Families and child care providers came to KPBS on Saturday for a resource fair and event celebrating the launch of the six-part series “Where’s My Village.” They were able to connect with local organizations, including the San Diego County YMCA and First Five, and ask questions about child care.
Sources featured in the series also shared their experiences. That includes Megan Moore, the mother of a Transitional Kindergarten student.
“Thank you so much for having me as a part of this project,” she said. “Lots of stay-at-home moms don't really get to tell their story. When you hear the words ‘stay-at-home mom’, you think home-cooked meals and a clean house, but that is never the story.”
Masada Ellis, whose two sons go to a subsidized Head Start program run by Episcopal Community Services, also talked about why he wanted to be part of the series.
“I wanted to show people, like no, we are not trying to be fake in this world,” he said. “I wanted to talk to the politicians and the people and let them know I'm a regular person who has an OK kind of job and a wife with an OK job, and we have the degrees … but we’re in debt. So doing this was a good way to show we do need help. We're not making all this money like everyone thinks, and we do need help.”
Families looking for child care got guidance from resource organizations at the event. Including the Carnahan family.
Dominic Carnahan is in the Navy and Rebecca Carnahan is a teacher. They welcomed their baby, Sylvia, five weeks ago.
“We don't have family so we don't have that as a child care option,” Rebecca said. “So there's a lot of anxiety, at least from me, surrounding the child care issue. I'm a teacher, and I go back to work in August so we're looking for child care for then. We're really just starting and we're feeling really far behind right now.”
They both said they feel lost navigating the child care system and disappointed at the lack of support. Dominic said he was expecting more help.
“It does seem like there's a huge abundance of military members here. We all bring our families,” he said. “We don't really have the networks that traditional people have … finding the resources is really difficult. “
The Carnahan family did connect with the YMCA, who provided them with a list of child care providers, despite them being just outside the subsidy income limit.
Child care was provided during the event, and at the end, all the children were entertained with a story time and a visit from the Cat in the Hat. But parents and providers were still left wondering what’s next.
“Where do we get to the next steps, because we can have a lot of conversations, but what actions are going to be next?” said a provider at the event.
Advocates at the event announced they’re pushing for a ballot measure to fund child care in the 2026 election.
