BRUNSWICK — As schools and child care centers close their doors leaving parents who have no choice but to work to scramble to find alternative, Family Focus in Brunswick is staying open.
Whether their parents are doctors, nurses, grocery store workers or food delivery drivers, “children still need a safe place to go, still need to be cared for,” executive director Laura Larson said. “There are still a lot of employers and a lot of people who still feel they’re needed out there in the community or where not working is not an option. … This is the one area where we can help.”
Family Focus is a nonprofit offering services for children starting at six weeks through fifth grade.
So far, board members and staff have reached out to Mid Coast Hospital and other organizations working to treat and stop the spread of the coronavirus, to determine need.
“Family Focus is stepping up to make sure that children are kept as safe as possible, especially for the parents who work in the medical field,” said John Richardson, Family Focus board president.
The offer does not extend solely to medical workers or first responders.
Bath Iron Works remains open, despite union objection, and some parents are able to work from home, but it can be difficult to work with a hungry 1 year old to take care of or a toddler to look after, Larson said.
Still, remaining open has not been easy, and the situation changes daily.
Enrollment has plummeted. Usually, Family Focus serves about 400 children in Brunswick, Bath, Topsham, Bowdoin, Bowdoinham and Harpswell through daycare and before and after-school programs. About 300 of the 400 children they serve are from the schools, and they have encouraged parents who are able to keep their kids home to do so.
Thursday, Larson estimated there were about 20 children still receiving care and they hope to raise that number next week with an offsite emergency school-age program they are actively trying to get up and running.
For those 20, though, they are doing everything they can to keep them safe.
Aside from ramping up cleaning and sanitation practices, the front doors remain locked and before entering, children are looked over for any signs of illness and their temperatures are taken.
Parents are not allowed to enterer the building, and any extra items like blankets or a change of clothes are left at the center instead of going back and forth between home and the center.
Children are being fed by staff so that lunch boxes also do not travel between locations.
Staff conduct self-screenings before starting a shift.
Thursday morning, Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 52 identified cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, in Maine. Of those, the majority are in Cumberland County, where Shah said there is evidence of community transmission.
“Everybody’s scared, everybody’s worried,” Shah said, and the economic impacts are just as, if not more, concerning.
For children who are not subsidized, full-time care ranges from $202 to $252 per week, and $109 and below for before and after-school care.
Some families have paid for next week’s care, even if their children will not be attending, in an effort to help out.
“Early childhood education is already a low-paying profession. … A lot of us live paycheck to paycheck,” Larson said. “The majority of our operating budget is personnel, (and) we can’t trim back without laying off teachers. I’m trying to keep them all working as much as I can (but) we’re a nonprofit, there isn’t this huge reserve.”
Despite this, as long as there are teachers coming to work and as long as they are allowed to, Larson said Family Focus will stay open, especially as quarantines and shut downs extend beyond the initial two weeks.
“There are a lot of families that are just waiting through these two weeks, but (after that) people are going to have to return to work or continue to hunker down. I’m not sure what the need will be until (then).”
In the meantime, “Take a deep breath, support each other and help the neighbor next door,” she said. “Think of the people out there are in need of support… it’s the only way we’re going to get through this.”
For more information visit familyfocusme.org or email amandab@familyfocusme.org
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