#HydePark2025: 24-Hour Day Care Center
DB4E Collaborates with the Neighborhood on a 24-Hour Childcare Center
When we began our work in partnership with the residents of Hyde Park to implement their vision for a transformed community, local residents, through the Child Care Entrepreneurship Partnership (CCEP), identified the need for a 24-hour childcare center. There is currently a daycare center in the neighborhood, but the facility does not support 24-hour care. Many parents and caregivers in the community have jobs that require overnight shifts, so 24-hour daycare is an essential resource that will help families maintain consistent employment, all while providing a great start for the little ones. The neighborhood requested that DB4E collaborate with the community to make this vision a reality.
When the neighborhood asks, we listen. This is part of our commitment to respond to emerging needs in Hyde Park.
The childcare center will be located near the other properties we are currently renovating in Hyde Park. While renovating a daycare center is outside of our typical model (which usually focuses on transforming residential properties and selling them at an affordable rate to first-time homebuyers), the project aligns with our vision of strengthening an entire community. This reflects DB4E’s tailored approach to neighborhood transformation. Through the daycare project, we’re leveraging our model so that supporters can contribute to the community’s real needs in a practical way.
How the Daycare Center Will Work
A local daycare provider will be running the 24-hour daycare. The provider has always been called to childcare. Her story encompasses many experiences common among the families she now supports through the daycare center she currently runs. She was a single teen mom, briefly experienced homelessness, worked several jobs simultaneously, and experienced interruptions in her education. Despite this, she earned her GED, became a foster mom, and opened her daycare.
A lifelong City resident with close ties to the Hyde Park neighborhood and a graduate of St. Louis Public Schools, the daycare provider is committed to fostering stability in families through reliable, safe child care.
She will employ folks living in the neighborhood at the daycare center. The new space will have the capacity to care for more children than are currently being served in the neighborhood. It will include a residential space where the daycare owner can live. It will provide multi-age care and offer transportation when needed, working in partnerships with local schools and afterschool programs. It will truly be an anchor institution in the neighborhood.
“My goal for the new space will be to offer more non-traditional care for the parents who need it—Overnight care, early morning care, and late night care. This is a great need in the childcare community. Also, the new space will be more useful to us because there is more space to offer better care.” - Local Daycare Provider
The Renovation Project
The building itself is an abandoned daycare center located at 3509 14th Street. While currently in disrepair, it has the potential to be a beautiful space. That’s where we come in. From November 2021 to May 2022, we are spearheading a full rehabilitation of the daycare space. We will engage five BIPOC contractors and 50 youth to tackle this ambitious project, which will be completed May 2022. By early summer, families in Hyde Park will have the peace of mind knowing they can access high quality childcare at any time of the day or night.
While DB4E will not be operating the daycare, we’ll continue to upkeep the building, ensuring that the physical space is sustainably maintained for years to come.
We always learn from the expertise held within communities, and Hyde Park is no different. Childcare experts have taught us that it truly takes a village to care for the next generation. Transforming a neighborhood means supporting every age group and every family member. Together, we’re making sure the youngest in the neighborhood will get a great start.
The childcare center is part of our larger campaign, Hyde Park 2025, which aims to transform Hyde Park into an economically sustainable and socially engaged neighborhood by growing equity and creating intersecting outcomes for youth, residents, businesses, and real estate. Support the childcare center by donating to Hyde Park 2025 today.
