As a new school year begins, proper childcare is top of mind for a lot of parents and families. United Way of Greater St. Louis (UWGSL) has long been a difference maker in the area of youth and early childhood success. Each year, more than 400,000 children and youth thrive thanks to UWGSL programs and partnerships.
One of those key partnerships is with Brightpoint, an organization that focuses on providing effective solutions to meet the individualized needs of children, parents, and caregivers.
They help people like Aubrey, who has been passionate about helping children for the past 26 years. As rewarding as it is to take care of children, with those rewards comes challenges, and Brightpoint stepped in to support her before those challenges compromised her ability to provide the best care for our region’s children.
Making a difference through compassion for kids
Aubrey knew early on in her childhood that she wanted her future to involve helping children reach their full potential. She was fortunate to grow up with great caregivers and teachers that showed her what it meant to pay it forward by providing the very best education, love and support for the next generation.
As she grew up, so did her passion for helping children. In her early 20s, she joined her mom working as a caregiver at an early childhood center called Lighthouse Learning Center. This experience was fun, exciting, and gave her a glimpse into what building a career in childcare would look like.
“I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. I worked in the preschool, and I got to see how fun those kids were,” said Aubrey. “Back then, there wasn’t really a lot of set curriculum for younger kids, so it was up to the early childhood centers to do those things. Lighthouse was a beautiful center, and they were involved in implementing that from the very beginning.”
After a couple years of observing what it was like to run an effective childcare center, Aubrey began to cultivate plans to start her own center. She spent the next few years fantasizing about what it would be like – the children and families she could help, the positive impact she could have as a childcare entrepreneur, and the resources she would need to make it possible.
Eventually, she convinced her mom to take a leap of faith with her to leave Lighthouse and start their own childcare business. They began the initial stages of getting licensed, securing funding, finding a building, hosting town halls and enrollment events to recruit staff and students, and more. This was an extensive and at times stressful process, but Aubrey knew it would be worth it.
“We just held our breath and decided that if we did good and put our heart into it, we were going to be successful,” said Aubrey. “Parents know when their kids feel secure and safe and that’s when parents begin to build trust.”
After several months of painstaking innovation and outreach, Kids Academy was born. They started off caring for only six kids and after a short period of time, they grew to serve nearly 70 infants and toddlers.
With this exciting experience came challenges though – among several issues, she had trouble recruiting and maintaining staff due to limited pay, and training teachers to understand and implement changes in the classroom started to become a strain. Feeling overwhelmed after a few years, Aubrey reached out to UWGSL nonprofit partner agency, Brightpoint, that gave her hope for her future in childcare.
They helped her secure state and local grants to increase teacher pay, Brightpoint’s staff also mentored teachers on how to make the most out of their opportunity to educate children by implementing new teaching strategies that allow children to thrive.
“I quickly realized that Brightpoint’s staff was there to help me continue to improve and get better, sometimes I don’t know what I would have done without them over the years,” said Aubrey. “Sometimes they can just be a calming voice for me when I feel stressed about things. They are always reassuring, forthcoming and available when I need them.”
Brightpoint’s support was especially crucial when Aubrey recently decided to sell Kids Academy and open a larger-scale childcare center, called Innovations Early Childhood Center. This new center services children as young as 6-weeks to 12-years-old and has the capacity to serve as many as nearly 200 children.
They provided Aubrey with a wide variety of resources and support, one of the most important being their Quality Improvement Grant that helped turn an old building into the perfect facility that helped Aubrey continue her lifelong dream of caring for children.
“After purchasing a center that had been there for over thirty years, we had a lot of updates to make,” said Aubrey. “This grant is just another example of Brightpoint giving us exactly what we needed.”
“I urge anyone struggling in any aspect of this early childhood business to reach out to Brightpoint… they are there with help!”
UWGSL’s support and funding is why so many children are equipped with the proper resources to secure better, brighter futures that are filled with success and opportunity. More than 90% of children participating in United Way programs are ready for kindergarten, and 80% of K-12 students are proficient in math, reading, science, and technology because of United Way’s efforts to help children and youth.
“Through this partnership with United Way, Brightpoint is able to expand family access to early childhood education, mental and behavioral health services, and family support programs that foster long-term success,” said Janice Moenster, Director of Early Childhood Services and Family Support for Brightpoint. “United Way funding to safety net agencies helps to ensure children receive the nurturing care and developmental opportunities they need to thrive. United Way’s investment directly strengthens the foundation for brighter futures in our community.”
Take action now:
- Learn more about how UWGSL is helping youth tap into their full potential.
- Find out how we are helping children overcome obstacles.
- Share this story with family and friends.
