Preschool for Needy Opens Its Arms Wider

Grant Will Help More Parents Who Work Nights

Bright Beginnings, an educational day-care center for homeless and low-income children in the District, is expanding its program of free and reliable evening child care.

The celebrated preschool program, which is designed to help end chronic homelessness in the District, enrolls about 186 children in an old schoolhouse just north of Capitol Hill.

The center piloted an evening care program in 2005, staying open from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. to accommodate parents who work late shifts. Now, through a $550,000 grant from the Freddie Mac Foundation, the evening program is expanding to serve more families. The grant, announced this week, will also fund an outreach effort to tell parents in homeless shelters and transitional housing about the expansion.

"It allows them to have a safe haven for their children while they hopefully become self-sufficient in the work world," said Betty Jo Gaines, the center's executive director.

Auyana Felder raises 3-year-old Mankaure alone while working the evening shift as a security guard at a museum. Every afternoon, Felder takes him to Bright Beginnings, where she said he is mastering the alphabet, learning his colors and starting to read books.

"Life would be so hard without this school," said Felder, 25. "I'm grateful. It's a good school. They teach kids the ABCs, 1-2-3s. If your child has a problem, they attend to it."

In addition to providing day care and preschool education, Bright Beginnings has a psychologist, speech therapist and occupational therapist on staff.

"It's not babysitting," said Ralph F. Boyd Jr., chairman of the Freddie Mac Foundation. "It's active, attentive care for children."

By freeing up parents to earn an income, Bright Beginnings helps families' transition into permanent housing, Boyd said.

"Dr. Gaines has a way of talking about this in a very casual way, but what they're doing is enormously transformative for these children and their families," Boyd said.

Carolyn Cousins was so impressed with the care given to her five children that she signed on at Bright Beginnings as a parent aide.

"They have been nothing but supportive of whatever I needed to do," said Cousins, 34, of Northeast Washington. "It's really great that I can involve myself with the program."