Lean on Us Unity Child Care
On this edition of the Artist Spotlight, we highlight Dianeda Short and Priscilla Ofosu, the COO and CEO respectively, of Lean on Us Unity Child Care Center. Lean on Us Unity Child Care Center came about via Dianeda and Priscilla’s nonprofit organization Lean on Us Unity House of Faith, a group home for pregnant teens and teen/single moms established in 2012. The Child Care Center welcomes children from the ages of five weeks to five-years-old and offers before and after care for elementary age students (five to 12-years-old). Leon On Us Unity Child Care Center has been open for nearly a year. They celebrate the one year anniversary of their opening in October. They have a full staff including a director that makes decisions on the day-to-day operations for the child care center.
The child care center is open from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The day begins with breakfast for students. Then children go to their respective classrooms at 9:00 a.m. where the classes follow individual plans and schedules. Throughout the day, children have the chance to enjoy various activities including water fun and nature walks. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, they have added the process of disinfecting classrooms, taking children’s temperatures each day and asking children questions to gauge if they were at risk of possible infection away from the center. Staff that fall ill are required to quarantine for 14 days or take a COVID-19 test to ensure they are not infected.
Neither Dianeda nor Priscilla are formal educators. Both work full-time in the dental field. They did not meet until they began working together in the dental field when Priscilla hired Dianeda as a dental assistant. They formed a bond while working together, and during a discussion about how the world views teenagers they talked about what they could do to better the perception of teens. This conversation planted the seeds for what would eventually become the Lean On Us Unity Child Care Center, along with their co-founder Sonya. The fact that they are not educators by trade meant a strong focus on questions about what the curriculum would be, and the best style of learning for the children. It was a struggle for them before they ultimately decided that the Reggio Emilia approach was the best way to go. This is a learning style that originated in Italy which focuses on the philosophy that learning must make sense to the student in order to be effective. Reggio Emilia is also a program that focuses on the arts. They are the only educational program running the Reggio Amelia program in Prince George’s County.
As Dianeda explained, they wanted to bring a new style of learning to the area based on research on how children are learning, where the center is located, and if it was an effective style of learning for the children. Priscilla went on to speak about the difficulty to transition into a Reggio Emilia learning approach as opposed to the traditional book learning, not only for the children but for the parents and staff. They make it a point to let the children’s parents know they are “partners” and that the parents are the child’s first teacher and that they need to be on the same page in order to give the child the best learning experience.
Priscilla spoke on how she wished she understood all the financial aspects of owning a childcare center when she started. “When you’re a new business it does not matter what your credit score is, banks don’t really want to give you money…how are you prepared for that? How are you prepared for the unknown? How much money do you need?” She added that it was a struggle hiring staff in what she described as “something that is not looked on as a professional environment.” She did phone interviews with 20-30 people, and only two people showed up for in-person interviews.
Priscilla spoke about the most rewarding aspect of owning a childcare center being able to watch children learn each day, hearing them laugh/cry and the ability to hire/compensate staff who struggle finding work otherwise. Dianeda spoke on being able to clear payroll as the most rewarding aspect of owning a childcare center. She explained that the process to compensate their staff is stressful but is rewarding to see the smiles on their faces. We concluded by speaking on the vision for Lean On Us Unity Child Care Center and the group home. They spoke on wanting to expand to different locations like Atlanta or Chicago, and as their slogan says “bridge the educational achievement gap.” They want to do more work in the community in order to foster change for children, parents and the community at-large.
Company website: https://leanonusunitychildcare.com/
Company email: leanonusunityccc@gmail.com
Company phone: 301-281-2711
Address: 1051 Owens Road Oxon Hill, MD 20745