Wecome To OC is pleased to offer this guest blog by: Megan Bufford MeganAshleyOC@gmail.com

Imagine your child going to a “trusted” licensed family child care home who’s been in business for 12 years. You feel assured that while you return to the workforce your precious babies will be kept safe and well taken care of. Whew, sigh of relief.

Now imagine a few months down the line finding out your child has been abused while in their care.

This nightmare is all too real for Spectrum Montessories founder, Deirdre Kelly. Although horrified, she knew she had to take legal action to stop this provider from further abuse of innocent children and trusting families.

You can imagine Kelly’s surprise to find out attorneys did NOT want to take this case on. This family child care home was uninsured, like 85% of licensed providers, so there was no guarantee attorneys would be paid. Deirdre learned the hard way that not only are most family child care homes lacking liability insurance, but on average, only visited once every 5 years by licensing. Most shut down within their first year, but not all, unfortunately for Kelly’s child.

Nationwide, only 5% of child care capacity is for infant’s ages 6 weeks-2 years. For-profit child care centers only want to deal with the profitable segment, the preschoolers. Our government’s solution to this shortage of slots for infants is family child care homes. There has to be a better solution. She was determined to do more.

Kelly is turning her pain and frustration into a positive solution for infants and working moms in Orange County. She started a non profit organization, Spectrum Montessories, in 2009. Her vision is to open 4 child care centers in Irvine, a city which employs 12% of Orange County’s workforce. Although it will service the needs of children ages 6 weeks – 6 years, 50% of enrollment will be infants and toddlers, helping fill the 17,592 licensed infant spaces needed for Orange County’s tiniest and most vulnerable citizens.

“I believe that our child care centers can provide better quality care due to the inherent oversight, the trained teachers, and more frequent visits from licensing. Our current challenge is to gather sufficient capital to successfully launch the program” Kelly says.

We have many challenges to make this a reality. Spectrum Montessories is looking for passionate and service-oriented members of the board, advisory board and volunteers to help us in our mission. Our capital campaign is underway and we are relying on the support of individuals, businesses, and foundations. With your help we can provide high quality programs for all of our children. Please visit http://www.spectrummontessories.com, sign up for our newsletters, follow us on facebook and twitter @SMontessories. Help us keep our children safe and give Orange County’s working moms peace of mind.