Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Chicago Tribune - May 6, 2003
Brett McNeil, Tribune staff reporter
"If he picks up something from a day-care situation and brings it back to me, that could be very serious," said Jones, who has HIV. "If I get sick and have to go in the hospital, there are no relatives here in Chicago who could take care of him."
So while seeking treatment, Jones relies on the Children's Place Association for a day-care setting that, through daily health screenings, ensures her son doesn't come home with a cold.
Under Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposed budget, the Humboldt Park-based non-profit is set to lose $780,000 in state funding this year--the entire budget for a day-care program that serves about 60 children whose lives are affected by HIV.
"As HIV has become more of a public illness, there are more and more families living with it. This [day-care program] is what keeps whole families together," said Cathy Krieger, executive director of the Children's Place Association.
Looking to pressure the governor, Krieger and her staff hosted a news conference Monday morning inside the agency's Family Care Center, 1800 N. Humboldt Blvd., and called for full restoration of the day-care program's state funding. The governor's office said through a spokeswoman that the proposed cut in funding has not been reconsidered.
"Right now, it's not in the budget," said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.
"Although many of them really are important projects . . . in order to write a bare bones budget, we had to eliminate a number of grants."
The Children's Place day-care program was funded last year through a special state grant, though in the two years before it was underwritten using excess federal funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, according to Ottenhoff.
The first of its kind in Illinois, the Children's Place program provides care for kids 6 months to 5 years, and, according to Krieger, many of the children enrolled have developmental disabilities.
State Sen. Miguel del Valle (D-Chicago), who backs continued funding for the Children's Place, said Monday: "I will not vote for a final budget that does not have this program included."
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