Creative Flood Recovery for Children

This spring, flash floods devastated parts of Northeast Arkansas (NEA) in May, forcing many out of their homes and leaving a path of debris and destruction. This very low attention disaster impacted hundreds, including four day care centers in the heart of Jonesboro. Save the Children evaluated the damages to the four child care facilities in the Child Care Aware of NEA service area that on an average day provide essential day care for nearly 350 children. Although most of the structural damages were covered by insurance, valuable supplies, toys, and office equipment were not.

Next Generation child care center NE Arkansas
Nancy Beers, Andreas Acosta, Jo Battle

The Midwest Early Recovery Fund creatively filled this funding gap by providing a grant to the Arkansas State University Foundation, who in partnership with Child Care Aware, is helping these centers purchase the equipment and supplies lost to the flood waters. Within just a few days of applying for funding, the money was being used to insure these children, who had just witnessed the frightening power of a flash flood, could return to a routine indispensable for their recovery.
“We are grateful for this support, which has enabled us to recover faster by being able to replace supplies and materials not covered by insurance,” said Josephine Battle, director of Child Care Aware of Northeast Arkansas. Battle and Beers are pictured above during a recent visit to the Next Generation bilingual learning center with owner Andreas Acosta. “These four centers can continue to provide moral support and quality care for our community’s children.”
Flexible, fast, and creative, the Midwest Early Recovery Fund is there to help when low-attention disaster leave vulnerable populations without help or hope for months and years. To learn more about how CDP provides funding to communities impacted by low attention disasters, please see Midwest Early Recovery Fund.
Please contact Nancy Beers at nancy.beers@disasterphilanthropy.org if you have any questions or want to learn more about our Early Recovery Fund work.

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