New state funding helping First United Methodist Child Care maintain longstanding standards

Feb. 10—CHAMPAIGN — First United Methodist Child Care could use more staff to uphold the standards that have made it successful for the last 50 years, but there are big things coming soon, including a brand-new playground right outside.

"With the level of care we provide here, we don't just bring in any person who is out in the community. You have to have certain requirements, certain specializations and things like that," said director Laura Hendricksen. "Finding the right people to make our program what it needs to be has been really difficult."

A big part of Hendrickson's job is bringing in grants — which she excels at, according to Deanna Capel, a member of the center's parent board — which helped earn the center some funding through the Smart Start Illinois program.

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office went searching for an organization to visit for a speech about Smart Start, they connected with the center and organized a press conference in its gym.

Pritzker spoke about the program's broad goal of increasing funding at child care programs across the state.

Even years after the center was able to reopen, Hendricksen said it's still rebounding from closing during the pandemic.

"A lot of people never came back to work in day cares," she said.

Rather than trying to have fewer staff members handle the same number of kids, Hendricksen and staff made the call to reduce capacity to around 80 children, despite being licensed to care for over 100 and having a waitlist of families hoping to get their kids in.

Hendricksen said that the center keeps better student-staff ratios than required by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Especially when caring for kids from birth to 5 years old, that ratio makes a big difference.

"It's hard to chase around a classroom of little kids," Hendricksen said. "I taught 2-year-olds here for years, and my maximum was 14, and when I moved into administration, I was like, 'Guys, that's still too much.'"

Hendricksen feels that her personal experience as a teacher is very helpful for connecting with her staff and being able to find the resources they need.

"I don't know that I would have wanted to teach under somebody who hadn't been a teacher," she said.

She shares that experience with the rest of the administrative staff, which Capel said was on the list of things that drew her family to the center.

Capel's third child is currently attending and her older two have already "graduated" to regular school.

"You walk the walk and you talk the talk," Capel said.

The Capels also heard about the center through direct recommendations and were able to talk to other parents who appreciated it, rather than just having to do research online.

The long history of the center's success, coupled with staff who had been around and happy to keep working there for some time and an involved parent board, were also appealing.

"I have no questions and no reconsiderations of why we came here and have stayed here all this time, and we continue to recommend the center because of that," Capel said. "That's a huge testament to Laura and her team, too."

Capel likes that even with all this experience and tradition, there continue to be new things at the center.

She spearheaded planning for the 50th anniversary celebration in September, which involved food and games for families, former staff and alumni alike, and she's also been able to weigh in alongside other parents on ideas for the new playground.

Previously, the kids have been getting their outdoor time at the nearby West Side Park, but teachers haven't been as happy with that location recently.

"We've just slowly seen changes in the community and we started not feeling as safe," Hendricksen said.

Even if the park still felt like the best place to go, teachers had to walk their groups across two streets to get there, wrangling 2-year-olds holding on to a walking rope.

"Not having eyes on the park makes a big difference, and knowing if something happens, they have to book it back across two streets and try to get into the building to find safety," Hendricksen said.

When a building just behind First United Methodist went up for sale, staff jumped on the opportunity to get the lot.

The building has been demolished, but plans for the new playground won't be hammered out until funding is available. Hendricksen said ideally, they'll be able to start building this year.

Soon, she hopes to be able to look right out her office window and see the kids at play, and parents are ready for the change.

"It'll be nice to — out of a parking lot — have something a little more colorful and have some green space," Capel said.

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