Covenant News

New Center to Serve Children of High School Teens

CHICAGO, IL (November 19, 2001) - A state senator, a school, a hospital and a local Covenant church have combined forces to begin the new Ravenswood Community Child Care Center in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago.

The new center is designed to care for children of high school-age mothers so that they can remain in school while raising their children.

Illinois Sen. Lisa Madigan participated in a recent groundbreaking ceremony at Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church, presenting a check for $125,000 to Executive Director Adrienne Edlen and praising the partnering entities that helped make it happen.

"They've demonstrated a broad base of support," said Madigan, who sponsored funding for the center from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. "And when you see something like that you know it's going to be sustainable. When you get a church willing to expand its vision and a hospital getting involved, you know the community is going to be involved."

The center, popularly referred to as RC4, will have 10 staff members, according to Ravenswood Covenant's church chair David Koeller. The church is undergoing construction to ready the center, using a bridge loan of $500,000 from National Covenant Properties of the Evangelical Covenant Church.

Madigan pledged continued support for RC4, which is owned by Ravenswood Community Daycare, Inc., a not-for-profit 501c3 organization. Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church will house the daycare center and will partner with Amundsen High School and Advocate-Ravenswood Medical Center to provide childcare for girls who have had children while attending high school. Advocate Healthcare Foundation (which oversees the hospital) has pledged $75,000 for equipment and a church memorial fund provided $50,000 for startup costs.

About $200,000 will be used to upgrade three classrooms and a kitchen and to provide handicap accessible bathrooms and a play lot. The facilities will be designed to serve infants, toddlers and children in the 3-to-5 year old age group.

The groundbreaking culminated two years of collaboration, according to Ravenswood Covenant pastor Bryan Kletzing. He and Dr. Ed Klunke, then principal at Amundsen High School, began discussing a collaborative effort in November 1999 and the congregation approved the concept soon after.

Ten to 12 girls leave Amundsen High School before graduating each year because they have no childcare options for their children, according to RC4 board chair Daniel de Roulet. While AHS staff and health care workers at school encourage teens to stay in school during their pregnancies and following deliveries, they are often thwarted in their attempts to finish high school because they don't have adequate and affordable childcare for their children.

A good number of the daycare center openings will go to teen parents at AHS, who will get first priority. However, openings also will be available to others in the community and to those AHS graduates who decide to attend college or become employed in the area.

Several female high school students were at the groundbreaking to show support for RC4 and its mission. So was state Rep. Larry McKeon, 47th Ward Alderman Eugene Schulter, Vice President of Northside Advocate Medical Services Deloise Brown-Daniels and Max Lopez-Cepero, director of Compassion and Justice Ministries for the Evangelical Covenant Church, among others.

"This can be a good model we can work on citywide," said Schulter. "This occasion makes me believe that we can make significant contributions that are lasting," said Brown-Daniels.

For more information about RC4, contact Edlen by telephone at 773-784-7091 or by email at RC4cares@yahoo.com.

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