Virginia child care provider pleads for financial assistance

This is the story of Annette Johnson, director of a religiously exempt child care center in Virginia.

I am the director of a religiously exempt child care center in Hampton, Virginia. I have the capacity for 76 children and have remained open during this pandemic, serving 12 essential personnel families. It has not been financially feasible, but we have kept the doors open and worked with a skeleton staff.

Now that we’ve moved to Phase 3 of re-opening, I am getting calls from parents seeking child care, but I don’t have the finances needed to bring on more staff since many are seeking much more in pay. This leaves me vulnerable to having to close, since the funds and assistance given to Religiously Exempt programs ended on June 30, 2020.

Please consider continuing the financial assistance, as it would allow me to hire staff to accommodate the requests that are coming in as parents start to return to work. We’re here to support our children and their parents. We need you to support us in this undertaking.