Renew. Restore. Rejoice. A SafeHouse Ministries Podcast

Stepping into the Gap and Meeting an Unmet Need - Bright Futures Childcare with Anna Kowalsky

• Phil Shuler • Season 3 • Episode 16

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There are ~14,000 children in need of childcare in Columbus, GA and roughly ~7,000 available slots.  SafeHouse Ministries has just launched a new support service, Bright Futures Childcare, to help meet this need.  Even more crucial is the need for childcare when single parents are struggling to get out of homelessness or addiction and need childcare so they can work through a sobriety program or a job to save up money.  Bright Futures Childcare goes even further by providing care for sick children, and for children with mental or social disabilities.

Anna:

So my older sister that I did not meet until just a couple of years ago, she's from my biological father. She was an addiction for 20 years. She did methamphetamines. Wow. She had two kids before she was 19, and she was actively using while she had those kids, she tried to get into rehab. But there was no one who could keep her children while she went to rehab. So she tried four or five different rehabs in the area saying, Hey, can you help me out with childcare while I get clean? No resources available. So her kids end up being taken away and adopted out of foster care because she did not have a resource to keep her children and get clean. So she chose to keep her children and not get clean, and then she didn't see them again until she, until they were probably 15 and 16.

Phil Shuler:

HellO, and welcome to Renew, Restore, Rejoice, the Safe House Ministries podcast, where we share stories of the power of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. Safe House Ministries is based out of Columbus, Georgia, and we are a ministry that exists to love and serve people who have been affected by addiction, homelessness, and incarceration. I'm your host, Phil Shuler, the Director of Development for Safe House Ministries here in Columbus, Georgia. Safe House serves over 1, 100 people each month as they transition back into our community. Safe House provides an abundance of services including 213 beds for homeless individuals and families, case management for obtaining job skills and long term employment. Over 300 hot meals every day, free clothing, and so much more. One of the most incredible services that Safe House provides is our free 9 12 month intensive outpatient substance abuse program, which is state licensed, CARF accredited, and has no wait list. Almost 100 percent of individuals staying in our shelters who follow our three phase program become fully employed within a few months. And 68 percent of individuals who stay at least one night with us End up finding work and moving into their own home. Thank you for being with us today and listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoy this week's episode.

Phil:

Hello and welcome to this morning's podcast of Safe House Ministries. Today We have got the director of Bright Futures Childcare, which is the new childcare resource. program that Safe House Ministries has. So Anna, thank you for being here this morning.

Anna:

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

Phil:

Anna has impressed me from the day that she got here at Safe House. She is such a hard worker and super resourceful. She has done some amazing things and she has been witness to see God do some amazing things through this journey of getting everything that needed to be done to get Bright Futures childcare. Up and running, and I'm excited that Anna's here to share that story with us this morning. So thank you, Anna. Thank you. Anna, just by way of introduction, would you just share with us a little bit about you and about why childcare matters so much to you?

Anna:

Sure. So my name is Anna Kowalski. I am the Director of Childcare at Bright Futures of Columbus through Safe House Ministries. I think it really just starts from birth. My mom named me Anna because she thought it would sound good with doctor in front of it'cause she wanted me to be a pediatrician. Ah, turns out Anna is the easiest name for a baby to say. So I just became Miss Nana or Miss Anna from the time I was 10 years old all the way up until I worked in a toddler room. I started my own program and now that I'm. Here at more of an admin position. I'm just Miss Kay. I'm not Miss Nana or Miss Anna anymore, but, I really have just always taken care of children for as long as I can remember. My only sibling is 10 years younger than me, little brother. Wow. And we had a single mom, so by virtue of necessity Yeah. I was the nanny. So all summer long I was taking care of a newborn baby while my mom had to work. Wow. I would pick him up from school and I would help him with homework. I would cook dinner. And then when she. Got married for the first time. He had two small children also. So at 12 I was taking care of a four, two, and 1-year-old, routinely by myself. Which I learned a lot of valuable lessons in those times before I had adult critical thinking skills and judgment. But it was great and. Then I started working for family childcare when I turned 18.'cause that's how old you have to be to start working in family childcare. And they really just showed me the business and they showed me the ropes and best practices and the knowledge that they gave me from having do doing it for 20 years was invaluable. So I took all of that with me, and then I got my bachelor's degree in business and I applied that to my own program when I was 25, which was daunting to open a small business at 25 in a state that I'm not even from. Wow. And then three months after I started the business, I found out I was pregnant with my first son. And then a month after that COVID hit.

