The Latin American Community Center in Wilmington doubles its early childhood education capacity through a new facility.
The LACC offers early education programming for children ages 0 to 5 at their La Fiesta Early Development Center, but previously could only serve 103 kids.
Thanks to a mix of state and federal funding, a brand new building allowed their capacity to more than double. They can now serve 211 children with an additional building across the street from La Fiesta.
Quality early childhood education is imperative for children to be on an even playing field as they enter kindergarten, but there is a shortage in the state, leaving education and childcare to fall to parents and caregivers at home.
LACC’s Director of Early Childhood Services Karen Hartz says that has contributed to a strong demand for their services.
“We had 170 children on our waitlist before we started filling the spaces in this building. We’ve been able to almost completely fill all of the spots in this building just by going to our waitlist and calling those families who have been waiting for care,” explained Hartz. “So we know that there are families out there who need the care and we hope that this will be able to help them get back to work.”
Through their early childhood programming, LACC helps meet the needs of lower income families, as well as multilingual families.
85% of the children served at the Latin American Community Center are in the state’s Purchase of Care program, making them eligible to get high-quality dual language education at little to no cost.
LACC resident and CEO Maria Matos has championed equitable access to education in the state. She says this initial expansion is only part of her overall vision.
“It feels wonderful, but I’m not done yet. Because there’s 10 acres of land in New Castle that I’m purchasing, and I’ll have an additional 100 kids. I think I will be done when every single 0-5 child in the State of Delaware gets an opportunity to learn,” she said.
While most children at the LACC are from Wilmington, about 25% come from other parts of New Castle County with large Latinx populations - seeking multilingual programming and a staff able to communicate with families in their preferred language.
The LACC’s future expansion into New Castle will help to increase capacity and make the center’s resources more accessible to families outside of the city.
