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A Catalyst Ohio survey of 150 moms in Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods finds that many don’t know where to obtain information on how to identify high-quality childcare and preschool for their children, despite the efforts of key resource agencies. In addition, moms say they are frustrated by an inefficient childcare voucher bureaucracy and their own struggles with public transportation when it comes to holding down a job and keeping kids in preschool.
Cover Stories
Neediest moms miss out
Poorest moms left out of information loop Northeast Ohio’s guide to finding a quality preschool is chock full of information that would be very useful to young, low-income mothers trying to enroll their children—children who are likely to show up for kindergarten already behind the learning curve.
That is, if those moms could just get their hands on The Good Child Care Book or if they knew there was such a guide.
Outreach doesn't reach many moms CLEVELAND—Officials at the area agencies that can help moms choose better quality childcare and preschool acknowledge that some of the neediest mothers are not aware of those services. Agency heads say there is no way to monitor whether useful and effective information makes it to young moms living in the city’s poorest and sometimes most isolated neighborhoods.
Three years into a strategic plan, an umbrella agency’s efforts to change that appear less than concrete.
It's hard to make choices when you don't know what your options are, moms say Young, impoverished moms say their encounters with the childcare voucher system leave them uninformed about a menu of options that are available to help them. Moms say they are unaware of a central resource that identifies various preschool and childcare options, as well as any information in general on what choices they may have. In some cases, unaware of options, moms say they simply did not enroll their children in any program.
How moms and kids fall through cracks Here are situations in which moms say they received little or no support
Voucher application process is inefficient, moms say Nearly half of the 150 young, impoverished mothers who answered the Catalyst survey say that the process of “getting vouchers,” whether applying for the assistance or receiving follow-up from caseworkers, is an obstacle to enrolling and keeping their children in an early education program.
Childcare vouchers, which are distributed by the Cuyahoga County Department of Employment and Family Services, cover or lower the cost of early education for low-income families.
Exhausted by long bus rides, moms pull kids out of preschool CLEVELAND—Donita Carey used to leave her house in Hough at 4:30 a.m. to ride two hours for a $7-an-hour job in Solon. Lashan Torres took at least five buses every morning to get her children to school and herself to work from her home in the Fulton-Clark area on the west side. Lakeisha Dean, on the other hand, only chooses schools and care centers within walking distance of her apartment on Crawford Road, also in Hough.
They are among many young, low-income mothers for whom transportation is an exhausting, daily struggle that hampers their ability to get and keep quality preschool for their children.
No way for parents to access an abundance of resources
Letter From the Editor
September 2008: Poorest moms and children left out of early learning loop
September 2008: Poorest moms and children left out of early learning loop
Download Issue in PDF Format
Download Issue in PDF Format
Cover Stories
Neediest moms miss out
Tameka Hawkins is among nearly 200 young mothers from 10 of Cleveland’s poorest neighborhoods whom Catalyst Ohio surveyed and interviewed about the obstacles to finding and keeping high-quality early education programs for their children—children who are already likely to show up for kindergarten behind the learning curve, according to district test scores.
Poorest moms left out of information loop Northeast Ohio’s guide to finding a quality preschool is chock full of information that would be very useful to young, low-income mothers trying to enroll their children—children who are likely to show up for kindergarten already behind the learning curve.
That is, if those moms could just get their hands on The Good Child Care Book or if they knew there was such a guide.
Outreach doesn't reach many moms CLEVELAND—Officials at the area agencies that can help moms choose better quality childcare and preschool acknowledge that some of the neediest mothers are not aware of those services. Agency heads say there is no way to monitor whether useful and effective information makes it to young moms living in the city’s poorest and sometimes most isolated neighborhoods.
Three years into a strategic plan, an umbrella agency’s efforts to change that appear less than concrete.
It's hard to make choices when you don't know what your options are, moms say Young, impoverished moms say their encounters with the childcare voucher system leave them uninformed about a menu of options that are available to help them. Moms say they are unaware of a central resource that identifies various preschool and childcare options, as well as any information in general on what choices they may have. In some cases, unaware of options, moms say they simply did not enroll their children in any program.
How moms and kids fall through cracks Here are situations in which moms say they received little or no support
Voucher application process is inefficient, moms say Nearly half of the 150 young, impoverished mothers who answered the Catalyst survey say that the process of “getting vouchers,” whether applying for the assistance or receiving follow-up from caseworkers, is an obstacle to enrolling and keeping their children in an early education program.
Childcare vouchers, which are distributed by the Cuyahoga County Department of Employment and Family Services, cover or lower the cost of early education for low-income families.
Exhausted by long bus rides, moms pull kids out of preschool CLEVELAND—Donita Carey used to leave her house in Hough at 4:30 a.m. to ride two hours for a $7-an-hour job in Solon. Lashan Torres took at least five buses every morning to get her children to school and herself to work from her home in the Fulton-Clark area on the west side. Lakeisha Dean, on the other hand, only chooses schools and care centers within walking distance of her apartment on Crawford Road, also in Hough.
They are among many young, low-income mothers for whom transportation is an exhausting, daily struggle that hampers their ability to get and keep quality preschool for their children.
No way for parents to access an abundance of resources
Resources to help guide parents’ search for quality early education exist
Letter From the Editor
To help their children, moms need caring, long-term mentoring
In the course of interviewing 150 young moms in Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods about the obstacles they face to getting good early education for their children, one thing became clear to Catalyst reporters: the programs and services that are supposed to help moms—from preschool to job training—are too often an uncoordinated tangle of bureaucracy that can lead even the most ambitious, gutsy mothers on an exhausting and discouraging odyssey to nowhere—no decent educational opportunities for their kids or themselves, no career path, no life-skills or personal development—and ultimately no upward social mobility.
Updates
Another poverty conference aims to succeed where others failed
Ministers, community members brainstorm ways to help the city’s neediest residents, children
Catalyst Ohio is an editorially independent newsmagazine published by the Community Renewal Society
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