National Skills Summit

National Skills Summit
Innovative Initiatives: Health Care and Child Care

Consortium for Worker Education: Satellite Child Care Program

The Challenge:

To increase the number of skilled child care workers in New York needed to care for the children of former welfare recipients and other low-income individuals as they go to work, to create well-paid, sustainable employment opportunities for women leaving welfare, and to create high-quality child care slots.

The Solution:

Build upon the child care expertise possessed by former welfare recipients and low-income individuals by training them to become professional satellite child care providers.

The Partners:

The Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) is a non-profit agency which offers to union members, dislocated workers, and public assistance recipients a variety of employment, education, and training programs, including the Satellite Child Care Program (SCCP).

Community-Based Child Care Agencies: Graham-Windham Services for Children and Families, Leake & Watts Services, Tremont-Cortona Day Care Center, Alianza Dominicana, Highbridge Advisory Council, and Child Development Support Corporation provide training, monitoring, support, mentoring, and professional development to SCCP child care providers in New York City.

New York City Human Resources Administration implements Welfare-to-Work programs (WtW), and ensures that parents in WtW programs are reimbursed for their child care and transportation expenses.

New York City Housing Authority works closely with SCCP to assure timely repair of homes that serve as satellite child care sites, and to recruit both children and mothers to participate in the program.

The Story:

As a single mother of four children, Sharon Miller had years of real life child care experience, but no real work experience. Having been on welfare for 15 years, she felt ill-equipped to enter the workforce and had little hope of finding long-term, stable employment. With the help of CWE's Satellite Child Care Program (SCCP), Sharon turned her life experience into gainful employment. Currently, Sharon provides an academically rigorous child care service to four children in her home and plans to go back to school to pursue a degree in early childhood education.

The Satellite Child Care Program trains and ultimately employs Temporary Assistance to Needy Families recipients and other individuals with incomes below the poverty line to be child care providers. SCCP provided Sharon with 500 hours of training and hands-on learning in topics such as child development, health, safety, nutrition, and working with parents. SCCP ultimately hired her as a child care provider in their network. Sharon now operates a satellite facility providing day care for people like herself. Under the supervision and with the support of the community-based child care agencies, participants create "off-site" classrooms in their homes for four to six infants, toddlers, pre-school, and school-age children. They are able to care for kids who have diverse learning styles and family backgrounds and who are at various stages of social, emotional, physical, and academic development.

SCCP is currently operational in New York City and is expanding nationally. As of August 2000, the Consortium has employed 121 satellite child care providers and served more than 500 children. They also have placed 43 participants in other unsubsidized jobs.

Unlike traditional family day care, satellite child care is a sustainable, entry-level job with a clearly defined, supervised, and supported path to personal, academic, and professional growth. After completing the comprehensive intake, screening, and training process, satellite providers become stable salaried employees of the Consortium for Worker Education with a starting salary of $18,200 (approximately $25,000 with overtime), full benefits, union membership, and $1,500 worth of supplies. This compares to an average national income of $9,000 without benefits for independent family day care providers, with an industry turn-over rate of over percent.

CWE is working to replicate the program in other locations around the country. National partners include: Community Service Programs of Western Alabama, Three Rivers Employment Service in Pennsylvania, Housing Authority of the City of Hartford, Connecticut, and YW-Works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A Model of Innovation:

SCCP addresses one of the largest barriers to employment faced by low income parents: the lack of affordable, accessible, and high-quality child care. By removing this barrier and creating jobs, SCCP adds a double boost to the economic development of high-need communities. By training parents to care for other people's children, SCCP also motivates providers to improve their own parenting skills. They learn to improve their own health and well being in the interest of stabilizing both their family life and long-term employment opportunities.

Contacts:

Natasha Lifton, Director
Satellite Child Care Program Consortium for Worker Education
275 Seventh Avenue
New York, New York 10001
212-647-1900, ext. 315 (p)
212-414-4125 (f)
nlifton@cwe.org