NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Last summer, Derrika Richard felt stuck. She didn’t have enough money to afford child care for her three youngest children, ages 1, 2 and 3. Yet the demands of caring for them on a daily basis made it impossible for Richard, a hairstylist, to work. One child care assistance program rejected her because she wasn’t working enough. It felt like an unsolvable quandary: Without care, she couldn’t work. And without work, she couldn’t afford care.
But Richard’s life changed in the fall, when, thanks to a new city-funded program for low-income families called City Seats, she enrolled the three children at Clara’s Little Lambs, a child care center in the Westbank neighborhood of New Orleans. For the first time, she’s earning enough to pay her bills and afford online classes.
“It actually paved the way for me to go to school,” Richard said one morning this spring, after walking the three children to their classrooms. City Seats, she said, “changed my life.”
'Constantly learning' Imanaga off to impressive start with the Chicago Cubs
Chinese auto industry hits milestones in 2023
Big Chinese companies brighten 2024 CES
Xi Stresses Striving for Full Revitalization of Northeast China
Why US Catholics are planning pilgrimages in communities across the nation
Southgate slams hapless Maguire's treatment as 'joke'
Referee reflective during third stint at FISU event
China launches new sea routes to South America as trade booms
Red Lobster seeks bankruptcy protection after closing some restaurants
Xi Extends Condolences to Moroccan King over Deadly Earthquake