Shauna Curphey - Writing

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Child Care Careers Create Child Care Choices

Real Change, August 9, 2001

By Shauna Curphey

It's just after breakfast in Hoa Nguyen's home in Seattle's Rainier Vista public housing site. A small girl in blue pajamas works on a computer at a child-size desk in the corner of Hoa's living room. At a nearby table, a plump toddler and a little girl in a white dress squish Playdoh in their small hands. Above them, a Buddha gazes serenely from a small altar. As a family child care provider, it's Hoa's business to look after these children. As a recent immigrant to the United States from Vietnam, it's her version of the American dream.

Nguyen is a graduate of the Child Care Careers Program, a statewide project created two years ago as part of Washington state's Welfare reform legislation. It trains 250 Welfare recipients each year to enter the workforce as child care providers, either setting up shop in their own homes, or going to work at child care centers. Child Care Resources, a private non-profit organization, administers the program in King County under state contract to train 75 individuals each year.

"I'm happy to have a job," says Hoa, "I love to work with children. That was my hobby, now it has come true."

Hoa received her child care license in 1999, three months after she started training with Child Care Resources. Before she started the program, she wasn't earning an income. She now watches five children in her home. The money she earns allowed her to move off Welfare. Since she opened her business, she gave birth to her second son, 8-month-old William, named for William Jefferson Clinton.

"Usually with clients, there's a lot of support and intensive mentoring," says Faye Melton, who coordinates the program for Child Care Resources. "Hoa was very clear with what she wanted to do."

It usually takes nine months or more for participants to complete the training and obtain a license to open a family child care program. Trainees complete over 120 hours of instruction in English as a second language, first aid, HIV/AIDS, CPR, child growth and development, professionalism, and curriculum development.

Care follows culture
For every woman like Hoa trained by Child Care Resources, there are five more low-income families who can go to work knowing their children are in licensed, culturally-appropriate care. Since the legislature reformed Welfare into WorkFirst in 1997, parents receiving cash assistance must work, attend job training, or perform community service. This mandate created a huge need for child care. Not just any child care: WorkFirst families need licensed child care close to their homes, close to their values, and in their own language.

In a 1999 study conducted among parents eligible for or receiving child care subsidy, DSHS discovered that 95 percent of parents chose their current child care arrangement because the provider spoke their language. A majority of parents also cited shared values and a convenient location as deciding factors.

"A lot of families want to go somewhere where people speak the same language and eat the same food," says Melton.

Most of the providers trained in King County's Child Care Careers program are bilingual and all of them accept state child care subsidy. Faye counts the program's ability to increase the availability of culturally-appropriate child care as its biggest success.

Her program is not without its challenges. Despite the huge need for licensed care in low-income communities, Melton has a hard time convincing people that child care pays off as a career choice. Child care workers earn $7.73 per hour on average. The two providers interviewed for this story did not wish to disclose their monthly earnings. But family child care providers like Hoa fare a bit better than these poverty-level wages - and, since they are home with their young children, they spare themselves child care hassles and expenses that other working families face.

Across Martin Luther King Boulevard, but culturally a world away from Hoa, Nadifah Abdi looks after six Somali children in her Rainier Vista family child care program. From Somalia, Nadifah journeyed to the United States by way of Kenya and Italy. When she arrived in the states in 1997, Nadifah was pregnant with her first son. Seven months after he was born, she enrolled in the Child Care Careers program. When she finished training, Nadifah convinced her husband, Abdulrashid, that she should open a child care business in their home.

"My wife pushed me to do it," admits Abdul.

He's convinced now: Together they transformed their home into a bustling child care program for four Somali children plus their two young sons.

Despite the time Nadifah devotes to caring for six lively children, she and her husband mentor other women in the program. Some come to Nadifah as interns completing their child care training. Others are friends and neighbors.

"They're able to see Nadifah doing it," says Abdul, "They see, 'This family has tried, why not us?' So they try it themselves."

Abdul and Nadifah help families untangle paperwork and other licensing hurdles so that they too can open a family child care program. Abdul was recently elected to serve on the Child Care Resources Board of Directors.

"When you come to another country, even though we have a background and education, it's like starting all over," says Abdul, "We felt very lucky to meet Child Care Resources."

Melton and her colleague Connie Powell spend 75 percent of their time in the field, visiting alumni; forging partnerships with community organizations; and screening new recruits. Much of their work can't be counted on a progress report. It's dealing with the day-to-day struggles the women face as they embark on a new path.

When Nadifah needed to build a fence around her small yard in order to meet licensing requirements, Child Care Resources helped secure funding for the expense. At a recent visit, Faye and Connie discovered that Hoa has been paying out of her pocket for food for the children in her care. They told her she qualifies for funding to pay for child care meal expenses and promised to bring her the information she needs to sign up.

Since 1998, they've enrolled over 150 women.

"The ladies we've helped all over are off TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families)," says Faye. "We've helped them become business owners or receive skills to find employment in child care programs. They're working towards self-sufficiency."