Community Services for Children welcomes Michael Desiante to the Board of Directors

Community Services for Children is thrilled to announce that a new Board Member has joined our team of dedicated, impressive individuals who continuously contribute to the betterment of CSC. We are excited and honored to welcome Michael Desiante to our Board of Directors.

Michael is currently working for KPMG, LLP as a Senior Tax Manager. He attended Villanova University where he received his Master of Taxation. He attended Kutztown University for his undergraduate degree and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting.

Michael is a Certified Public Accountant. He received the PICPA Young Leaders Award and the Robert Weiss CPA Memorial Award for Excellence in Tax Studies.

Together, the board is tasked with guiding CSC into a prosperous future, supporting decisions big and small. There is no doubt that CSC will be stronger and wiser with the expertise, leadership, and skill of our newest member. We look forward to serving together as we prepare young children and their families to succeed in learning and life. Please join us in welcoming Michael Desiante to our Board of Directors!

Nadine Slifka March 22nd, 2024

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Rep. Susan Wild Hosts Roundtable to Discuss Need to Pass Supplemental Child Care Funding

BETHLEHEM, P.A. – Today, Congresswoman Susan Wild joined child care providers and parents at the Greater Valley YMCA, Bethlehem Branch for a roundtable discussion on what a lapse in child care funding would mean for them.

“Hearing the stories of child care providers and parents reinforces what I’ve said time and time again – that high-quality, affordable child care is necessary economic infrastructure for working families to reach their full economic potential,” said Congresswoman Susan Wild. “We must extend key child care funding, so care centers can stay open, providers can earn fair wages, and families can access the care they depend on.”

“The emergency funding from the American Rescue Plan helped stabilize the child care sector by providing foundational support to keep programs open, maintain staffing levels, and make sure programs remain affordable for families,” said Crystal Messer, Vice President of Child Care for the Greater Valley YMCA. “As programs spend down their last remaining stabilization dollars, child care providers like the Y will be challenged to continue meeting the needs of our Valley families while still experiencing staffing shortages and increased demand for services.”

“The supplemental funding proposed for child care would mean so much to the sectors’ infrastructure, accessibility and affordability for families and the healthy development of our youngest learners,” said Kimberly Early, Senior Director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children (PennAEYC). “With child care programs continuing to close altogether or closing classrooms because of the staffing crisis, the infusion of federal dollars would help support a system that operates on razor thin margins. Additional funding is critical to addressing the constriction of child care options for working families, allowing them to work and ultimately improving our overall economy.”

“I hope the supplemental funding being proposed will help centers open in child care deserts like Bath so families like mine can have child care options closer to home and businesses can benefit from my expertise,” said Cleo Otero of Bath, a mother of four who lost access to child care due to staffing shortages. “I want to thank Representative Wild for giving me the time to speak today and I want to urge our federal legislators to do all they can to support child care.”

“High quality child care is critical to a vibrant economy and community. Providing safe and nurturing environments for children while their parents are at work is essential,” said Pam Cho, Vice President of Early Learning Resource Centers at Community Services for Children. If families are unable to find and/or afford high-quality child care, they are faced with the difficult choice of exiting the workforce or placing their children in potentially precarious care arrangements. Now, more than ever before, funding is needed to stabilize the workforce behind the workforce – to ensure affordable high-quality care options for all families with young children.”

“Early childhood education is paramount. The YMCA helped me with preschool years with all of my kids and they really even teach me so much as a parent,” said Melinda Wood, a mother of three from Bethlehem. “Seven years ago, the rent was $1000 cheaper than it is now. I love nursing. I want to work. I couldn’t do child care without the YMCA and without the funding they help me with.”

Roundtable participants discussed the impact access to affordable child care has on their lives. One participant shared that there have been times when her entire paycheck went to child care, but her family could not afford to have her stay home and be a single income household. Another spoke about how she had to leave the workforce due to her inability to find adequate care for her children.

Providers discussed the impact of the pandemic and expiring child care funds on recruiting and retaining staff. They shared that they are currently experiencing staff leaving to pursue higher paying roles in order to support their own families. Not only does this exacerbate the shortage, they explained, but it also reduces the number of experienced mentors for newer staff to learn from. They also spoke about the lack of facilities with adequate space to put children.

At the end of September, key child care funding from the American Rescue Plan expired, leaving providers and parents struggling to make ends meet. Last Wednesday, the White House requested Congress pass $16 billion in supplemental funding to extend these child care grants for an additional year. This supplemental funding would bring $504 million to Pennsylvania, impacting approximately 7,000 providers that serve 375,900 children. Congresswoman Wild is pushing to pass this supplemental request, to ensure that child care centers in Pennsylvania and across the country can stay open and continue to serve working families.

