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Ravenswood Church a Partner in New Daycare Center
CHICAGO, IL (January 16, 2001) - After nearly two years of planning, a local Covenant church and an area hospital have combined with Amundsen High School (AHS) on Chicago's north side to start a daycare program through the newly formed Ravenswood Community Daycare.
Ravenswood Community Daycare is a partnership involving AHS, Ravenswood Covenant Church (RCC) and Ravenswood Hospital that will be operated in church facilities. The daycare center hopes to be operational this fall. An eight-member board has identified an executive
director to oversee the program. Board members expect the facility to serve approximately 45 children of AHS students when remodeling of the building is finished.
"I think we're ready to go," said Daniel de Roulet, a board member for the daycare center. "It's going to reach people who, frankly, wouldn't otherwise set foot in a church. What has been most rewarding is seeing the church come together in a spirit of unity in a way that I have never seen," de Roulet said. "I know that we've got the church behind it and we've got a real sense of what it means to do ministry in the city. It's been a spiritual highlight for me and I think it could serve as a model for other churches."
Advocate Healthcare Foundation (that oversees the hospital) pledged $75,000 to be used for equipment and the Illinois Department of Commerce & Community Affairs, under the legislative sponsorship of 17th District State Sen. Lisa Madigan, pledged a gift of $125,000 to be used to remodel the church's education building facilities.
The $200,000 in grant funds will be used to upgrade three classrooms and a kitchen and provide handicapped-accessible bathrooms and a play lot. Another $50,000 has come from an RCC fund to support startup costs. The daycare center is focusing on infants, toddlers and children in the three-to-five-year-old age group.
There are approximately 20 students currently attending Amundsen High School who are parents of infants and toddlers, school health statistics show. While AHS staff and health care workers at the school encourage teens to stay in school during their pregnancies and following deliveries, they are often thwarted in their attempts to finish high school because of a lack of adequate and affordable childcare.
Daycare administrators expect some of the slots will go to teen parents at AHS, who will get first priority. Other slots will be available for individuals in the community. Parents who graduate
from AHS will be eligible for daycare for their children if they choose to attend college or become employed in the area.
"It will be a really good way for the hospital, the school and the church to work together as a community," said board member Adrienne Edlen. "It's a unique program in that the teen parents will use a daycare center that's also used by community families. The usual programs in the city
for teen parents are exclusively for teen parents in the high schools. The integration of teen parents with other family models will be positive for all the families involved," she said. "And parents who are students at Amundsen High School will still be able to use our daycare center after they graduate. At most high schools, once a student graduates, they have to find alternative daycare."
North Park University will structure an internship program in areas of education and nursing, according to de Roulet who is dean of the university's College of Arts and Sciences. He expects some faculty members will provide additional assistance for the daycare center.
The idea of starting a daycare center is two decades old, according to church administrators. The concept of helping single mothers from the local high school received more serious consideration in 1999 by Ravenswood pastor Bryan Kletzing and former AHS principal Dr. Ed Klunke, who now serves as executive director of High School Design and Support for Chicago Public Schools.
For more information about the Ravenswood Community Daycare Center, contact Edlen at Ravenswood Covenant Church, 773-784-7091.
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