Phil:

That is a rough time to start a business. It was

Anna:

a rough time to start a childcare business when people are working from home and don't need so much childcare.

Phil:

Wow.

Anna:

But we made it we implemented all the health and safety things that decal recommended for us, that the city recommended for us, and we were able to stay afloat through COVID. And after COVID, I had to wait list 60 kids long and I could only have six in family childcare, so

Phil:

Wow. So

Anna:

I thought, okay, next step is obviously to open a center. So I applied for an SBA loan. I got approved for half a million dollars. Wow. Something I could have never imagined, possible, taking only six kids at a time and collecting tuition for only six kids at a time. So it was like, we believe in your, your plan, your program, we think it's great, we think it's needed in the community. Here's some money. And then as things went on, as I was trying to line up contractors, I was trying to find land. They said, we have rethought and think that maybe you can't do this by yourself. Going from six to 160 is just too much for you. And granted, I was like 28, 29, so maybe, but they said when you partner with someone, reach back out. So I have my second baby, and then he gets old enough to start eating solids and I'm like, I need to make money because I have to feed these two growing boys now.

Phil:

Yeah. Yeah.

Anna:

So I apply for jobs and here comes this director position at Bright Futures of Columbus. I'd never heard of it, so I started Googling, can't find anything. I was like, okay. I still schedule the interview and I meet with Neil Chap and I'd never heard of Safe House before, and he tells me about what. You've been in

Phil:

Columbus, so like for, I'd

Anna:

been in Columbus since January of 2017. Had never heard of you. Okay. All right. He tells me all the good work you guys do the drug program, the homeless shelters, and he goes, the next natural step is childcare. I was like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. I'm with you. And he said he had a lot of interviews lined up for that position because it's an admin position. It's and he said, I only interviewed 15 people just to be polite because I had already decided on you after our interview.

Phil:

Really? Yeah. Were you one of the first interviews? I

Anna:

was in the middle. I think he interviewed about 40 people total. And that was probably like 25, 26, somewhere in there.

Phil:

So you have a pattern of impressing people early on? I,

Anna:

apparently I do. Which that, that's been working out for me, but, this whole process of getting bright Futures licensed has been like the hydra that just won't die. As soon as I cut off one head, two more pop up. But now we are finally there. We have our license, we are ready to open on Monday, and like it doesn't feel real yet. Yeah. Until the baby keeps, it's been a lot, it's been a lot of work. It's been so much,

Phil:

a lot of groundwork, a lot of rework, so many things to jump through. So many hoops.

Anna:

And it's not even just. Decal to govern all the licensing

Phil:

decal would be depart of Department of

Anna:

Early Care and Learning. Okay. For Georgia, there's also the Department of Transportation, because we're picking kids up from school and we're dropping them off at school. There's nutrition programs that we have to abide by. There's quality rated programs we have to abide by to receive state subsidy for those parents that are struggling financially. So it's 18 different agencies telling you 20 different things. Wow. And you have to figure that out.

Phil:

I can't even imagine the bureaucracy it's that you've had to deal with to, it's so

Anna:

much. let's think about it. I got hired at the end of February. It's now the end of October, and now we have our license.

Phil:

A long process, isn, isn't it? It's

Anna:

a long process, but so worth it.

