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[1]Carousel Bayrd
South Madison needs greater access youth and family services, and a new initiative started by Madison native Kaleem Caire seeks to address that gap.
This fall, Caire hopes to open One City Early Learning Center, a full-service learning preschool based in South Madison. As founder and CEO of the program, Caire in March launched an effort to bring more comprehensive youth and family services in low-income and African American communities in Madison.
One City plans to serve 53 children, ages 2 to 5 year old in its first year. But that is just the beginning, Caire said. One City is adopting what Caire calls a “holistic approach to children” that goes beyond just teaching ABCs.
Step one is to create comprehensive preschool — more than a day care center. That includes focusing on literacy development and student-based learning that teaches children to investigate and creates a love of learning. Such preschools are a plethora in greater Madison but are lacking on the Southside.
Caire uses an example of asking kids what happens to water when it goes down the drain.
“It’s helping kids make these connections. That’s what helps them grow mentally. It helps them grow in their interest, in their passion for learning. Especially when they can figure out, ‘Wait a minute, I always wanted to know what happens, where the water went. And now you’re telling me not just where it goes but how it gets there, what happens to it as it goes there, where does it go after that, and what happens with the water,’” he said. “It develops their relative learning experience. So now as they go forward they know that there’s not an easy endpoint to something that is brought up. If you tell me about this, I’m going to be very inquisitive because now I really want to know what happens next, what happens next, what happens next, what happens next, what happens next. That’s how the brain learns.”
Step two supports and empowers the parents, families, and communities surrounding the children.
“We know in order to have strong children, we have to have strong parents, strong families, parents who are being successful economically and able to contribute to their children’s success,” Caire said.
One City will eventually provide space for parenting and mentoring classes, as well as access for job training and educational development, says Caire. In addition, Caire envisions a center that supports all working families, including those working night shifts and nontraditional hours, by having weekend and overnight care too.
“If [children] go home to a parent who is struggling financially, or struggling even to make it to pick up their child on time because they come from way across town, how do we help alleviate that stress that families have?” Caire said. “Without having to write a check, can we help them advance their employment so that down the road they can provide more for their children? Can we provide classes at our facility that are really showing parents in your everyday life how you can do certain things that are not so far off from the norm for you, that can actually help your child succeed?”
That is a challenging mission for a new organization, but one Caire believes One City can achieve.
“We believe we could fill in the gaps,” Caire explained. “We’re trying to be that village. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Some people need a few more people in their village to help them than others. The goal is to move the children forward, the generation forward, move the parents forward at the same time. “
Caire takes aim at those who blame poor parents for their children’s failure. More than 76 percent of African-American women in Madison are working, he said, a higher percentage than white women. The percentage of working African American men in Madison is even greater, Caire says.
“These are parents that are connected to generations that have always struggled. But they’re trying to make a difference for their kids,” said Caire. “Madison is really set up for more affluent, highly educated families. We’re a university town. You look at the families who are here, mostly African-American, it’s hard for them to achieve breakthrough here. … The whole system is organized around parents that have resources, that have access, that know how to acesss the system.”
Specifically, there has been negative stigma attached to low income, predominately African-American, families moving to Madison from Chicago. Caire, a fifth generation African American Madisonian, said these challenges aren’t anything new, but it is the response from established residents that is more extreme now.
“White people here didn’t used to look at us crazily. There was a period of time, from the ‘60s, ‘70s, into the ‘80s, when there were a lot more collaboration. We still fought about stuff, and still fought about these disparities, but we didn’t have to work as hard to get people’s attention, nor gain their support as we do now. People’s views have hardened around this element of people from Chicago and Milwaukee,” he said. “The greatest form of parental involvement for a parent is to put their child in a position where they can win, move them to a place that’s safe. If you’re growing up in a crazy neighborhood in Englewood in Chicago, the best thing you can do is get the hell out of there. That’s the first step. And that parent says I’m getting out of here and coming to Madison.”
One City Early Learning Center has already begun renovating its preschool, thanks to a loan to purchase the building from Forward Community Investments. It is on track to open this fall and to keep expanding services over the next few years until it is able to serve all families and children that walk through its doors.
Sound revolutionary?
“It has to be,” Caire said.
--Carousel Bayrd is Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and hosts "A Public Affair" Tuesdays at noon on WORT (89.9 FM). She lives in Madison with her husband and two children.
