City of Seattle to Offer Child Care for 550 Children at 19 Sites
Registration is open for City child care and scholarships are available to those who qualify (up to 90 percent of the monthly rate could be covered for families). Omari caught up with Lori Chisholm Out of School Time Manager at Seattle Parks and Rec to learn more.
TRANSCRIPT:
Omari Salisbury
All right here with Laurie Chisholm, the Out of School Time Manager for the Seattle parks department. How are you today?
Lori Chisholm
I am doing great. How are you today?
Omari Salisbury
I'm good, I'm good. You know, over here Converge, we always like to follow up on stuff that we see, especially things that might be impactful for our community members. And I saw this a while ago, City of Seattle to offer childcare for 550 children and 19 sites throughout Seattle, also, and it has mentioned in there about some teen hubs, and everything else, I thought, this is a good opportunity to follow back up with the city and with the Parks Department and see what's going on. And maybe you can give us a little bit more information about this program.
Lori Chisholm
Absolutely, we appreciate the opportunity, we recognize that these are really, really challenging times for the community and for families and with learning being virtual with Seattle Public Schools and most other school districts, we know the extra lift that families have to do to help support their kids learning as well as their social emotional health. And so we opened up our child care programs that are focused on helping children that are elementary age five to 12. And in those programs were really focused on trying to reach students that are furthest from educational justice, recognizing that these times are disproportionately affecting our communities of color. And we have space available, we're providing support for the virtual learning that kids are participating in, we have scholarships available, we can provide up to a 90% scholarship, which is about $169 a month per child. And we're operating 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. And we'll also work with any family because we don't want the program fee to be a barrier for them to access the childcare resources we have.
Omari Salisbury
What would the average day for a child consist of?
Lori Chisholm
Yeah, in the childcare programs, kids arrive, typically around 8am. And we will provide breakfast. And then we are map out kids online learning schedules and work with the kids to make sure that they're logging in and engaging in their virtual learning opportunities. And when there's breaks in between, we're providing recreation opportunities, physical activity, some just opportunities to move and engage with their peers. But we're doing all that following all of the public health protocols and safety procedures to ensure that both staff and kids stay safe.
Omari Salisbury
So if I'm hearing you correctly, if I'm a parent, I have to work might not have the resources for traditional childcare pretty expensive these days. You guys are offering a program where I could drop my child off. And basically, my child could go to school, do their school program, whatever it is, they're online, and then after work, I'll come and pick my child up.
Lori Chisholm
Exactly. And we'll feed them breakfast, lunch, and afternoon meal, provide them recreation, get kids moving, because kids have a lot of screen time right now that's really hard on kids to and really provide some support for families that that have to get up every day and go out into the workforce to keep their families going.
Omari Salisbury
Right. And can you tell me a little bit more about these virtual learning hubs what maybe you can give a bit more description?
Lori Chisholm
Sure. So our virtual learning hubs are focused on middle school and high school students. And that's really providing a place for students to go and be able to connect. We have Wi Fi in both our childcare and teen and virtual learning hubs. We have staff there that can provide support and encouragement, why they're engaging in their virtual learning. And they also will provide meals and will provide mentoring, recreation opportunities. And what we find so important right now, whether kids are in elementary school or all the way up to high schoolers, the social emotional impact forum is pretty significant. And I remember what I I was a teenager, my friends and my social time was so important. And we really want to provide a safe place for kids to make those connections.
Omari Salisbury
What other information do you want the general public to know about these programs?
Lori Chisholm
I think the most important thing is we're here. We want to serve and support your family and your children. And we will work with you to make it work for you. And we just need to hear from you. We know a lot of families still don't know what the resources are, and are really struggling. We're in month two of virtual learning. And I know everyone that has school aged kids is working hard to make sure their kids are learning and we want to be there to help support families through that in our programs.
Omari Salisbury
Okay. And lastly, how can people find out more about this program or reach you or reach somebody over there?
Lori Chisholm
Excellent. Yeah. Going to www.seattle.gov/parks. There's information on both our teen hub Virtual Learning sites, as well as our childcare programs. And people can also reach out to me directly I really want to help families and be able to answer any specific questions that they may have. So you can reach me at Laurie.Chisholm@seattle.gov.
Omari Salisbury
All right. Laurie Chisholm, Seattle parks department. Thank you so much for taking the time.