Phil:

Yeah. Wow. And now you, how many kids do you have now? I

Anna:

have two. Okay. I have a five-year-old boy and a one-year-old boy.

Phil:

Awesome. And what does your husband do?

Anna:

He works with computers. I'm not gonna pretend to know exactly what he does. He says things to me like software go. And architecture, security, things like that. But I have no idea.

Phil:

Wow. Has he been a resource I'm sure like when you were starting your business with the computer stuff? Yeah. And then like even now, maybe like some of the computer stuff that,

Anna:

he set up my security system and he helped test the security system. Awesome. We put a bright future.

Phil:

Nice. Yeah. Awesome. So Anna, tell us about the need in Columbus and maybe. Why the Lord led Safe House Ministries to start a childcare program.

Anna:

Sure. Just to start, just to throw some numbers at you, there's 14,000 kids, four and under in Columbus there are about 7,800 licensed childcare spots. So there's definitely a deficit between those two. Yeah. So the options for parents are to, one, not work, which is not good for our local economy. Or put them in a place that's unlicensed, which could potentially be very dangerous. And then there's asking family and friends. And then sometimes you just abuse those resources and then you have unreliable childcare and someone says, oh, you know what? I've been watching your kid for three months and I'm sick and tired of it. You gotta figure something else out by Monday. And that's hard, especially for like single parents. That is hard. There's a lot of moms that work in healthcare while their husbands are active duty at Fort Moore, and if they're working a seven to seven. There's not a lot of places open before eight or after five. Where are those kids supposed to go to? The neighbor lady who might fall asleep 30 minutes after they get there, which could lead to disasters. Yeah. And through Safe House, you've got a lot of moms with young children, kids in school, newborn babies. I just saw, they can't get subsidy until they get a job. They can't get a job unless they can go to the interview and go to the training. They can't go to the training if they don't have childcare. So it's just this vicious cycle.

Phil:

Yeah. And you're talking about the single women who are going, trying to transition from homelessness or from struggling or incarceration

Anna:

or addiction. Who come to Safe

Phil:

House or in the shelters? And they're trying to get back on their feet. That's

Anna:

right.

Phil:

But if they don't, if they don't have a way to, to keep their kids safe and have someone to watch their kids, then That's right. They can't do all of those things.

Anna:

Yeah. Really. I'm gonna tell you a quick story. So my older sister that I did not meet until just a couple of years ago, she's from my biological father. She was an addiction for 20 years. She did methamphetamines. Wow. She had two kids before she was 19, and she was actively using while she had those kids, she tried to get into rehab. But there was no one who could keep her children while she went to rehab. So she tried four or five different rehabs in the area saying, Hey, can you help me out with childcare while I get clean? No resources available. So her kids end up being taken away and adopted out of foster care because she did not have a resource to keep her children and get clean. So she chose to keep her children and not get clean, and then she didn't see them again until she, until they were probably 15 and 16.

Phil:

Wow.

Anna:

Yeah,

Phil:

man, that's, I can't even imagine being in a situation where you'd have to make a choice like that.

Anna:

Me either. Yeah. Ugh. I'm glad she's clean now, though. Three years.

Phil:

Yeah. Was she able to reconnect with her kids and

Anna:

Yes. She she does visits with them, with their adoptive parents. They're all very close. I see pictures of my niece and nephew at their football games, and my nephew just did senior prom and. Awesome. It's all very exciting.

Phil:

Oh, awesome. So that's a big, part of the value that Bright Futures will be able to give to to those who are struggling and want to get out of addiction, want to get out of the bondage. They just need help. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it is a perfect fit for the other support services and structure that Safe House Ministries already has in place.

Anna:

Exactly. It's such a logical leap as Neil described to me back in February, if we are. Temporarily housing people to help them get into a house. We're helping them find work. We're helping them get education. We're helping them get clean. Obviously, the next step is to provide a place where their babies are safe and loved and learning while that's happening, so that one mom doesn't have to worry about it, dad doesn't have to worry about it. And two, the kids have some degree of stability and normalcy as mom and dad are doing the work that they need to do.

