Lighting Up Children’s Lives

Kathrynn Bustard attends a Camarillo Family YMCA day-care program held at her elementary school Mondays through Thursdays, before and after her kindergarten class. While there, she does schoolwork, makes arts and crafts and plays games.

Kathrynn, 6, is one of 13 kindergartners who benefit from a 40% to 50% reduction in fees for the YMCA’s after-school care at Dos Caminos and Las Posas elementary schools. Now, nearly twice as many kindergartners will be able to receive the discounted care, thanks to Proposition 10 funds.

The YMCA learned last month that it will receive $28,800 from the Children and Families First Commission, a county panel created to distribute $11.7 million a year in cigarette tax revenues.

Without financial aid from the YMCA, Kathrynn would be forced to attend day care at another site, creating a transportation problem for her mother, Amy, 26, who is a full-time Cal State Northridge student. A single mother, Bustard pays about $150 a month, instead of $300, for her daughter’s care.

“This is just the kind of thing we feel good about funding,” said Dr. Robert Levin, a member of the Children and Families First Commission. “We want to be able to provide good child care for children, so parents are freed up and kids are spending their time in an enriching experience.”

The commission is among six groups in the county to receive the latest batch of funds generated through Proposition 10, a 1998 statewide initiative that placed a 50-cent tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products, with the proceeds going to benefit children 5 and younger.

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The commission will give a total of $470,380 in this round to the YMCA and five other groups: Continuing Development Inc. in Oxnard; the Ventura office of the University of California Cooperative Extension; Child Development Resources of Ventura County in Oxnard; Martinez Family Childcare, a private, in-home day-care facility in Oxnard; and Los Angeles-based KidShape, which serves Ventura.

Since September, the commission has disbursed nearly $1.27 million to 36 groups in the county.

Earlier this year, more than 70 groups applied for this portion of the Proposition 10 funding, which is earmarked for child development programs. Applicants were asked to have an innovative idea or to reduce learning barriers for children under 5. Twenty-five independent reviewers around the state studied the applications, giving their recommendations to a subcommittee of the commission, which then gave its final approval.

Continuing Development Inc., which operates about 120 child-care centers statewide and 11 in Ventura County, will receive $130,000 to purchase a modular building for its Green Valley Daycare Center in Oxnard.

The site, which currently serves 44 low-income preschool children, will be able to accommodate 48 additional children when the new building is in place in March, said Rachel Champagne, the organization’s program director. A family of three with an annual income of $34,632 or less qualifies for this day-care program, she said.

“We would not have expanded had we not had the Prop. 10 money,” Champagne said. “That’s a no-brainer.”

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Other groups consider the funds crucial to their progress. The Ojai Unified School District, which in September learned it would receive $18,169 from Proposition 10, will purchase playground equipment for use by handicapped children at the Topa Topa Kindergarten Annex next to the district offices. The equipment will be placed alongside standard playground equipment to allow handicapped kids a chance to play with their peers, said Marty Babayco, the district’s director of student services.

“Prop. 10 was really instrumental in letting us purchase the right kind of equipment,” Babayco said. “When people have access they feel better about themselves, and that’s hopefully what some of this money will do.”

Holy Cross Preschool in Ojai will use $6,300 from the tobacco tax to build a path between its facility at Holy Cross Lutheran Church and Ojai Valley Hospital. The path will make it easier for seniors from the hospital’s skilled nursing unit to visit the preschool to socialize with children. Seniors serve as pseudo-grandparents to the children, said Lida Wachniuk, preschool director.

“The children gain a lot from it,” Wachniuk said.. “It’s a way of increasing their experiences with older people and appreciating them. The elderly can contribute life experiences to the little ones.”

Child Development Services, a Simi Valley-based umbrella organization that helps children in the early stages of development, received about $105,000. The money will be used to install new playground equipment at Family Connection Preschool and to fund a clinic for children with special needs, ranging from attention deficit disorder to cerebral palsy, said director Robin Millar.

“What really excited me is we could stay right here, in our own community,” said Trish Johnson, executive director of the Camarillo Family YMCA. “We know they really are coming back to the community and we are using them.”

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Levin said the commission will next look to distribute $5.5 million for programs that prepare preschool children for the educational years ahead. Commission members have asked different regions in the county to work together to develop such programs and jointly apply for grants.

The commission plans to have the entire $11.7 million handed out by September, Levin said.

Supervisor Frank Schillo is already working on a plan to take advantage of that money. Schillo and more than a dozen nonprofit groups in the east county have joined forces to create Neighborhoods for Learning, a series of referral centers in Oak Park, Westlake and Newbury Park. Schillo said it will take about $500,000 a year to run the program, which will help families access a variety of services, including child care, literacy programs, parenting classes and drug abuse counseling.

Schillo hopes to receive the funds by March and have the program running by summer.

Some officials criticized the Children and Families First Commission earlier this year for moving too slowly with its decision making, but Levin said the end result is what matters most.

“We have deliberated and studied and were very careful in thinking through how these funds would best be spent,” he said. “We’re pleased with what we’ve done.”

As is Bustard, who works once a week in a hair salon. She appreciates the extra funding made available to the YMCA.

“If it can help other people who are in the same situation that I’m in, it’s great,” she said. “That little bit of money takes away the worry and stress.”