The Sunset Park West Child and Family Center aims to address a shortage of child care providers in the neighborhood, with beautiful murals and holistic services to boot.
Kids line up to sing a welcome song at the opening of the Sunset Park West Child and Family Center on Friday.
By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com
SUNSET PARK — Above the laundromat on the corner of 52nd Street, the toddlers were settling in for naptime. But for the adults, the celebrations had just begun — there was a ribbon to cut.
On Friday, February 10, Grand Street Settlement formally opened the Sunset Park West Child and Family Center, its third Head Start program in the neighborhood. The new hub, which began operating in January, provides free early childhood education to almost 100 children, along with initiatives for parents such as career services.
Stephanie Armilla, a lifelong Sunset Parker, said she and her son are already seeing the benefits.
Before the center opened, Armilla had been forced to stop working to take care of her two-year-old son. “I was scared. I was like, there’s no daycare,” she recalled. “That’s not even an option.”
Eventually, Armilla started bringing him to her family’s business on 49th Street and Fifth Avenue. But when two women came by to explain about a new space only a few blocks away with holistic services and an early start date, Armilla was thrilled: “Green flag, green flag,” she remembers thinking.
It’s only been a couple weeks, but Armilla has noticed promising signs. “I feel like his speech is improving — he converses more with me now, and with other people who say ‘Hi’ and ‘Goodbye,’” she said. “I just love my son coming here, honestly.”
Brooklyn reps join Grand Street staff to cut the ribbon, accompanied by local mom Stephanie Armilla (second from left) and Atiba Edwards (second from right) of the Brooklyn Children’s Museum.
Friday’s event kicked off with a brief song from a bashful choir of kids (“Hello to my friends / How are you today?”), before lawmakers, staff, and residents spoke about the importance of this milestone.
“The center is more than a building,” said state Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes, a former child care provider herself. “It’s a solution in a neighborhood that has long been a child care desert.”
That might even be an understatement. Policymakers define a desert as an area with at least three children under age five per available child care slot. Yet parts of Sunset Park have 10 kids for every vacancy, according to the Office of Children and Family Services, an especially severe shortage.
“We know that Sunset Park does not have enough center-based options, so that’s what we decided to do,” said Robert Cordero, CEO of Grand Street Settlement, a 110-year-old nonprofit that serves over 1,000 families throughout NYC.
“I was a Head Start kid. I know that this works,” added Cordero. “This model is our North Star. It’s the most effective program that the federal government has ever done, by any measure.”
Willing Chin-Ma, Grand Street’s COO, highlighted the “hard work, long hours, and late nights” that had made this opening possible. There were landlords Dave and Mike Podolski, two “New York characters” who believed in the mission. There was an expensive renovation during a year that saw federal money dry up. And there was Melanie Ma, the center’s coordinator, who picked up a crucial permit right before Christmas so that the center could launch in January. (“That is commitment,” said Chin-Ma.)
Equally important, Cordero and Chin-Ma noted, was lawmakers’ support. The Brooklyn reps in attendance — City Council Member Alexa Aviles, state Sen. Andrew Goundardes, Rep. Dan Goldman, and Mitaynes — all received “Friendly Heart” awards, inspired by a page from a children’s book that Grand Street published for the occasion.
Robert Cordero, CEO of Grand Street Settlement, said that the Head Start program should be the city’s “North Star” as it looks to expand child care coverage.
Weeks after Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul announced a major expansion of universal childcare in New York City, Mitaynes in particular argued that raising taxes on the rich to fund health care for all remains vital.
Yet child care centers are pivotal, too. “In today’s context, where there is so much vitriol, and a federal government that is quite frankly fighting against us,” said Aviles, “it is places like this where people will feel safe and dignified. They know they’re going to be the most precious thing in the world here.”
One element Armilla has appreciated, apart from a staff that “has been nothing but loving,” is the center’s multilingual approach, offering Spanish, English, and Chinese.
“My son is half Jamaican and half Mexican, so the diversity even in the murals is like — he feels included,” said Armilla. “I feel that my son is seen here. As a child, that’s very important.”
To learn more about enrollment at the Sunset Park West Child and Family Center and other sites throughout Brooklyn, visit grandsettlement.org.