Phil:

Yeah. It's awesome. It is. It's it's exciting. It's so exciting and I know there, there are so many others who are so excited you who have assembled an amazing team already. And things are just really in a great place for the launch now that we have the license and just so many things. I'm amazed that. If I'm remembering correctly, you've only ever worked with kids, like you haven't Yeah. Worked any other jobs or any, you've just always just like maybe you've known since birth. That's what God gave, made you to do is to work with kids.

Anna:

I, that's definitely my purpose. I did stints in restaurants, okay. While I was in my undergrad I did a year as a security officer. Just to try. Interesting. Just to see. That was a lot of overtime that helped pay for my wedding, so I don't regret that for a minute. Wow. But yeah, I'm a. A Jane of all trades. Okay.

Phil:

Do you ever see any or experience any just crazy scenarios when you were a security officer?

Anna:

I did security for a warehouse that held educational supplies, so I, the tie back to kids of course. So I mostly just walked around at night reading textbooks and making sure no one broke in.

Phil:

Nice. So you're a multitasker as well?

Anna:

I am.

Phil:

Awesome.

Anna:

You have to, when you've got, ten one year olds in a class. I can imagine.

Phil:

So tell us what Bright Futures offers and what makes Bright Futures Childcare different from maybe the other childcare services that are in Columbus.

Anna:

Sure. I think the forefront of it is that we're serving kids that are being turned away by a lot of other programs. Such as children with disabilities, children with autism children that are sick. So if a baby has a low fever, say a hundred, they have a runny nose, they have a cough, they're negative for COVID, mom has to go to work, or she's gonna miss out on wages. She might not be able to make rent next week. Okay. She can bring her baby to us. And we have staff with medical experience. My infant teacher used to be a pediatric nurse in the pediatric er. Wow. So she's seen it all done at all. And we'll keep your baby, if they need Tylenol, we'll give them Tylenol if with permission, if they need a snuggle, we'll give'em a snuggle. If they need a coloring book, we'll give'em a coloring book. Like we'll just make sure that they're being taken care of the way they need to be taken care of, as if they were at home without mom and dad having to miss out on wages. Our curriculum is very much play-based. Play builds brains. We've known that for 30 years. Not a lot of programs are implementing it for whatever reason, but we're teaching literacy by not only reading books to the kids, we're showing them their name on their things. We're starting that letter recognition of, okay, Josefina starts with a J. We're starting with, miles has a yellow shirt on today. Who else has yellow on today? We're doing sorting by different categories. I took our ocean animals counters to a United Way meeting, and I had all the adults at the table sort the ocean animals however they wanted. And we had two feet versus four feet. We had predators versus prey. We had sorting by colors. We had sorting by whether they lived in a cold place or a warm place, and. That's just one toy. I could teach 20 different things with that one toy. And imagine what I can teach with a dozen toys in a dozen centers in six classrooms. So it's really, it's getting the kids not only like ready for kindergarten. I know that's something that we all strive for as that kindergarten readiness benchmark. It's making them love learning from the beginning so that they will continually chase new knowledge, new experiences. That will benefit them in adulthood.

Phil:

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of fun while you're learning at the same time.

Anna:

It can be for sure. Bubbles are a great science lesson, just saying.

Phil:

Yeah. It sounds like it might be fun for some of the workers too. Yes,

Anna:

absolutely. We've talked about our sick care room. We have two twin beds for school aged kids. And Neil has said that looks like a great place to take a nap if you've had a really rough day. I said it, it really is. I was sick for a couple of days back in the spring, and I can attest they're pretty comfy.

Phil:

Wow. Wow. That So are, is there any other place that offers something like that?

Anna:

No. As far as I know, we are the only licensed sick care facility in the state. Yeah. Other facilities, if they have sick care at all, it's more of a holding cell. Yeah. They sit the kid there for 30 minutes, call mom or dad, say, you gotta come get'em.

