Child-Care Providers Given A Helping Hand New Clearinghouse In North Spokane Provides Information, Model Day Care

President Clinton is pledging $300 million to improve the quality of child care in America.

A northeast Spokane group has a cheaper idea: a neighborly helping hand.

The Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood, with help from Holy Family Hospital, has unveiled a program aimed at encouraging high-quality, affordable child care.

The HOME Project - Hands On Model Environment - is a one-stop clearinghouse for people interested in starting a home daycare center.

The clearinghouse, at 43 E. Sanson, offers tips on how to pass state rules, blueprints for setting up a day-care center, a library of children’s and professional books, toys to borrow and $5,000 start-up loans.

There’s even a two-way mirror to watch a model day-care provider in action.

“Before you get into the business, you need to know everything - the good and the bad,” said Kathy Thamm, program director for a Spokane child-care referral network. “That information is all here.”

Organizers hope the clearinghouse will encourage a new generation of child-care providers now intimidated by state rules and hamstrung by limited finances.

The center also will help current providers in an attempt to stabilize the high turnover rate in the in-home child-care business.

Thamm and other organizers believe other cities will duplicate the simple, relatively inexpensive plan.

A network in Idaho is interested. A researcher from a Massachusetts college and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., are keeping a close eye on the HOME Project.

A unique addition to the project is Maricela Lindsey. She has contracted with Holy Family to live in the center and operate a child-care center there.

Visitors can watch Lindsey, an experienced provider, handle a roomful of children. She has two now, including her daughter Rebecca, but expects to be at capacity - 12 - soon.

At least 40 strangers will be watching her each week when a state training class for novice child-care workers meets at the house.

To put her life even further in a fishbowl, Lindsey’s books will be open for inspection. That will give potential providers and politicians a peek at the tight budget involved in running a child-care center, Thamm said.

“You have to go in with your eyes wide open,” she said.

The project started with a thorny problem in the Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood: Day-care centers were closing faster than they opened. Parents were being sent across town to Spokane Valley centers.

Child-care shortages got worse when five big centers - including the Salvation Army’s North Side facility, which catered to the working poor - closed in the past year.

Parents complained of limited affordable options. Unless they had $600 a month to spend, there weren’t many choices, they said.

The problems in the north Spokane neighborhood were echoed nationally last week as President Clinton pledged $300 million and the federal government’s resources to improve child care.

After listening to Nevada-Lidgerwood leaders, Holy Family Hospital administrators pledged to help and bought the house - a $139,000 brown rambler - on Sanson.

Everyone grew excited, and support followed from social service groups and Thamm’s Family Care Resources.

Lee Williams, a license regulator with the state child-care office, helped gather money. The state economic development office gave $25,000.

At Thursday’s opening, neighborhood activist Al French beamed. “This is a real success for the neighborhood,” he said.

Holy Family President Ron Schurra agreed. “Our goal is to make this neighborhood the place where people want to bring their kids,” he said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo