community Temple Committee, BJE provided start-up funds. Most faith-based centers are supported by parent fees, says Greenwald, but her organization is encouraging congregations to contact R&Rs to help low-income families apply for state child care subsidies.
  
  
• Communicate and work with the congregation. "A successful partnership takes cooperation, support, and compromising," says Lalaian-Sanjar. Respect the needs of others using the building. Keep congregation members informed-some may know families looking for child care, others may be interested in volunteering to help.

Resources

• Bureau of Jewish Education of Los Angeles, 323-761-8605, www.bjela.org
• California Council of Churches, 707-669-1502, www.calchurches.org/projects4.html (This web site offers a downloadable resource guide on faith-based child care at www.calchurches.org/publication_pdfs/CCBooklet.pdf)
• Catholic Charities, 916-313-4005

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