Thirty-one local daycare providers graduate from Glen View
School program
Gilroy – Educators often tout the developmental benefits of parental involvement but for some families living in the westside neighborhood near Glen View Elementary School, spending ample time at home with their young ones is difficult.
“Our parents, they’re out in the fields, working,” said Yvette Robles, community liaison with the Glen View Alliance Neighbors Achieving Success School.
Instead, parents leave their children with relatives, friends and neighbors who may have little experience caring for children. That’s one of the reasons, G.A.N.A.S., teamed up with another nonprofit, the 4C Council of Santa Clara County.
For the past five months, 31 Gilroy residents living in the Glen View neighborhood, received daycare training courtesy of the two nonprofits.
The locals spent five months attending workshops focused on a variety of topics including health, safety, nutrition and literacy, and graduated from the program Wednesday evening.
When G.A.N.A.S. – a collaborative created by five agencies with the intent to address the needs of low-income families in the Glen View neighborhood – decided to take-on the issue of daycare, it called upon the 4C Council.
The San Jose-based program provides license-exempt child care training. Individuals 18 and older who provide daycare in their home or the child’s home are eligible for the training.
Armed with the training and $4,000 worth of donated educational toys, relatives, neighbors and friends can provide superior care to their charges. Now, instead of installing the children in front of the television set, care providers have tools at their fingertips, Robles said.
G.A.N.A.S. is in its second year of operation and funded by a $2.3-million five-year grant through Knight Ridder. When the grant runs out the nonprofit will look to other local entities for funding.
