Daycare center to unite children and elderly

Catholic Charities of Albany and Rensselaer Counties, Teresian House, Community Maternity Services, St. Catherine's Center and the diocesan Pastoral Center will open the Little Flower Intergenerational Child Care Center on January 3.

The daycare center will be located at Teresian House Nursing Home in Albany.

According to Betsy Feuerstein, associate executive director of child development services for Catholic Charities of Albany and Rensselaer Counties, the daycare center will be unique because children and the residents of Teresian House will interact on a daily basis.

While other intergenerational daycare programs share space, their programs aren't integrated, Ms. Feuerstein said. At the Little Flower Intergenerational Child Care Center, children and residents will share a morning snack together and participate in morning activities like arts and crafts or story time. In warmer weather, the children will assist the seniors with gardening and seniors will be able to push the infants in strollers.

Ms. Feuerstein said organizers hope that relationships will develop between the residents and the children and their families.

"We'd like to see the senior `adopt' the child and follow them through," Ms. Feuerstein said.

The benefits of this intergenerational program can be great. "For the children, it gives them the capability of having extended family during the day," Ms. Feuerstein said. "Many don't have grandparents living nearby."

The director hopes the children also become more sensitive to the later stages of life and become comfortable rather than afraid of their elders.

The presence of the children at the nursing home will provide the residents with more of a "neighborhood feel" to the home. If they were living in a neighborhood and took a walk, they could see children playing, Ms. Feuerstein said. This typically doesn't happen in a nursing home.

The daycare center will have the capacity to care for 65 children from infants to preschoolers. Residents will self-select to participate in the program.

Although the state usually requires those who work with children in daycare centers to be investigated, the state has waived this for the Teresian House residents. Ms. Feuerstein said this is because the residents will be supervised by daycare center staff.

The daycare center will serve a diverse population. Ms. Feuerstein said the goal of the center is to provide child care for the employees of the sponsoring agencies, as well as the poor and the community at large.

There has already been open enrollment for employees of the sponsoring agencies, Ms. Feuerstein said. The next step is to market the program to parishes and finally the general population.

(For information on the Little Flower Intergenerational Child Care Center or to register your child, call Betsy Feuerstein at 426-3511.)

(09-09-99) [[In-content Ad]]