40 Years On, Mount Kisco Child Care Center Serves Working Families

Fragile. At risk. Low income. Recent immigrant.

These terms describe some of the families whose children attend Mount Kisco Child Care Center in the northern suburbs of New York City.

But another term that describes these families is: Working.

It’s been more than 40 years since this non-profit, non-sectarian childcare facility opened doors and started providing child care along with early education. One commonality through its history — serving more than 5,400 children ages three months to 11 years — is that Mount Kisco Child Care commits to serve working families regardless of a family’s ability to meet tuition.

Today, the organization’s Scholarship Initiative is fueled in part by insurance charitable giving: grant support from the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) Northeast Division. The grant supports MKCCC’s historic pattern of providing 50 percent of children (70-80 children) with partial or full tuition scholarship each year.

“Our Scholarship Initiative enables parents to enter or remain in the workplace, provide economic opportunity for their family, and contribute to their community and the economy, knowing that their children are being cared for in a safe and nurturing environment,” noted Dorothy Jordan, executive director.

“We want to maintain a richly diverse population that reflects the true makeup of our community to create an environment that fosters understanding, cooperation and tolerance. MKCCC believes this policy has long-term benefits for the children and the community at large,” Jordan added.

The need for scholarships is growing. With higher unemployment, cuts in work hours and family income, lower government funding, and the increased cost of providing quality care, the percentage of families asking for scholarships spiked at 64% of MKCCC families for 2011.

One of three of MKCCC’s children come from single-parent households, and 33 percent of its families earn less than $32,000 a year in a county where the median family wage is $66,560. Meanwhile, child-care costs range from $9,792 for half-day kindergarten to $23,820 for full-day infant care, as of the beginning of 2012.

Much of the impetus for MKCCC’s mission comes from the conviction that early childhood education has a positive impact on people throughout their lives. Dr. Dale Purves of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University notes in the book Body and Brain: A Trophic Theory of Neural Connections: “Eighty-five percent of a person’s intellect, personality and social skills are developed by age 5. Ninety-five percent of public investment in education occurs after age 5, when the most critical learning years have passed.”

The IICF charitable funding combines with support from government grants; private, family and corporate foundation support; corporate and individual donations; and proceeds from special events to make possible the scholarships for so many working families.

Topics Training Development