Home » Free child care provides safe space for kids affected by L.A. fires – Jobsmaa.com

Free child care provides safe space for kids affected by L.A. fires – Jobsmaa.com

0 comments

Screams of joy echo from the playground at Eagle Rock Recreation Center. A group of 30 children are grouped according to their favorite breakfast item.

“I prefer pancakes to waffles,” declared one child.

“Pancakes, pancakes!” They chanted together as others beckoned to join them.

Despite the upheaval in their families' lives, there was a sense of normalcy among the children gathered at the recreation center. A few miles away, thousands of Altadena homes, schools and businesses were leveled by the Eaton Fire.

The Eden and Palisades fires destroyed at least 11 public and private schools and about 30 child care facilities — and thousands of families were displaced by the flood of damage — and more than 12,000 structures, including many homes, were destroyed.

Across Los Angeles County, many families affected by the fires are looking to maintain structure and routine for their children and are turning to disaster pop-up shelters. Plan: Camp. In partnership with LA City Recreation and Parks, the camp offers free childcare during fire emergencies. The organization has responded to disasters across the country, including Hurricane Helen in North Carolina in 2024 and the Maui wildfires in 2023.

The organization has set up three camps throughout Los Angeles County, with plans to open more as needed. Every LA camp this week filled up within hours of registration.

That's a symbol "The Los Angeles Times is an early childhood effort" In colorful characters.

Engage with us Community Journal As we explore childcare, post-kindergarten, health and other issues affecting children from birth to 5 years old.

systems like Boys and Girls Club, YMCA And Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation They also offer free childcare options. And yet other preschools, local businesses and families take it into their own hands to create temporary childcare at this time of need.

“Especially younger children, they rely on stability in their lives to feel like everything is okay,” said Karen Rogers, a clinical psychologist at the National Center for School Crisis and Mortality at Children's Hospital LA. They have to live somewhere else and that sense of predictability is gone.

Here you can find free childcare.

Frances, 6, and Harriet, 9, rushed to hug their mom, Anne Thornberg, as she waited to pick them up from Eagle Rock Recreation Center. The two girls spent the past few days playing games and sharing snippets of their experiences with the other kids. St Mark's School in Altadena, where they both attended, was destroyed by the Eaton fire.

“It's hard to be 9 and 6 years old and be at home and feel like everything is uncertain,” said Thornberg, adding that many of her daughters' friends have lost their homes.

A mother hugs her two toddler daughters as she picks them up from camp.

Anne Thornberg with her daughters Frances, 6, left, and Harriet, 9, attend a program that provides free childcare for families affected by the fire: Camp, Jan. 15 at the Eagle Rock Recreation Center, where Frances and Harriet's school, Mark, burned in the St. Eaton fire.

(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)

It's the same for Michael Dodge, whose two children attend Altadena Arts Magnet, which he learned will be one of the last schools within Pasadena Unified to receive support to reopen after being damaged by fire. He wants his 7- and 9-year-old children to be with other children and maintain a sense of personal safety as he and his wife work, volunteer and support friends, many of whom have lost their homes.

Despite the disruption, Dodge, who takes her children to regular dance and basketball activities after picking them up from camp, said, “We're trying to stick to routines.”

Establishing structure through camps and other activities can help children feel more comfortable when everything around them changes, said Rogers, who advises local school systems affected by the fires. Knowing what's coming next throughout the day can make a big difference, she added.

Child Care Centers etc Big and Little 10th Street Preschool They are trying to contribute to the stability of families by providing free care to those displaced by the Santa Monica fire. Owner Kelce Bilbao started her first student on Wednesday, with her mother to ease the nerves. He has heard that 15 families are interested in enrolling their children this month.

Meanwhile, her own two daughters, whose charter school campus is closed because they are in an evacuation zone, prefer to attend free camps in Santa Monica run by a local gymnastics center and a taekwondo school rather than attend school online. They yearn for a sense of normalcy, explaining how eager they are to return to their Brentwood home after leaving despite the lack of electricity. She believed the camps would provide more stability than that.

“At this point, I'd like to have something in person,” Bilbao said. “If it looks like it's going to take longer next week, we'll have to make them bigger, but I'm not crazy about it.”

After her son's private school, Village School in Pacific Palisades, burned down, Nikki Hemmath said she and other parents struggled with childcare and how to keep their children busy.

Hemmath, who lives in Brentwood but is not in the evacuation zone, organized daily “campouts” this week for her son and children from other damaged or closed elementary schools in Palisades and the surrounding area.

On Tuesday, a dozen kids gathered on the playground and field at the Barrington Recreation Center for basketball. A sports coach volunteered to supervise the kids at a heavily discounted rate, guiding them through drills as Hemmath and a few parents swapped fire rescue stories around the picnic tables.

“Normal is good for these kids,” Hemmath said. “For a few days there they were stuck on their iPads. We wanted to move them out. This way, their parents can spare some time to fill out the required documents or applications just like FEMA.

This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information on this initiative and its philanthropic funders, go here. latimes.com/earlyed.

You may also like

About Us

We’re a media company. We promise to tell you what’s new in the parts of modern life that matter. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit.

@2024 – All Right Reserved.