California mandates say that daycare centers like Long Beach’s Comprehensive Child Development maintain a 3-to-1 student-teacher ratio, but the looming state budget will likely cut funds that make it hard to pay bills. “It’s a conundrum,” says one program director. This weekend’s 22nd annual Bayou Festival is the organization’s only fundraiser, and is expected to draw over 12,000 visitors. It could be exactly what the CCD needs.
For the past 24 years, Long Beach’s Comprehensive Child Development has been preparing the city’s youth for elementary school. What started in a small San Pedro church expanded rapidly and now includes four daycare centers in Long Beach, two in San Pedro and one in Wilmington that collectively serve more than 500 children – preschool to kindergarten – in low-income families.
One of the greatest benefits is that the free childcare offered to struggling families allows parents to work during the day, knowing their children are safe and learning.
“If not for childcare, there are many parents that would fall into or back into the welfare system,” says Director of Finance Connie Arizmendi. That’s why we’re here. We don’t want parents leaving the kids home alone or with teenagers. We want them to be safe.”
To accommodate parents – may of whom must work long hours – the center stays open from 7am to 6pm, every day, to best serve the community that it has called home for so long.
But that home is in danger of crumbling. With the state in a crippling budget deficit, CCD fears that its funding may be among the first to be cut when the new proposed budget is introduced sometime this summer. Running a non-profit that relies completely on state funding is never easy, and Arizmendi is used to having to ask creditors to accept late payments. But for the first time since its inception, the CCD may have to cut vital staffing or, worse yet, close its doors to the community.
Finance director Connie Arizmendi learns from some of the kids during recess.
“When you’re running a child development program and doing it fairly lean, everything you do is right on the edge anyway,” says Executive Director Tammie Kyle. “It’s so labor-intensive that we can’t afford to lay people off.”
Still more frustrating is the fact that their hands are tied until the budget is released. Kyle says they hope to hear news, any news, in the next few weeks, but that hope is pure optimism and not based on anything they’ve heard.
“We try to track it as closely as we can,” she says. “But that doesn’t take the worry away.”
The Bayou Fest
A tradition almost as old as the center itself, the CCD’s annual Bayou Festival will take over downtown’s Rainbow Lagoon for the 22nd time this weekend. It is the organization’s only fundraiser, and this year the stakes are even higher.
(Buy your tickets to this weekend’s Bayou Festival here)
So the CCD made a few adjustments. Louise Cunningham became the center’s first-ever Development Director, seeking financial support and writing grants but more importantly, putting Comprehensive Child Development in the public eye for the first time.
“Before, there hadn’t been a voice in the community,” says Cunningham, who has eased the strain of performing several exhausting jobs on Kyle and Arizmendi. The new Development Director has been able to put out the CCD name more than ever before.
“It’s not just for us to raise money,” she says. “More importantly, it’s to raise awareness that we’re here.”
With that problem solved, the organization looked for help with another need: promoting their annual Bayou Festival fundraiser that celebrates everything Cajun, from food and dancing to beads and masks. They didn’t have to look far for the perfect fit.
Al Williams and Kimberly Benoit of Rainbow Promotions host the Long Beach Jazz Festival every year and have turned it into one of the city’s biggest attractions. This year, they’ll take over promotion and set-up for the Bayou Festival – the first time that Kyle and Arizmendi don’t handle it themselves. Williams and Benoit are happy to lend a hand.
“What makes it worthwhile is that it’s such a worthy cause,” says Benoit. “They’re great people over there [at CCD], and whatever you need they’ll help you.”
But that reputation doesn’t always sell tickets, and though Kyle estimates that the Bayou Fest draws 8,000 visitors on the norm, Rainbow has taken promotion up a notch and expects this to be the most famous Bayou Festival ever.
“We’ve been getting a very favorable reaction from the community,” says Williams. “Our promos are going well all over the Southern California area.”
That’s part of the expertise and guidance that Williams and the Rainbow group can bring to the Comprehensive Child Development table. In addition to expanding promotions to reach the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, the Festival will save huge amounts in costs this year because Rainbow organizes the Jazz Festival on the same location and has years of experience with organizers. Drastically reduced costs and the largest crowd in Festival history could be exactly what the CCD needs.
“Booking talent hasn’t been difficult,” Williams says. “Mainly, it’s how do you get to the public and the masses?”
“So many people just had never heard of it,” says Benoit.
They won’t be able to say that next year. Rainbow expects over 12,000 attendees – a 50% increase from last year’s festival.
What’s Next?
A scarecrow was just erected in the Comprehensive Child Development playground, so as to guard the tomato and corn crops that the children planted and have been nurturing. It’s just a small plot, but the corn has already sprouted to five feet and the tomatoes are a perfect pre-ripe green. Professional botanists couldn’t have done a better job.
It’s the only yard that most of the kids have.
This is the kind of opportunity that CCD offers to the city’s youth. The opportunity to experience things that they otherwise would not have access to, like caring for a garden or the use of a brand-new jungle gym in the heart of inner-city Long Beach.
During lunch, meals are served family-style and the children dole out their own portions, waiting politely for everyone at the table to be served before digging in.
In class, kids are given options on how to spend their day, opening communication and dialogue between student and teacher that develop language skills far advanced for their age. By the time CCD kids get to grade school, they’re among the best behaved, creative and attentive students in the city.
“Some of the parents say, ‘I cant believe how well behaved my child is at the table!’” Arizmendi says with a proud smile. “In 24 years here, I have never, never heard of one of our kids growing up to become a problem in the neighborhood.”
Yet, they’ll be the first ones to be affected by the new state’s budget.
“They’re going to be hit really hard by the cuts,” says Patrice Wong of the Long Beach Day Nursery. Wong’s organization offers similar care, but does not service as many children and does not rely on grants as heavily.
“It will be a struggle for us, too,” she says. “But so much of their funding comes from the state.”
In an effort to give back to the community, Comprehensive Child Development does its business locally whenever possible. It’s a noble practice, but can be a severe drawback when local businesses can’t afford as much financial leeway as larger companies. Rent is often the first thing to be put on the negotiation table, and CCD has enough clout that a deal is always worked out. But utilities are a different story, and classroom halls may be dark by the time any state funding reaches their doorstep. It’s an unfortunate situation when government mismanagement leads to cutbacks that hurt those who need it most.
“It’s a trickle-down effect in the worst way,” says Cunningham, who worked with the Association for Retarded Citizens before becoming CCD Development Director, and saw similar funding cuts there. “It’s a domino effect of the most vulnerable people being harmed.”
At this point, there’s nothing they can do to stop it. The CCD and hundreds of childcare agencies like it are at the mercy of the state budget – and no one has any idea when it will be released. Even if it came out tomorrow, funding is likely to be cut drastically, and the center won’t see the money deposited for another 4-6 weeks. By then, the CCD’s summer program may be too great a load to carry, and it could be scrapped to ensure that care will continue in the Fall.
It’s the last thing Comprehensive Child Development wants to do. It may be the only thing that Comprehensive Child Development can do. But one thing is certain.
“It’s no way to run an institution,” says Kyle.
“Or a state.”
The children are treated to breakfast and lunch in family-style settings at the center, serving their own portions and learning to share.
A scarecrow the children designed and built guards crops of corn and tomatoes.