Phil:

Wow. You've made some very interesting points to think about. M single moms especially who are struggling. Or it could be some single dads right in as well that and they're living paycheck to paycheck. Like they're, they are literally in, on the edge of potentially being homeless. And if they've got a sick kid or they don't have a way to, to take care of their kids and be able to go to work, that could just. Really send them over a cliff into just hardship and tragedy and wow.

Anna:

God forbid if something were to happen to my husband. That would be a similar, that would be a situation we would be in if my children were to be sick. And my husband's, a good provider he is, makes good salary and he has enough flexibility in his work. He could take a day off to nurse our children that are so sick. I could don't have that luxury. I haven't had that luxury the whole time I've been working. If I close the daycare for a day, I don't get any money,

Phil:

Wow. Wow. Sick care. You mentioned also being able to really help and just invest in children that have other learning disabilities or struggles. I think you mentioned autism. Yes. And I know there are many other things that kids have to deal with. Is that something that is not as common as well among other childcare providers?

Anna:

Yeah. Legally they're not allowed to say, we're not taking your baby because they have autism. They can say things like, we don't have the staff to accommodate that, or Our staff aren't trained in the behaviors that your child could present. Or they require potty training by a certain age, which autism usually delays that by three or four years, depending on the kid. And truthfully that's, it's not that they can't. It's that they won't,'cause you could easily get your staff trained in autism or spina bifida. How to use a G-tube, how to use any kind of breathing treatments, things like that. It's just putting in the effort Yeah. To serve those kids who needs serving. And those speaking as a mom of a child that has special needs, that's always been my biggest worry when I'm trying to find childcare for him, even for a date night. Okay, if Henry has a meltdown while we're at dinner, does this person know how to handle it? Is this person gonna panic? And then he's gonna panic because she's panicking. We really love our nanny now because she spent so much time with children with autism and she is so patient with him when he is having a meltdown. Even more patient than I can be sometimes because I'm also working and going to school and I'm have another baby and I have a marriage and it's just trying to manage all things.

Phil:

Yeah. So you're still in school right now?

Anna:

I'm still full-time in school right now. Just like the

Phil:

doctorate level.

Anna:

No. I would love to get a doctorate someday, but. My husband's you gotta slow your role. I have my master's degree in education. I'm also a Georgia ECE trainer, so I can train ECE workers and give them their continuing education credit.

Phil:

Okay.

Anna:

To be a higher level trainer, I have to get my associate's degree in technical studies in ECE. That's what I'm working on now.

Phil:

Okay. ECE is what? Early childhood. Early childhood Education. Education. Okay. All right.

Anna:

Lots of acronyms. You gotta,

Phil:

So with the special needs that many kids have bright futures, childcare workers have been trained Yes. To be able to handle Yes. Anything that really may present or, and will

Anna:

continually be trained. If there's something new to learn, they're going to learn it.

Phil:

That's awesome. Wow. That, that and that just fits so perfectly with. The model and the philosophy that Safe House Ministries as a whole has. To help people who are struggling like just dealing with things that so many others have no idea really or no understanding of.

Anna:

Yeah. Yeah. I had a friend recently, she said, Hey, bring Henry to the soccer field and he can watch my son play a game to. Like a standard family with neurotypical kids. Yeah. My kid can sit in a chair and watch your kid run around with the ball. My kid's gonna try to steal the ball. My kid's gonna try to hop the fence. So there's effort, there's other variables in place when you're dealing with kids who have sensory needs or different support needs. Kids that need. That ex, that extra tender loving care, that safe house is already providing to a lot of adults. Yeah.

