Infant Care Room Opens at First United Methodist Church

Smart Start of Transylvania County (SSTC)  is thrilled to announce the recent opening of an infant care room at First United Methodist Church (FUMC) of Brevard’s Weekday Children’s Program. The Infant Room was created thanks to a grant awarded to SSTC in August 2022 by the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC), to assist in stabilizing the early childhood education workforce and building capacity in various early childcare settings. The creation of this new care room, which began serving infants in August of this year, is an important first step as we work to build capacity in care settings for children ages 0-2. 

While early child care capacity as a whole is severely diminished in North Carolina, children under two are by far the most underserved population. In a survey conducted by SSTC in January of 2023, it was found that less than 20 infant care slots existed in Transylvania County. The severe lack of care options presently available for babies means that parents of infants are often unable to return to the workforce. These families may consequently suffer financial hardship and emotional stress, which may in turn have a negative impact on infancy development. While SSTC is working to improve capacity in early child care settings for all children ages 0-5, the overall lack of infant care is a glaring problem in the early child care community that requires special attention. 

Solving the infant care crisis in Transylvania County is an important but difficult hurdle to overcome. Building capacity in child care for children age 0-2 is the most challenging age group, as it presents unique challenges. Caring for infants requires a lower teacher to child ratio than is needed in other age groups, making it the most expensive form of care to provide. Supplies needed to properly outfit infant care rooms are costly as well, making it difficult for center-based care settings, such as church based license-exempt programs and full-day licensed programs, to offer infant care. SSTC is aware of these financial barriers and is working to assist capable and committed providers seeking to offer infant care with the educational support, financial resources, and infant supplies needed to do so. 

While the need for local infant care slots is still great, the opening of FUMC’s infant care room is a wonderful milestone for our community and one worth celebrating. SSTC is extremely grateful for the financial support of CFWNC and the impact this grant has had on the families being served in this new care setting. Sabrina Tyler, the director of FUMC’s Weekday Children’s Program shares, “We are so thrilled to be able to help lessen the need for infant care even in a small capacity. The addition of the infant room has not only benefited the community, it has filled a hole in our program that we did not realize existed. Having the babies here has been such a beautiful blessing.” 

SSTC is committed to expanding infant care in Transylvania County and we hope to assist other qualified child care providers on the path to offering infant care. If your child care center or program would like to explore adding an infant room or expanding infant care, please reach out to Rebecca Snurr at 828-877-3025 or rebeccasnurr@smartstarttransylvania.org to request more information.

Written by: Aiyanna Lollis and Published by: The Transylvania Times