Webinar
Child Care for All:
Eliminating Child Care Deserts
As advance child tax credit payments are landing in families’ bank accounts, many parents will be looking to utilize some if not all of this money to help pay for quality child care. However, for parents seeking quality child care programs; money won’t be the biggest issue, finding a program will. The Center for American Progress reports that 51 percent of people in the United States live in a child care desert. This even after the United States has invested billions of dollars into child care programs over the last 30 years through the Block Development Grant Program. This session explores the topic of child care deserts and whether new policies proposed in Congress through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) will be able to eliminate these child care deserts.
Panelists:
Dr. Dionne Dobbins is the Sr. Director of Research at Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA). She leads a team of researchers who work closely with the policy staff to align research reports with these strategic goals, including our well-known reports on the price of child care and licensing. Contact Dionne at dionne.dobbins@usa.childcareaware.org.
Lakesha Petty is an entrepreneur who is passionate about early childhood education and development. In 2010, she started a home-based child care facility, Pamper Me Nursery. Over the years, Pamper Me Nursery has expanded to provide education and care for nearly 50 children and now has a commercial location in the East Lake community of Birmingham, AL. Lakesha uses her training in early childhood education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham to nurture the development of infants to 4-year-olds. Pamper Me Nursery Child Development Center is licensed by the Alabama Department of Human Resources and participates in Alabama’s First-Class Pre-K program. Lakesha anticipates opening a second location in downtown Birmingham in 2022.
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Time:12:00-1:00pm EDT; 9:00-10:00 am PDT
