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Kingdom House Children’s Services
Advance Code Number:  561320

Preventing abuse and neglect, and providing child care and other health and social services.

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Annual Goal: $55,000
Location: United States
Partner: The UMC, Missouri Annual Conference

Background/History

The Near Southside of St. Louis, Missouri, is a historically economically distressed neighborhood. Public housing provided a large proportion of the housing for families. Many young families experienced unemployment and underemployment. Families lacked access to jobs, healthcare, affordable housing, affordable day care, transportation, educational opportunities, health care, and many other essential needs. These community deficits placed severe stresses on young parents and caused many neighborhood children to be at risk. Gangs and crime made life even more difficult. Parents of small children who wanted to find employment and make a better life were stymied by the lack of good, affordable child care. Recent statistics report over 10,000 reported cases of child maltreatment annually in Missouri, and actual incidences are under-reported.

Goals & Objectives

FAMILY CENTER GOALS:

  1. To provide short-term emergency child care to families under stress; 24 -40 child-care “slots” per week, a slot = 1 child cared for one day.
  2. To serve 200 unduplicated families per year with these services.
  3. To provide 25 individuals/year with 8 hours (over 8 weeks) of parenting education.
  4. To provide 25 individuals/year with 8 hours (over 8 weeks) of Anger Management training.

INFANT-TODDLER CENTER GOALS:

  1. To provide quality, year-round day care to 40 infants and toddlers from low income, at-risk families.
  2. To provide health and developmental screenings for each child in our program.
  3. To provide parent support groups, and training for parents and guardians of our children.

Activities Plan

FAMILY CRISIS CENTER:

  • Provide the physical space and material resources to care for children.
  • Publicize the program.
  • Enroll families.
  • Recruit and train staff.
  • Research, develop, and improve curricula on parenting and anger-management.
  • Purchase supplies, equipment, and food for lunches and snacks.
  • Cook and serve lunches and snacks.

DAY CARE CENTER:

  • Hire, train, supervise and pay teachers and administrators.
  • Maintain building and pay utilities and other occupancy costs.
  • Purchase and maintain durable goods-desks, tables, baby beds, cots, high-chairs, toys, etc.
  • Purchase learning curricula, teaching supplies and materials.
  • Distribute materials and resources to children.
  • Purchase screening instruments and training for learning development screenings.
  • Purchase services for health screenings (vision, dental, lead, etc.)
  • Purchase services for children who need interventions to ensure readiness for school (speech/language therapy, behavioral support, etc.)
  • Purchase food for lunches and snacks.
  • Cook and serve meals.
  • Purchase books, supplies, and information for parents/caretakers.
  • Create and manage information files on children and families.