When child care centers and schools were shut down in March, Catholic Charities knew the families they serve would still need their support. The management team met to determine how to ensure families would still be able to count on them to meet their needs. Then everyone jumped into action.

The food service department began using their USDA funds to purchase food to provide a weekly food bag for every child that included a gallon of milk and a week’s worth of food. Catholic Charities also had baby food, formula, diapers, and wipes available for younger children.

Catholic Charities staff volunteered to distribute food every Monday, but they noticed many families weren’t coming. They began contacting parents through Facebook, texts, emails, and calls and found out many families weren’t coming because they didn’t have transportation. This was alarming because if families couldn’t get to their sites to pick up food, they probably couldn’t get to a store either. The team regrouped and decided to continue pick-up, but also add delivery for anyone who couldn’t come. They also were able to distribute extra food to families they knew needed it.

Once this basic need was fulfilled, the Catholic Charities team turned their attention to filling the learning gap that children were facing due to their centers being closed. Their teachers, who continued to be paid due to their federal Head Start funding, began creating lesson plans, holding class meetings through Zoom, and creating ideas for activities that families could do. They also regularly checked in with families to provide any support they needed.

Meanwhile, the leadership team took inventory of supplies they had and created education packets that went out with food packets. The education packets included hard copy activities, crayons, pencils, scissors, glue, watercolors, sidewalk chalk, play dough, tissue paper, and more. They were also able to purchase additional materials to ensure every child received an education packet.

To support ongoing communication throughout the shutdown, the organization created several Facebook groups including a private group for staff to share ideas with each other and separate parent groups for each site to facilitate staff communication with parents and connections between parents.

Because their staff continued to be paid during the shutdown, all staff completed 40+ hours of professional development online, including several staff who completed enough coursework to get a CDA. To ensure all staff had access, any staff members who didn’t have a device at home were assigned a device before the shutdown. For internet access, Catholic Charities collected cell phones from management staff and turned them into hot spots.

Next up was the challenge of reopening. Catholic Charities knew it would be a huge and difficult undertaking but are doing their best to go above and beyond the safety guidelines and worked throughout the shutdown to get ready. They created a parent handbook to explain the COVID operating procedures to parents. They bought new bikes and other outdoor materials to get kids outside more and divided the playgrounds so more groups could safely be outside at the same time. They’ve had staff making reusable masks and have been giving them to parents who don’t have access to masks. They’ve even worked with CareSource to bring a mobile COVID testing unit to one of their sites for staff and families to get tested.

To accommodate smaller group sizes in classrooms, the team got to work creating room dividers out of PVC pipes and fire-retardant material hung from the ceiling. This innovative and low-cost solution was approved by the fire department and they are sharing this method with other smaller providers who may not have access to the same level of resources.

Sharing with smaller providers has been a theme throughout the shutdown and reopening. They’ve also shared their new parent handbook and access to staff training with other sites. As a Head Start provider, the team at Catholic Charities knows they have access to more resources and expertise than some smaller centers. They also know that with reduced ratios and group sizes, our community is going to need every possible early care and education seat that can be made available. They know this is going to be a community-wide effort and want to share their knowledge and resources with other providers.

As Catholic Charities look toward an uncertain future, they are continuing to try to stay ahead of the curve. They’re identifying several scenarios for ongoing operations depending on different factors and are brainstorming how to get devices to families in case of another shut down.

Barbra Dolejs, Assistant Director of Early Learning Programs, acknowledges that they could not have accomplished all they did without the support of federal Head Start funding and the support from the county’s Office of Early Childhood and network of UPK providers. She attributes the organization’s attitude to being a Head Start program. She says they stay focused on how they can get things done to help families, not why they can’t.

The teachers at Catholic Charities have created videos of lessons that you can share with your children at home. Check out this video lesson on colors in English and Spanish!