At Kids Konnect, we want to say a big thank you to our local communities for supporting us and to our families for sticking with us throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our founder and CEO Makinya Ward recently appeared on the radio and featured in the San Mateo’s The Daily Journal and spoke at length about how hard the pandemic has impacted child care providers, especially as a separate child care crisis was already happening in California before Covid-19.
At the beginning of the pandemic, many parents pulled their children out of child care as they were concerned for their children’s safety. They were also now able to work from home and could spend more time caring for their children. However, this has presented unique challenges for work from home parents, and would not have been easy for some.
At the same time, providers had to pay rent and maintain high staffing levels. At Kids Konnect, we kept staff on to ensure the same employees care for each cohort of 16 children as well as have time to routinely disinfect common areas and touched items such as toys.
There have been times we have struggled. If it wasn’t for our great families and our local communities supporting us, 2021 could have looked very different. Fortunately, the San Mateo community has been able to support us and we received a $55,000 grant from the San Mateo County Child Care Relief Fund.
“The sense of community is really strong and I’m very fortunate to have centers in San Mateo county,” said Ms Ward. “The families, the cities, everyone has just been so aware of what’s going on and doing their best to help.”
If you’re a family in San Mateo County or Alameda County, we just want to take the time to say thank you for supporting Kids Konnect and helping us to create a safe and happy early learning environment at our centers.
If you would like to read the full article that featured Ms Ward as well as other businesses in San Mateo, please click here.
If you would like to listen to her radio segment, please click here.