From Covid
To Recovery

Op-ed by Georgia Goldburn, Executive Director of Hope For New Haven

As we emerged from the pandemic, we had a new perspective and faced a new reality. We learned resilience is not only about returning from difficult circumstances but also finding strength and solidarity within our community. As COVID restrictions were lifted, lingering doubts by parents and remote working options did not result in an immediate return of children to the center.  However, as parents slowly returned to in-person work, staff's departure for higher-paying wages stymied our ability to reopen classrooms.  Returning to our center’s pre-COVID enrollment numbers and fiscal strength appeared seemingly unattainable and equally frustrating as families languished on our waiting list.  The confluence of low enrollment, staff shortages, and a historic rise in inflation would portend our inevitable end, but that would not be the trajectory of our story. Instead, our journey exemplifies what targeted and intentional investments in the Early Childhood System mean for programs like us, our communities, and, by extension, the State.  

So, today, we are celebrating that Hope Child Development Center will reopen its final classroom on March 18th, four years after its closure.  Additionally, we will be 90% fully staffed, and we will restore our final 16 slots into the system; we will be at 100% staffing capacity by April 15th. These 16 slots have created four openings in our infant program, 6 in our toddler program, and 6 in our preschool program.  Of these 16 slots, we have filled six and are enrolling for the others. 

So, how did we get here?

Only by God’s grace.  Hope has benefitted from God's divine protection and provision since we started 23 years ago in the basement of Christ Presbyterian Church.  We had a vision then that has not changed today, i.e. to help transform our beloved New Haven, through the efforts of a broad cross-section of people guided by the examples of Christ's life of service.  Our center today reflects, in our teachers, children, and families, the beauty of this Kingdom-vision, as we see children and staff from all over the world - representing a broad range of cultures, religions, languages, and races, all playing, learning, and growing together. In fact, only two continents are not represented in our center - Antarctica and Australia.

At the federal level, on February 19, 2021, I was proud to represent my state and ECE providers before the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education subcommittee, chaired by  Representative Rosa DeLauro, to make the case for a $50 billion relief package for the childcare industry.  That package led to Hope receiving over $400K in stabilization aid, offsetting our budget's massive deficit and preventing debilitating tuition increases for parents.  

A phone call from Steve Fontana from the Economic Development Administration, to ensure we were okay shortly after the lockdown, led us to one of our most consequential connections with Joseph Williams and the Small Business Development Center.  Joe’s wealth of knowledge, confidence, and assurance was instrumental in assuaging our anxiety, and he and the SBDC deftly guided us and the CERCLE network to the critical supports and resources available through the SBA.  This assured our survival amid the turmoil of the Pandemic.  

March 15th also marks the anniversary of the Morning Without Childcare rally, which sparked a national movement demanding increased funding for childcare. CT has an embarrassment of riches regarding advocates who agitate daily for a better ECE system for its children.

We are equally grateful to have elected officials like Governor Lamont, Senator Martin Looney, Representative Toni Walker, the CT General Assembly, along with Commissioner Bye, who were willing to hear and respond to our call for increased funding.  The over $100 million state investment in 2022 created greater access for infants and toddlers through the Child Daycare Contract expansion grants.  This allowed Hope to apply for 10 CDC slots, helping to reduce childcare costs for ten families.  Additionally, funding from the CDC Expansion grant allowed us to convert one of our mixed-age toddler/preschool rooms into a full toddler room, thereby adding eight new toddler slots into the system.  

Reopening the Pre-K room as a mixed-age toddler/preschool room will return eight toddler and eight preschool slots to the system. The CDC enhancement funding has given us the resources to establish a new toddler room and upgrade the equipment and furniture in our existing infant and toddler classrooms. We are also incredibly blessed to learn we are finalists for the LISC Facilities grant.  This will allow us to upgrade our playground equipment and add two shade structures.  We are so grateful to Mayor Elicker and the City for their ongoing support and for allowing us to use their space to ensure that our playground and urban garden adjoin our center.

For all these triumphs, none is more gratifying than in our staffing.  Pre-Covid, Hope has enjoyed average turnover rates of 9% in an industry that has historically had 30-40% turnover rates. Post Covid, our rate ballooned to 41%.  However, a vision born nine years ago to create an ECE apprenticeship program perfectly positioned us to respond to this staffing crisis.  With funding from the William Casper Graustein Memorial Fund in 2015, Hope began to shape our vision around an ECE apprenticeship program.  Through the city, this funding and CDBG funds helped us identify and build partnerships with agencies, like Havenly and Workforce Alliance, to train the next generation of ECE teachers. However, the Workforce Pilot funding through the OEC accelerated our ability to fill these staffing gaps.  And owing to $50 million in stabilization funding from the State, these new EC educators and existing staff are being compensated with salaries aligned with the OEC Compensation Scale.  This means that Hope ECE teachers now enjoy pay parity with their K -12 counterparts in the public schools.

So, what’s next?

EXPANSION!  Sadly, once our ten slots are filled, we will not have availability in our early learning program for a year (unless a parent withdraws).  Additionally, we will have to operate under two licenses just to serve the school-age children in our program.  As difficult as it is to get into our early learning program, it is nearly impossible to get into our school-age program.  As such, we are seeking a facility that will allow us to double our capacity in our ECE and Schoolage program, thus allowing us to add 100 additional slots to the system.  

This facility would also allow us to offer a free special education K-8 school to families with neurodivergent children and extend our success in mitigating developmental delays in young children, by introducing another EC educational approach, Social Constructivism, in the K-12 system. 

Most excitedly, we want to establish the nation's first Christian children's museum. This museum will take young children through play and learning experiences featuring stories from the Bible.  This will establish a historic landmark in the Elm City for young children and their families.  

This facility will also allow us to convert 81 Olive Street into a family childcare incubator, establishing eight new family childcare businesses and adding 72 additional childcare slots in the Elm City.

We will continue to partner with the OEC, the City of New Haven, and the New Haven Public Schools to create and register our Early Childhood Apprenticeship program for High School students.  We are so grateful to the NHPS team, who has been working with us over the past two years to build a teacher pipeline for New Haven.  

As EC educators, we are accustomed to being caregivers. But during these challenging times, you have cared for us. As we stand poised to open our final classroom, we want to celebrate this moment with all of you who have nurtured and supported us.  Our center's ability to remain open and serve our community during such challenging times highlights the profound impact of resilience and community support. As we continue forward, we will never forget the lessons learned and the strength of our community bonds, knowing that we can overcome whatever challenges lie ahead. From the bottom of our hearts, we extend a huge thank you on behalf of the board, staff, and parents of Hope Child Development Center and Hope For New Haven.