Amari Velarde answers the toy phone last week in the infant classroom at Cuidando Los Niños, a nonprofit early childhood center aimed at serving homeless families in Albuquerque. The center is planning an expansion to increase the number of children it can assist by 30 and make its facility more secure from break-ins and vandalism.
Mireya Sparks peeks out from under a table covered in toys while playing with the other children in the infant classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week. “The only good food they’re going to get today is what they eat here,†said one employee at the early childhood center intended to serve families experiencing homelessness. “... I cook like this food is for my kids.â€
Ciara Castillo zips down the slide while at recess with the toddler classroom last week at Cuidando Los Niños early childhood center in Albuquerque. The facility’s expansion will cost roughly $5 million, but the center’s CEO believes the work can be covered by capital outlay already appropriated by the New Mexico Legislature and other grant money.
Estrella Cereceres turns all of the LED light toys to pink while playing in the pre-kindergarten classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week in Albuquerque.
Pre-kindergarten teacher Laura Aleman paints trees and autumn leaves on a glass window outsider her classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week. The new expansion would add two more classrooms to the facility, bringing the total to six.
Andrea Richardson, a veteran teacher of 12 years at Cuidando Los Niños, poses among the the decorations and toys in the pre-kindergarten classroom in Albuquerque last week. Richardson said a planned expansion of the early childhood center aimed at families experiencing homelessness “would help Albuquerque tremendously.â€
Amari Velarde answers the toy phone last week in the infant classroom at Cuidando Los Niños, a nonprofit early childhood center aimed at serving homeless families in Albuquerque. The center is planning an expansion to increase the number of children it can assist by 30 and make its facility more secure from break-ins and vandalism.
Mireya Sparks peeks out from under a table covered in toys while playing with the other children in the infant classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week. “The only good food they’re going to get today is what they eat here,†said one employee at the early childhood center intended to serve families experiencing homelessness. “... I cook like this food is for my kids.â€
Ciara Castillo zips down the slide while at recess with the toddler classroom last week at Cuidando Los Niños early childhood center in Albuquerque. The facility’s expansion will cost roughly $5 million, but the center’s CEO believes the work can be covered by capital outlay already appropriated by the New Mexico Legislature and other grant money.
Estrella Cereceres turns all of the LED light toys to pink while playing in the pre-kindergarten classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week in Albuquerque.
Pre-kindergarten teacher Laura Aleman paints trees and autumn leaves on a glass window outsider her classroom at Cuidando Los Niños last week. The new expansion would add two more classrooms to the facility, bringing the total to six.
Andrea Richardson, a veteran teacher of 12 years at Cuidando Los Niños, poses among the the decorations and toys in the pre-kindergarten classroom in Albuquerque last week. Richardson said a planned expansion of the early childhood center aimed at families experiencing homelessness “would help Albuquerque tremendously.â€
ALBUQUERQUE — Every day, Yhadira Vidal serves breakfast, lunch and a snack to some 50 children at Cuidando Los Niños, a nonprofit early childhood center in Albuquerque that primarily serves families experiencing homelessness.
The children at Cuidando face some of the most challenging home lives any young person could face. Without the center, many of their families would struggle to feed their children healthy, fresh meals. So Vidal’s mission, she said, is to provide them a refuge.
“The only good food they’re going to get today is what they eat here,†she said. “... I cook like this food is for my kids.â€
But Vidal hates the kitchen where she works. Like the rest of its old facilities, Cuidando has outgrown its kitchen. The nonprofit’s leaders are planning an expansion so they can better serve more of the community and make Cuidando a better, safer place to work.
To open its doors to more families, the nonprofit, established in 1988, plans to replace one building and overhaul another. That would add two more classrooms, expand the kitchen and increase security on its vulnerable campus.
“We’re out of space,†CEO Trina Jellison said.
There are 60 kids on a waitlist for spots at Cuidando, Jellison said, adding the day care’s four classrooms can’t accommodate that many more children.
The planned expansion, she added, would allow about 30 more children to enroll.
But Cuidando isn’t just a day care. The nonprofit provides an array of services, including case management for children who have had traumatic experiences, workforce development for adults and housing coordination for families in the community.
Last year, Jellison said, Cuidando placed over 100 families in homes through a variety of grant programs.
She said the upcoming construction is an opportunity to improve the day care’s security. Vandalism and break-ins are common — a result, Jellison believes, of both the neighborhood where it lies just west of the University of New Mexico and disgruntled family members who are angry about custody battles over children enrolled there.
Expanding to connect the buildings on campus and funnel visitors through one entrance would improve security, she said.
Jellison expects the expansion to cost roughly $5 million and believes capital outlay already appropriated by the New Mexico Legislature and other grant money can cover it.
“But obviously we may need to still beg, plead and borrow, since the cost of construction has gone up,†she said.
More classrooms also means more teachers and more lights to keep on; Jellison said she hopes state lawmakers will set aside a recurring appropriation to help cover those expenses.
“We’ll keep it lean, but you still have to have money to maintain that mission,†she said.
Andrea Richardson, a veteran teacher of 12 years at Cuidando, said although the nonprofit has had its ups and downs in her time there, working with the children it serves is her happy place.
The planned expansion, she said, would further the mission of helping some of the most at-risk children in the community.
“I think it would help Albuquerque tremendously,†she said.
Housing case manager Melissa Hernandez said she was an underwriter at a credit union before she began working with Cuidando. Her previous job, she said, was to give people credit cards and loans and “get them in debt.â€
Working to put families in homes is a much better reason to get up in the morning, she said.
“My passion is helping people,†Hernandez said. “... Here, I’m just much more fulfilled with my days, and I work a lot harder.â€
Esteban Candelaria is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. He covers child welfare and the state Children, Youth and Families Department. Learn more about Report for America at.
