End of construction nears for delayed day care center

The expansion of Children's Home + Aid's low-income day care center in Schaumburg is entering the home stretch after a permanent freeze of its state funding kept construction on hold for five years.

For the past 18 years, the organization has been using space for 42 children at Our Savior's United Methodist Church in Schaumburg. But early next year the new building next door at 725 E. Schaumburg Road will hold as many as 110 children.

As good news as this is, especially when the economy is in such poor shape, it puts into perspective how many low-income families and single parents were not able to get off the waiting list in recent years.

The whole point of the project is to help such parents work, look for work or go back to school, said Karen Selman, vice president of Northwest Suburban Services.

But though the necessary funding to complete the project was frozen by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003 as part of his answer to the state's budget crisis, the village of Schaumburg and many local state legislators kept completion of the center a high priority.

"I've never seen a community as supportive of this work as Schaumburg has been," Selman said. "Someone once said you can judge a community by the way it treats its poor."

Kent Suarez, Children's Home + Aid's chief financial officer, that when the funding freeze occurred, $1.4 million of the $4.3 million project was already in the ground.

The balance is being made up by with a loan from Schaumburg-based American Chartered Bank, which will be repaid through an ongoing fundraising campaign.

But local parents and their children will be able to take advantage of the expanded services as soon as the new building opens its doors in January.

A community build of the new playground facilities on Nov. 8 will be followed on Nov. 9 by a massive effort to complete the surrounding landscaping.

The day care center has three ways in which it prioritizes applicants. The first to be accepted are victims of child abuse or neglect. After them come the children of adolescent parents. The third tier of priority is low-income children.

After this, children are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, though priority will be given to Schaumburg families.

Selman said the prioritization system is designed to accommodate the highest emergency cases first.

The organization is currently soliciting donations to the fundraising campaign. Information on donating to the center is at childrenshomeandaid.org.