Top: Dina Tareq, Nieda Abbas and Caterina Passoni at Havenly in 2022. Lucy Gellman File Photo. Bottom: Some of the partners on the apprenticeship program. Contributed Photo.
A refugee-powered nonprofit has gotten a two-year boost from the state to build out its work in childcare and early childhood education. As it launches a registered apprenticeship program, it’s hoping to shift the narrative around childcare in Connecticut—at a time when both parents and providers may need it most.
That nonprofit is Havenly, which earlier this year received a $600,000 apprenticeship grant from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC). In the next months, it plans to jumpstart the first cohort of the program, through which 14 women—all immigrants and refugees, with four foreign languages between them—will earn their Child Development Associate’s (CDA) degrees while also working at childcare centers across New Haven.
“This is about creating an early childhood [education] system that values its workers, that understands its importance,” said Co-Executive Director Caterina Passoni, who shares the role with chef and founding member Nieda Abbas, in an interview at Havenly’s sun-dappled cafe Wednesday. “That our society starts to understand the importance of caring for children and values it.”
The idea, which dovetails with Havenly’s plans to open a childcare center at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, was born some months ago, after Havenly staff began to learn about the registered apprenticeship program model. The model provides apprentices with both compensation and education—like a degree- or certificate-seeking program—so that they can afford to build their professional skill set while also making a living. For many of the women, who have children and families of their own, that income is essential.
It dovetails with the nonprofit’s own “earn while you learn” model, through which Havenly’s fellows bring in an income while they are also learning job skills and doing group training as a cohort. When Havenly’s six-month fellowship program was born to support this vision in 2018, it grew into paid job training (Havenly’s Temple Street cafe is staffed by fellows) and classes in English language learning and digital and financial literacy. This program, which divides the $600,000 over two year-long cohorts of 14 apprentices each, expands that work.
In part, Passoni explained, that’s because the educational requirements for childcare workers in Connecticut are rapidly changing. For years, if someone wanted to work with children in an early childcare center, a high school diploma or GED equivalent was sufficient. But as of July 1 of this year the qualifications will change: what OEC calls any Designated Qualified Staff Member (DQSM) at a childcare center must have or be actively working towards an associate’s degree.
Some of Havenly's team members. Contributed Photo.
That’s difficult news for Havenly’s graduating fellows, roughly 30 percent of whom go into childcare (Passoni credited the Phyllis Bodel Childcare Center as a particularly deep resource), and for current fellows who had hoped to work at the space’s daycare when it opens later this year or early next (more on that below). The grant, Passoni said, provides a sort of financial stopgap during that time.
“We have all these amazing women already working at childcare centers, and we don’t want to be in a situation where they all have to leave their jobs because they don’t have the required education,” Passoni said.
What it looks like in practice is a rigorous, year-long apprenticeship both in the classroom and on the ground. Just a few blocks away from Havenly’s Temple Street storefront, CT State Gateway offers a CDA program that is hybrid, and will allow students to pursue the degree at night. Starting in the next months, Havenly plans to cover the cost of classes for all 14 degree-seeking apprentices—around $2,500 per person, which would otherwise be prohibitive.
While those classes take place at night; Havenly also plans to offer additional support services to apprenticeship cohort members throughout the week, including English language classes and tutoring at Havenly, and portable WiFi hotspots that apprentices can take home with them. As of this month, Havenly is still working on what it will look like to offer CDA classes with interpretation help: cohort members speak French, Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic between them.
Then during the day, the women will be working in childcare centers across New Haven as salaried employees.Those currently include the Friends Center for Children, Creative Me Daycare Center, Morning Glory Early Learning Center and the Meriden YMCA.
While Havenly will cover costs related to the CDA program—and give each apprentice a $5,000 stipend for their own childcare needs—the centers will cover payroll costs for at least a year. That’s essential, Passoni said: graduating from a CDA program requires 2,000 hours of work in an accredited childcare center. Because those four centers cannot accommodate all 14 apprentices, Havenly is in the process of looking for more partners.
“It’s not like an unpaid internship,” Passoni said. She added that Havenly compensates their partners, providing them with both interpretation services and a $6,500 stipend for mentorship. “You’re like an actual, W2 employee. The centers are huge partners, because they’re taking a leap of trust with us. They are taking people on as employees.”
Mechele Ellis, founder, CEO and childcare director at Creative Me, called the partnership a natural fit for the daycare, which is tucked into a former industrial building just off Blake Street in Westville. For close to a year, she’s been working with one of Havenly’s fellowship graduates at the space, an early learning center that has been serving New Haven’s youth since 2003.
She will be bringing on three apprentices, one of whom has been with her already for a year as a graduate of Havenly’s fellowship program.
“Early childhood education is essential,” Ellis said in a phone call Thursday afternoon. “In order for the people who have a love and passion for the work to stay in early childhood education, they need certain certifications.” For her, helping to empower that work is part of supporting the profession that she has dedicated her life to.
She added that it’s powerful—and good for child development—for young kids to interact with people with new cultural backgrounds, lived experiences, and language abilities. “The fact that they're educating those who may not have the same cultural background and language is—” she trailed off for just a moment. “Oh my god, it's amazing. What they're doing is wonderful.”
Passoni echoed that enthusiasm, also noting the importance of exposing children to other languages and cultures. According to a 2017 study published in Mind, Brain, and Education, children raised with two languages—including and especially from an early age—had a better grip on things like executive control and problem solving. A city as diverse and polyphonic as New Haven, supporting that cultural richness feels like a no brainer.
“We are a multilingual city. We have so many refugee and immigrant children,” she said. “A lot of moms want to drop off their kids at a center where they see representation of their own culture. So having, maybe, an employee that speaks Spanish … it’s like, it’s not a charity thing. These are employees that are going to enrich your center.”
It comes as Havenly also works to build out its own worker-owned childcare center at First and Summerfield, for which it still needs to build a child-friendly adaptive outdoor space. While the indoor space needs “very little work,” Havenly will still need to secure the space, Passoni said. Passoni said that Havenly hopes to move in by the end of the year.
“I think it feels really exciting,” she said. “We had conversations about this starting two years ago—that childcare access is a priority for us, so it’s been an ongoing discussion. Ever since the beginning of Havenly, it’s been part of a vision for our community.”