Street Team: How the recession hits home daycare

At KALW News, we’ve been documenting the recession through our Economic Edge project. This next piece is actually a success story and it comes from a member of our Street Team of community reporters.

Street Team member Mitzi Mock spoke with Jasmine Ward, who recently opened a home daycare in her childhood neighborhood, San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley, which has a high number of working-class families. Ward says her job allows her to see families up close, as they grapple with a difficult economy.

Note: If you’d like to join our street team of community reporters, send us an email at news@kalw.org. 

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JASMINE WARD: I got licensed about four months ago. I’ve had to wait for the jobs to start rolling in for some families before the kids started arriving. With the economy the way it was, they weren’t picky about the jobs they were getting, they were taking them. And a lot of these jobs are after-hours, evening-type jobs. And a lot of families are trying to do that and go to school at the same time. I want to accommodate those families who are working, you know, after the regular hours, who didn’t have the normal hours. They’re very busy. They’re on the go. They need someone dependable, and they need someone who is caring and knows what they’re doing. When the children are happy, the parents are happy.

The most rewarding parts of my job: assisting families who really need it. Especially families who are getting back to work and getting back to school and still pursuing what their dream is, what they want to do. And being part of the foundation that a young child’s education is built on is something that I’m proud of. I would like to see my business grow from a daycare to a full childcare center where infant toddler care would be included, as well as the preschool. Instead of Starbright Daycare, it can be Starbright Preschool Center or Starbright Childcare Center.

This is the house that I was raised in as a child. This is actually the house I was brought home to from the hospital. So this house has been with me for a long time. A woman who watched me as a child still has her childcare and she’s about a stone’s throw from here. And she’s been going strong for about 20 years. I’ve come full circle. I’m glad to be right back in the same neighborhood that I grew up in. The good times that I spent here as a child. I am very happy that I kind of get to keep them going.