Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991 TAG: 9103200408
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"The revenue that was generated years ago through coal has now left us," said T.D. Lassiter Jr., spokesman for a child-care program in Wise and Dickenson counties and the city of Norton that is seeking to expand from 345 to 429 children.
Different agencies are coping in different ways. Sue Shupe, with the Galax-based Tri-Area Office on Youth, said her organization publishes a brochure with lists of available baby sitters and has held quarterly child-care clinics that teach everything from caring for babies to administering first aid.
Kathy Waugh said the Bristol YWCA has the only day-care program in its area. It started four years ago with 20 children, now is licensed for more than 40 and is using "every available inch that we have."
"You have to go to yard sales, you have to do what you can to bring in equipment," Waugh said.
"In Southwest Virginia, we have vision," said Helen Napps of the state social service regional office in Abingdon. "And we are ready to develop quality child care if we have money to do so."
The state council, designated to administer Virginia's $13.3 million share of a federal grant, is holding a series of public hearings. The first one was Tuesday at Wytheville Community College.
"If you like, you can just cancel your other three public hearings," said Roger Duff, Russell County social services director. "We can spend that $13 million." He said his office gets several calls a week from clients who could go to work if they could find care for their children.
Tazewell County's Social Services Department has taken the next step and actually set up two child-care centers, said Marie Orr, day-care director. She suggested that some of the federal funds go toward administration costs for such centers, allowing people to get off welfare and go to work.
Bob Leonard, Carroll County social services director, agreed but urged the council not to tie restrictive guidelines to funding. "Don't let us be able to buy a pencil but not an ink pen," he said. "Let us localize it."
Carroll County already is localizing child care, building a $425,000 center in its industrial park with the help of a business and an Appalachian Regional Commission grant, he said. It should be complete by fall.
Tom McKnight, who teaches early-childhood education to more than 30 students a year at Southwest Virginia Community College near Richlands, said 15 to 20 mothers must bring their youngsters to school because of a lack of child care. He suggested funding a center at the college, which could be staffed by members of his class.
Corinne Gott, Roanoke social services director, said the city is trying to get back to the child-care service level it had before state cuts. She suggested expansion of Head Start preschool programs from a half-day to a full one.
She cited cases in which parents and children needed assistance they could not get because the social services representatives assigned to them have 90 or more other clients.
Helen Erdman, Head Start home-based supervisor for Roanoke-based Total Action Against Poverty, said the anti-poverty agency identified 52 families in Alleghany County last year who could have used the service but were unable to because no funds were available.
Robert Goldsmith, director of People Inc., another anti-poverty agency, said efforts have been under way for three years to put a child-care center in Russell County, but there is no money.
Dickenson County had 215 applications for 110 Head Start slots this year, said Lanny Large of the county's court service unit.
"In this country, we spent more on marketing breakfast food than we do on child care," said Carol Moore, grants administrator at Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap. "Education is really a key to change."
Aleta Spicer, executive director of Southwest Virginia United Way for seven coalfield counties, said lack of money is one child-care problem, but another is that some families are not convinced of the benefits of developmental child care. She suggested an educational program.
by CNB