By Nick Childs - reporter@highlandsnews.com
The Highlands Chamber of Commerce hosted speakers from the Boys & Girls Club of the Plateau and The Literacy & Learning Center last week to discuss the ongoing childcare needs in Highlands.
The Highlander has previously covered these needs affecting the working community. The Macon County Board of Commissioners approved plans to fund a preschool system in Highlands School but they later backtracked on that, citing more pressing concerns within the school board. NC Child, a 501(c)3 organization focusing on better equipping children for success, spoke in July about the importance of investing in early child education.
The Highlands Cashiers Community Day Care, the Gordon Center, Hampton Preschool in Cashiers, and Cashiers Valley Preschool work to address these needs. Organizations like BGCP and TL&LC also work to serve the community in that fashion.
Carmen Waite, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of the Plateau, spoke first at the Chamber gathering. Waite said there are nearly 200,000 children in North Carolina that do not have an afterschool program that can equip them with life skills and offer children safety and supervision.
“We want to provide a positive impact on youth. Our mission is to enable all young people, especially those that need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, and responsible citizens,” Waite said.
At Boys & Girls Club, children are able to complete homework, get exercise and recreation, socialize with similarly-aged youth and explore their interests. Waite said Boys & Girls Club recorded over 10,000 hours in both home work and recreation last year.
Academics are important. Waite said there was nearly a 25 percent increase in their members who had a B average or higher over the course of a semester, going from 56 to 78 percent.
Recreation is also essential, and Boys & Girls Club even has a recreational therapist on staff. Children routinely engage in yoga, basketball, hikes, swimming, and more.
Boys & Girls Club also has clubs like the gardening club, book club, robotics, LEGO club, and board game club. Through partnerships like with the Laurel Garden Club, children are able to connect with Mother Earth and play outside.
“We’re really trying to create habits they can carry on through their whole lives,” Waite said.
Boys & Girls Club constantly works to positively impact the social and emotional wellbeing of youth, which has been thoroughly impacted by the pandemic.
With some exciting news, Waite said Boys & Girls Club hopes to open inside the Jane Woodward center by Highlands-Cashiers Hospital by March. They aim to be open until 7:30 p.m. to cover the hospital shifts, enrolling 80 students. They were slated to open in January but were delayed. The teen center, which broke ground in November, is still slated for a 2025 opening.
There are 425 children who are members of the organization and they’re served by 50 volunteers and 35 dedicated staff, including a recreational therapist. Waite said there is always a need for volunteers. They must pass background checks and go through a thorough onboarding process.
Following Waite was Caroline Cox, programs manager with The Literacy & Learning Center. TL&LC is an organization striving to promote and fill in any gaps in literacy and life-long education. They have a variety of programs catered for different ages and needs.
“All of our programs are free. Our mission is to provide free educational programs to everyone,” Cox said.
The Literacy & Learning Center is bringing a preschool program to Highlands. It will enroll 18 children. It is slated to open in the fall. It will be open to children aged four and five.
Cox said early child education is an often overlooked factor of an area’s health.
“When you think of the economic development of a town or city, you don’t typically think of early childhood education. However, it is crucial to the success of a town. If you don’t have a place for kids to go, you won’t have as many workers,” she said.
Cox said that for “every dollar invested in early childhood development programs, the community gains per capita 2.8 dollars in returns.”
A free program will also save workers around $800 a month in school costs. This money that come back into the community or be used for necessary expenses.
Cox said TL&LC will make sure the preschool program is competitive. Cox and Carolyn Middlebrooks, director of the pre-k program, have nearly four decades of combined experience in education, and they will use this to help foster development. Cox said the program will enroll a range of people, but they want to help families in need.
“We would like it to be socioeconomic diverse, prioritizing students who are low income, however, we will have spaces for all income levels. That’s important for the success of the program,” Cox said.
TL&LC still has a variety of other programs, including an afterschool program, a GED program, classes for non-native English speakers, and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, where children get a free book each month until they are five years old. TL&LC hasn’t had members take the GED test, but Cox said on average those with a GED can make $9,000 more than those without, so TL&LC wants to focus on incentivizing GED completion.