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 The organization that provides child care for young
children has been re-accredited by the National Accreditation
Commission (NAC), enrolled several children affected by Little Lambs
Learning Center recent closing, continued to partner with Oddfellows,
and has made several updates to the old building.
Christian Child Care Director Libby Canady says, “CCC is DCFS
Licensed and nationally accredited through the National
Accreditation Commission (NAC), and is rated as an ExceleRate
Illinois Gold Circle of Quality Child Care Center.”
Canady said what it means is that “we have exceeded the DCFS
Licensed standards, rose to meet the NAC accreditation requirements
that go above and beyond licensing requirements - rich, high quality
learning environments, lower staff to child ratios, strong child -
teacher interactions, best practice businesses standard -, and have
met the high standards of highly qualified trained staff whom are
committed to annual on-going training and education to be the best
teachers for their learners.”
CCC went through a rigorous process with many hours of paperwork and
classroom observations to receive the accreditation.
The recent closing of Little Lambs Learning Center meant that many
families had to search for new options for child care. Canady said,
“When CCC heard the announcement of Little Lambs Learning Center
closing, our thoughts immediately went to the families and staff at
their facility and we knew we had to do something to support our
community.”
Canady said, “The Christian Child Care Board of Directors,
administrative staff, and teaching staff immediately took action to
discover options, what next steps needed to be taken, [and how] to
implement more child care openings for our community. We knew our
time would be the biggest hurdle.”
Canady contacted CCC’s DCFS licensing representative Connie Long to
obtain information about expansion options. She also talked to the
city of Lincoln fire marshal to discover potential safety and
capacity issues and city of Lincoln Building and Safety Officer Wes
Woodhall to gather information about permits and anything obstacles
that may be in the way.
Canady said, “After a week of research, meetings, and more meetings
to determine next steps, CCC’s Board of Directors approved a plan to
expand our license to serve more families as soon as possible.”
With just a few weeks to get ready, Canady said, “Teaching staff
rallied together to clean, organize, and complete room changes to
make more room for more care to support Little Lamb’s displaced
families.
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Once all the planning, moving and license processes were
completed, CCC had created enough room to welcome 24 Little Lamb’s families
–one-third of the families that were left without care.”
Canady said, “Unfortunately there are still approximately 50
families left without care and an undetermined amount of families who were on a
Little Lambs waitlist, as well as the waitlist for Christian Child Care.”
Canady said, “CCC also began to gather community interest in addressing the
urgent need for additional care.”
Helping to address needs are the Oddfellows, who are CCC’s property owners and
partner with CCC.
Melissa Richards, President of the Children’s Home Board said, “The building
that Christian Childcare rents was built in 1961 and was an orphanage run by the
Oddfellows. The brick house on the property was used for the administrator of
the orphanage.”
Richards said, “When there was not a need for the orphanage, it was closed, and
the Oddfellows attempted to run a childcare day care. After not much success the
Oddfellows partnered with Christian Child Care and they have run the daycare
ever since. The Children's Home Board of the Oddfellows maintains this building
and three other buildings on the property.”
Canady said that besides helping maintain the buildings,
Oddfellows is “most importantly a partner with CCC to offer quality childcare
for Logan County [and] has played a critical role in the success of Christian
Child Care. Odd Fellows has shown continued commitment over the last 15 years of
making sure that CCC has a building that is safe, usable, and comforting for the
care of children.”
Over the years that has meant upgrades to the building. Richards said, “We have
made many improvements to the Christian Child Care facility. A new roof was put
on in 2016, new lights have been installed in the building over the past several
months, and we just completed the paving of the driveway and parking lot.”
Canady said, “Members of their organization have committed time, financial
resources, and charitable philosophies to ensure that Christian Child Care is
here for its community.”
Looking ahead, the upcoming year promises to be another eventful year as it
marks 30 years of providing child care. Canady said, “Christian Child Care is
excited to celebrate its 30th anniversary in September 2019. This anniversary
marks the partnership of a community and the importance of high-quality
childcare environments for the children. We would love to get the community
involved in celebrating with us.”
[Angela Reiners] |
