Daycare Celebrates 10 Years of Helping Teen Parents

A childcare center in Ravenswood is doing more than just education children, they’re educating parents—specifically teen parents.

Ravenswood Community Childcare Center, or RC4, has helped more than 100 teen parents over 10 years, including Aracely De La Luz.

De La Luz had her daughter Jayleen when she was just 17 years old, still a student at Amundsen High School.

As the months drew closer to Jayleen’s birth, De La Luz realized she wanted to stay in school and asked the RC4 if any openings were available.

With the center’s location on Damen Avenue in the Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church, it was an ideal spot on her way to and from school.

Three years later, De La Luz is working at a Montessori school in North Park and plans on pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She credits much of her success to the center’s environment.

RC4 has many aspects of a typical daycare, but more than 15 percent of its parents are teenagers. It’s a point of pride for RC4, bridging the gap between teen and adult parents through dinners and mentorship programs. 

“There’s a difference in parents drawn into RC4, I’ve noticed,” Executive Director Ericka Barber said. “They have conversations with their kids and ask how they’re doing, they’re not arriving on their cell phones.”

The daycare had openings when De La Luz needed one, but spots are harder to come by nowadays, Barber said.

“Parents are clamoring,” she said, with a 3-year waiting list for most applicants. Teen parents still receieve priority for openings and the center is working to expand their program for the parents. 

Barber touts the high success rates of students after attending RC4— 100 percent of children are accepted into magnet elementary schools in the city.

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Three rooms hold the program’s 45 children, serving infants to 5-year-olds. Each classroom has at least three teachers with therapists on hand for special needs children. Parents also spend time in the classrooms as volunteers.

De La Luz’s experience at the daycare led her to a career centering around children. She’s studying developmental psychology and wants to teach therapy through art and dance. 

When asked where she’d be without RC4, her reply was simple: “I honestly don’t know, I’ve asked myself that same question. But I know I’m going to miss it when she leaves.” 

To celebrate RC4's 10th anniversary, the center is hosting a concert starring kids’ musician Ella Jenkins. The Grammy-winning artist will perform at the Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church Saturday at 10 a.m. Tickets are $20 and a fair with food, crafts and activities will follow the show.