NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Last summer, Derrika Richard felt stuck. She didn’t have enough money to afford child care for her three youngest children, ages 1, 2 and 3. Yet the demands of caring for them on a daily basis made it impossible for Richard, a hairstylist, to work. One child care assistance program rejected her because she wasn’t working enough. It felt like an unsolvable quandary: Without care, she couldn’t work. And without work, she couldn’t afford care.
But Richard’s life changed in the fall, when, thanks to a new city-funded program for low-income families called City Seats, she enrolled the three children at Clara’s Little Lambs, a child care center in the Westbank neighborhood of New Orleans. For the first time, she’s earning enough to pay her bills and afford online classes.
“It actually paved the way for me to go to school,” Richard said one morning this spring, after walking the three children to their classrooms. City Seats, she said, “changed my life.”
Caitlin Clark returns for 2nd half against Sun after apparent left leg injury in 1st half
Officer fatally shoots armed suspect in domestic disturbance that injured man, police say
PGA CHAMPIONSHIP '24: A trivia quiz for over a century of golf
Angelina Jolie is accused of sabotaging her six kids' relationship with Brad Pitt
Biden to release 1 million barrels of gasoline in bid to lower prices at pump
Everton drops appeal against Premier League points deduction after staving off relegation
Gill and Sudharsan centuries send Gujarat to vital win over Chennai in IPL
At least 40 villagers shot dead in latest violence in Nigeria's conflict
Inside a makeshift shelter saving hundreds of dogs from floods in southern Brazil
UN maritime tribunal says countries are legally required to reduce greenhouse gas pollution
Missouri State moves up to Conference USA in 2025 from FCS, becoming 12th football member