There are 26,694 children under the age of 18 in the Gresham, Troutdale, and Fairview area. In addition, there are 13,066 separated, divorced, or widowed adults and 13,210 head of households according to the Oregonian. Many of these families are looking for daycare or activities for their older children. They are also looking for fun things to do as a family and places where they can socialize.

In my research for low cost day care or playgroup options, I found Gresham had few options available. I was unable to find a near by co-operating day care, or playgroups that offered more then a few days out of the month. The options I did find only operated in the mornings. One program had a waiting list, another offered only two times a month. One particular program was inadequate for several reasons. First, the program children were different ages than my own. Second, the program was outside of my neighborhood. Lastly, the program required the parent to accompany the child. I was unable to find a free or low cost program, nor was I able to find a drop-in program for parents who need short breaks from their less than 30 month old children. The two programs I’ve mentioned need the parents to stay with the child and are more of a mommy-and-me approach. Regular daycare gets very expensive.

Since I’ve discovered a real need in my community, I decided to research ways to fill in the gaps to support parents and their children. I believe our community needs a program that will provide part-time space for drop-ins. We also need a program that allows parents to put in time at the daycare in trade for hours of daycare time for their own children. I’d also like to find a low cost building or facility to rent for a small charge in Gresham that will keep the costs down for the participants. I’ve talked to several groups like Foster Care and Head Start who recognize the gaps in community child care but are unable to do anything to fill them. I believe that starting a co-operating daycare is needed in this area.

The major issue is finding an appropriate place to house a sizable group. Because of this, it appears that we will need to pay rent for the Center. This has led me to expand my ideas to start a business that could be in the same building. This business would need to make a profit to pay the bills for both the Center and the business. As I started talking to people though, I’ve also found a need for preteen and older children needing an activity center. This would reduce the amount of trouble that bored and unattended children can cause. This in turn would help prevent the growing problem of gangs, vandalism, drugs or teen sexual activity in our community. I’d like to facilitate the development of a community center that would support all ages of children and their families.

I’ve come up with what I think is a solution to help a small portion of the children not included in activities in this area. First, I think that a daycare for 6 week to 5 year olds could help support this venture of a community center. When the daycare is open and reaches 50% capacity, we should have enough involved families to start playgroups. I have talked to several parents who know others who would love to have a playgroup where their child could go for a few hours. These parents need a time to talk to other adults or take a break from the stresses of parenting. Parent support groups will be formed as the Center grows.

The Center will charge small fees and depend on volunteers to keep the playgroups within parent-child ratios. To keep costs as low as possible, parents will be required to put in supervision time in the daycare at an hour for hour ratio of daycare time they plan to use. When the center becomes self-supporting, we will then start more programs. A secondary program will include positive activities for children over the age of twelve. Other groups can contribute in positive ways as well. Involving seniors citizens, parent-led women’s groups, or foster parent support groups in volunteering will add to the enrichment of the program. The program will provide planned fun activities for everything from food to activities for the whole family. It also will provide mentoring to give children more one on one time.

There are many more ideas I have that if organized correctly within 6 months to a year of the doors opening, the center could be providing growing support to the increasing number of over stressed parents. I truly believe that if more parents had low cost options for support, the children growing up in today’s society would be far less likely to be placed into the already over flowing foster care system. In addition, this kind of support will prevent much social disorder caused by troubled children.

I believe in the old saying that it takes a whole village to raise a child. Over stressed and single parents need "the village" to come together so that they do not feel alone. They need a support system that a community center could provide. Very few parents had children they thought they’d be raising alone. They had dreams of having a house with the big back yard and having a grandma and grandpa and other family members helping to raise their children. Unfortunately, the reality is that everyone seems to be too busy when you need them the most.

We all have days when we aren’t at our best and kids have pushed every button they can. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to have a network of people in the same spot in life to talk to, to share ideas, and to trade childcare? Since that’s not always possible at their own home, a center gives them the chance to meet and get to know the other parents. They can get to know one another and do activities with them. They can see how their children interact with other children. It also provides a way for children under five to play with a group of children in a school-like setting while preparing them for the kinds of socialization they will have in kindergarten.

When you bring children of all ages together, a long with their families, the possibilities are endless. The need for positive roll models is an every day challenge. Offering programs for seniors will solicit older generation’s values to round out what children need while providing a way to alleviate the loneliness many senior citizens experience. When all of the different age groups are brought together, it gives us a chance to start to change the potential wrong paths children take through the growing-up process. With encouraging support and networking new options for parents, I have no doubt that it can begin to turn around problems we face once youngsters start public school. When parents have more support, it gives them more options to be a better parent to their children and increases the child’s self worth and behavior.

The current school budget cuts have had negative effects on our children and families. Teachers have little time to properly attend to children seeking attention or disrupting learning time. When children get the attention they crave in positive ways outside of school it impacts their behavior during their learning times. It’s getting more difficult for children to concentrate on schoolwork for more then 30 minuets at a time. When they can’t sit still anymore they tend to disrupt others. When children have opportunities to be in a school-like setting and learning at a younger age, it builds on their abilities to expand that amount of time. As they get older they learn to do quiet time activities longer, rather then having to be entertained continuously.

Most children today want to sit in front of a TV, watching hour after hour of cartoons or playing video games. The goal of this center will start the ball rolling. Change is not overnight and an older child that has felt left out of activities all their life isn’t going to gain self-confidence right away. Once the ideas are picked up and applied, more children will see the effects of our efforts. The main objective is to gain the trust of one child at a time while giving them more opportunities for a positive outlook in their lives. The Center’s philosophy will be to encourage people to share the responsibility for our children in this society. We can share the burden by taking a few hours a month to help. Providing a place for volunteers to help children in Gresham is very needed and can benefit many struggling families.

A Board of Advisers will need to be set up. This Board will consist of those who specialize or work in certain areas like a family support counselors, child advocates, financial advisors, day care providers, police officers, local politicians, doctors and nurses, lawyers, social group organizers, PTA members, teachers, and school administrators. The Board members will also be involved or concerned with neighborhood groups. They will also be parents and grandparents, or any local volunteers who have fresh ideas and a winning attitude to make the center the best it can be. The Board will be people who will find the best ways to make this vision happen. The first step is to get the word out and find a group of volunteers to help organize. We are in the process of forming a Board now. The first advisory committee meeting is in the works and tentatively set for August. 21^st. For the time being, e-mail and phone calls will give us an idea of who all want to hear more about this and what day would work best for majority of the people involved.