Turning the harsh proverb on its head, Sandy Fallin, executive director of the Baltimore City Child Care Resource Center, believes that children should not only be seen and heard, they should be enriched, educated and advocated for from the earliest age.
“Suffering the little children,” in other words, is kingdom of heaven material to Fallin and her staff.
“In Baltimore City we’re trying to act as the hub for issues related to care and education of young children in Baltimore City,” said Fallin, whose 17-year-old organization taps a statewide data base of child care providers for inquiring parents and guardians.
“We serve parents as well as the child care community,” Fallin added. “But more importantly we’re serving the children of this city.”
Affiliated with 63-year-old the Maryland Committee for Children, BCCCRC’s lobbying and resource umbrella organization, the $475,000-a-year nonprofit is one of a dozen regional resource centers that provides free information on some 19,000 registered, in-home and sited child care programs in the state.
“It was pretty good,” said Frank McNeil, a Baltimore City resident, who used BCCCRC’s Locate: Child Care service. “In the space of one call I obtained all the referrals I needed. I was very satisfied.”
Mirroring regional branches of the state Office of Child Care, which licenses providers and funds most of the centers’ activities, BCCCRC and its affiliates also offer training and technical assistance to the child care community as well as special programs customized to that community’s regional needs.
“We find their trainers to be competent and their training to be in areas that we need,” said Margo Sipes, executive director of Downtown Baltimore Child Care. “They help people grow professionally.”
In the past year, Fallin said, BCCCRC conducted some 130 training events for over 2,000 client providers – all while its budget was being slashed and while fielding needed, privately funded special programs.
“We’re collaborating with Head Start to bring those services to [client] children who are eligible but not receiving them for whatever reason,” Fallin explained about her effort to bring the federal program to 166 eligible children at eight client providers.
Fallin hopes the model program will not only help the full-time, low-income children who might otherwise – because Head Start is half-day – go without, but also seed client programs with Head Start’s best practices.
“What makes this unique is the fact that we’re putting Head Start in an existing program.”
