As childcare costs rise, new facility will offer free emergency care
The phone at the Avondale Respite Center hasn’t rang in months and it’s not even open yet.
The calls aren’t surprising because the center offers something that’s not available anywhere else in the city: free emergency child care.
For Holly Jenkins-Livers, CEO of the center, the journey to opening the center began in 2022 and involved mountains of paperwork, logistics, permitting and coordination. The idea grew out of community meetings in Avondale led by Hamilton County Job and Family Services and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
“One of the things that’s missing is a safe place to leave their kids,” she said.
The center already offers yoga classes. The Avondale branch of Fifth Third Bank, with the support of Branch Manager Domonique Broomfield, is partnering with the center to offer financial literacy classes. Basic reading and computer classes are also planned.
Rina Wallace, who is also working to create the center, said she wants Avondale residents to have a stake in the center.
“We can’t keep doing things to people,” Wallace said. “We have to do things with people.”
Jenkins-Livers said she expects the center to open in April or May.
A free service could intervene in the event of an emergency
There will be no cost to parents, however, state regulations limit the number of times a person can use the center to 30 times per year.
The center has the capacity to accommodate 32 children and will have a staff of six to eight people to start, Jenkins-Livers said. She considers it an “emergency daycare”.
Jenkins-Livers envisions parents using the center to provide child care assistance during last-minute job interviews and court dates. She said it could also be used when one parent has to go to work and the other parent is late.
It’s been a long road to get the center to where it is. Jenkins-Livers said it took a year to find a building. The center is now housed in a former daycare on Ridgeway Avenue. The building has a new owner who has worked with the center to completely renovate the space.
Dr. Carley Riley, attending physician and director of the Mayerson Child Well-being Initiative at Cincinnati Children’s, consults for the respite center.
“This center was born from the hearts and hands of a group of community members who came together,” Riley said. “They sought positive, courageous, effective, community-based solutions to care for the children and families of Avondale.”
Childcare costs are increasing
The cost of child care in Ohio is rising rapidly. A report from the Columbus Dispatch found that the average cost of an infant and 4-year-old in an Ohio day care center was $25,532 per year in 2024. That’s a 16.4% increase from 2023.
Riley said many Cincinnati families do not have meaningful access to high-quality, affordable child care, especially after-hours.
Hours for the Avondale center have not yet been set, but in the long term, Jenkins-Livers hopes, it will be open outside of normal business hours, including nights and weekends.
The center is modeled after Cleveland’s Providence House, Jenkins-Livers said. Created in 1981, Providence House considers itself a crisis nursery. It can house hundreds of children spread across multiple sites, even overnight, and can provide care for up to 90 days.
Cincinnati Children’s and Hamilton County Job and Family Services manages the All Families Thrive initiative. The center is part of the initiative, which received funding from the Harmony Project, named for Judith Harmony, a pioneer in college education.
Jenkins-Livers said the center has four years of funding, but they are already looking for new sources of funding to maintain and grow the respite center.
They also strive to hire staff and want to set the bar high with who they hire with.
“If we want to make a difference, we have to be different,” Wallace said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Free Emergency Child Care Coming to Avondale
