New child care center in Fort Worth’s Near Southside community can serve 80 children
A new child development center with the capacity to serve 80 children opened in the Near Southside neighborhood on Monday — a bright spot within a business sector that’s been hit hard with financial woes after federal funding recently expired.
Clayton Youth Enrichment, Tarrant County’s largest nonprofit provider of on-site before- and after-school programs, opened the doors to its second child development center alongside officials with the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, in addition to Fort Worth City Councilmember Michael Crain, during a ribbon-cutting event.
The center housed in Broadway Baptist Church is serving children from 6 weeks old to 5 years old, and as of its first day, has three children enrolled.
Clayton Youth Enrichment CEO Jason Ray highlighted the need for quality child care as about 4,000 child care centers are at risk of closing across Texas. Providers nationwide were able to stay afloat through the COVID-19 pandemic with federal relief packages such as the American Rescue Plan, which provided the largest federal investment in child care in U.S. history at $24 billion, according to the Century Foundation. This money expired on Sept. 30, but the Texas Workforce Commission infused an additional $1 billion in state funding that expires at the end of this month.
“Today you’re seeing our part to help move the needle to make sure Fort Worth has the child care that it needs and its families need,” Ray told attendees in front of a blue and green balloon arch at the facility’s entrance.
The new center is an expansion of the organization’s focus on early childhood, as it has been operating a child care facility at One Safe Place, a crime prevention agency focused on Tarrant County neighborhoods, schools and homes, since 2015, according to Saleena Harner, Clayton’s associate director of programs. One Safe Place is located almost a mile away from Broadway Baptist.
The new location provides full-time and part-time care with weekly tuition prices starting at $275 and $192, respectively. Clayton is in the certification process to soon be a Child Care Management Services provider that supplies scholarships to Tarrant County families.
Lauren Mercurio, early childhood specialist, is the center’s first infant teacher to be working with children ranging from 6 weeks old to 1 year old. Mercurio has about eight years of experience with infants and enjoys watching their development within a short time frame, she said.
“Watching them go from a 6-week-old newborn to just the first year of their life… They change so, so much. Being able to be a part of that and help that child get where they need to be developmentally and seeing my work pay off and creating a bond with them is just something really cool,” she said. “I like being at the foundation of their learning experience.”
Mercurio emphasized that she and her colleagues are teachers, rather than babysitters, helping children learn during a critical time of brain development.
“It’s a really important time for them to have a stimulating environment,” she said. “I think it is important for parents to know that you’re not bringing your kid to just watch Barney all day. They’re actually learning, interacting (and) socializing.”
Ryon Price, senior pastor of Broadway Baptist, noted that the wing of the church where the center is housed was renovated in 2017 with the intention of serving children. Clayton first utilized the space in 2020 for school-aged children when the pandemic hit and schools closed.
“We believe in the flourishing of a community, and what could be more important than the life and investment in our children to make that very thing happen?” Price told attendees.
Moreover, Price underscored the importance of child care in the neighborhood, as its 76104 ZIP code had the lowest life expectancy in the state at 66.7 years, almost 12 years younger than the national average, according to a UT Southwestern Medical Center study released in 2019.
“The children who enter these doors, in 70 years, will be another generation. My hope and prayer is that the investment you all are making in their lives will be for the betterment of our community, that this may be a more thriving, livable, robust, wonderful place for all people,” Price said.
This story was originally published November 6, 2023 at 7:59 PM.
