With only about 33 percent of the child-care centers back up and running in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, the United Way is at the forefront of helping rebuild child-care facilities that will prepare young children to succeed in school.
The organization's Women's Leadership Council and its Success by Six program, along with the Child Care Rebuild Collaborative, were instrumental in helping establish a statewide quality rating system for child-care facilities. The group also successfully lobbied the state Legislature for a school-readiness tax credit that benefits workers, parents and businesses that support child-care centers.
To continue its efforts to rebuild and improve the child-care system, partner agencies depend on United Way financing. To raise money for such projects, the organization is conducting its annual fundraising campaign. The goal is to raise $20.4 million by the end of March, with $16.4 million donated locally and $4 million nationally.
So far, the Success by Six initiative has re-established three New Orleans child-care centers wiped out during the storm. These facilities -- Happy Kids Preschool and Gilda's Preschool Academy in eastern New Orleans and Royal Castle Child Development Center in the Carrollton/Hollygrove area -- had been part of a pre-Katrina pilot program to help them get accredited with the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
The process for accreditation is still under way.
Todd Battiste, director of Success by Six, said the cost of re-establishing the three centers was about $400,000, which came from grants from the United Way and local foundations, he said.
Flo Schornstein, chairwoman of the Women's Leadership Council, said child-care facilities are critical to the rebuilding of the region. The $650 million child-care industry also is important to the state's economic recovery because of the jobs and taxes it provides.
She said families with young children who want to return need three things: a house, a job and quality child care.