3S33d_admin November 1st, 2023

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Congratulations to our 2023 Donley Award Recipients!

We would like to give a big congratulations to this year’s Donley Award Winners, Jane Ervin and Edward F. Meehan, MPH. Their dedication to early childhood education has made a difference to young children and families throughout the Lehigh Valley. We are forever grateful for the impact they have made on our community.

3S33d_admin October 31st, 2023

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Join us for our Project Child Forum

Join us November 15, 1 – 3 pm, at Community Services for Children’s Training Institute (1520 Hanover Ave., Allentown, PA 18109). We will be joined by guest speaker Katie Fries, LCSW, RPT, CCTP.

Cost breakdown is as follows:
$10 – No CEs
$25 – CEs- NASW Members
$35 – CEs- NASW Non-members

NASW-PA Chapter is a co-sponsor of this workshop. Two CEs will be awarded for completion of this course. NASW has been designated as a pre-approved provider of professional continuing education for social workers (Section 47.36), Marriage and Family Therapist (Section 48.36) and Professional Counselors (Section 49.36) by the PA State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors.

Please RSVP by November 1, 2023

3S33d_admin October 23rd, 2023

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Welcome Newest Board Members!

CSC is thrilled to announce that four new board members have joined our team of dedicated, impressive individuals who continuously contribute to the betterment of CSC. We are excited to welcome: Julia Jurkiewicz, Administrator of Population Health at Valley Health Partners; Noah Simmons, Chief Financial Officer at Agape Human Services and Director of Operations at Greater Shiloh Church in Easton; Elizabeth Strong- master stylist, artist, and owner of the Elizabeth Anthony’s Salon in Allentown; and Sophia Estrella, a career and business coach and consultant/owner of Kingdom Business Ownership, and a crisis worker at St. Luke’s Hospital Network. Together, the board is tasked with guiding CSC into a prosperous future, supporting decisions big and small. There is no doubt that CSC will be stronger and wiser with the expertise, leadership and skill from our newest members. We look forward to serving together as we prepare young children and their families to succeed in learning and life. Please join us in welcoming our newest members!

Julia Jurkiewicz

Noah Simmons

Elizabeth Strong

Sophia Estrella

3S33d_admin August 9th, 2023

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Community Services Center shows off new WB Early Learning digs

Oct. 27—WILKES-BARRE — A former night club space has a bright new, calming blue look with detailed nature photographs on hallway walls and lots of images of smiling children, clearly ready for a new purpose as a one-stop resource center for low-income parents seeking early learning-related services.

“We moved here in June,” Pamela Cho said to a small group of staff, resource partners and supporters during an open house of the new Early Learning Resource Center in Wilkes-Barre’s Midtown Village Mall. The Community Services for Children (CSC) facility had been about a mile away on North Main Street, and the new location “has a bigger footprint and is more accessible” to area clients.

CSC’s vice-president of Early Learning Resource Centers (ELRC), Cho touted the many agencies and organizations that partner with Allentown-based CSC as it works in 17 counties of Northeast Pennsylvania to “improve the quality, affordability and access of early learning opportunities” to economically disadvantaged families.

She also showed a brief video of the variety of services and programs CSC runs or facilitates. Along with the ELRCs, the agency works with Head Start/Early Head Start pre-school programs, offers professional development opportunities for pre-school workers through the Early Childhood Institute, and operates two programs funded through the state Educational Improvement Tax Credit program: Pre-school scholarships and the Innovation Program to spur interest in technology skills in Head Start children.

A media release accompanying the open house described the ELRC as “a place where families can find high-quality early education opportunities, apply for assistance to help with childcare costs or access other resources that will set them on a path to success. It is also where child care providers can receive information on improving program quality. The ELRC offer a single-entry point for families, early learning providers, and communities to gain information and access services that support children and their families with the ultimate goal of improving quality, accessibility and affordability of early learning in Pennsylvania.”

Luzerne County Head Start Executive Director Lynn Evans Biga praised the partnership with CSC and noted it helps Head Start fulfill the mission to not only help children succeed, but by so doing help them succeed as adults.

Wilkes-Barre Mayor George Brown stopped by to praise the work of CSC and its partners, recounting his mother’s own work with Head Start.

Teri Haddad November 11th, 2022

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