Phil:

There's some, there are many people that their brains just literally work differently. It's easy or maybe too quick for many of us who might, I don't even know if there's such a thing as normal, but the typical, maybe typical way of thinking that when someone thinks differently, we don't know how to process that. Yeah. It just, we don't and we just get frustrated or upset or even just write them off. And make excuses or judge them, yeah. Wow, that's good. So it sounds like Bright Futures will really be able to offer some high level quality care services for children. That go even beyond the general need, which is great for just childcare. Yeah. Just keeping general baby alive while parents are at work. So many kids that are in need of childcare and then now Bright Futures will be able to help all of those kids who have. The extra care needs. That other childcare services are just not well equipped or well trained to be able to handle. So anything else that separates Bright futures?

Anna:

I think another one is just our team is really dedicated to the philosophy into the cause of serving children. everyone has some sort of pediatric background, either they've previously worked in childcare, they've worked in pediatric medicine and we're all like, obviously we're working to be able to take care of our families, but we're also working to serve the greater purpose that all children deserve, that love, that education, that care. Regardless of the resources mom and dad might have.

Phil:

Yeah. Yeah. That's good. So tell us a little bit about the journey from when you started and the obstacles that arose. Yes. What happened and how your resourcefulness, how God worked how all of those things came to, I know there've been several miracles, like even some recent ones too. Yes. But if you would just maybe take us from the beginning and share some of those miracles and what the journey looked like. Sure.

Anna:

As someone who'd run their own business for five years, I was blowing up Neil's phone because I felt like I had asked per permission for every little thing. I was like, is this policy okay? Is it okay if I structure this way? Is it okay if I name the classrooms after different space things? And he goes, yeah, do what you want. You know what you're doing. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not in the weeds. I said, okay, great. So I, that's nice

Phil:

To not be micromanaged and just be like, Hey you run it. Like

Anna:

he, he definitely acknowledges what he knows and what he doesn't. Yeah. And he provides the resources for the things that I don't know. So it was a great complimentary relationship. Yeah. But yeah, so starting in like late February, I am laying the framework. I am taking all the great things from the program I had before. I'm meshing it with Safe Houses, philosophy and safe houses resources. We're gathering supplies. We're ordering furniture. We had the Calvary baseball team come and assemble our playground for us.

Phil:

Awesome.

Anna:

That was great. They assembled all kinds of shelving and cribs. Our playground was brand spanking new. We had to dig the holes in the ground, we had to put the fence up, everything. So that was a blessing for them to come and do that. Just recently, we had to, after our licensing inspection, there was a seam in the carpet that needed to be fixed. Greg, our maintenance guy, called some buddies and said, Hey, we need to fix this floor. And one of his friends, another contractor, business owner had said, Hey, we have a whole bunch of flooring left over. Come get it for free.

Phil:

Wow.

Anna:

For a classroom that can hold 18 kids. So fairly big. Yeah. Not only do we get the flooring for free, he also sends a team of four guys to come install it. So they get that done in five hours. That's incredible. It was so incredible. They pulled up the old carpet, laid all that out, and cleaned up between seven o'clock and noon.

Phil:

and you were given by the the inspector, a requirement to have that done in a fast turnaround.

Anna:

Yeah. She left. Thursday afternoon, everything had to be squared away from her list. By five o'clock Friday, we got it done by three o'clock Friday,

Phil:

we were

Anna:

hustling. That's

Phil:

unimaginable. That's wow. Yeah. That really is miraculous. Yes. That's all of those pieces coming together and Yes, the free flooring and the team and yes, that. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah. What other amazing things have you seen along the way?

Anna:

Oh goodness. We needed to have a fire response system installed into every classroom, requires a lot of work, a lot of equipment, a lot of money that we didn't have. The company that installed it basically waived the entire cost of labor. Wow. So this is. A five figure amount of money that they basically just wrote off as a volunteer community service project to get that installed for us. The fire suppression system, the fire suppression system. So those resources that we would've needed to spend because you have to have it to be licensed, got put into other things to improve quality, to increase security, to train staff, lots of other things. When people donate toys and people donate material storage all the time, and they might think that they're not doing a whole lot, but that,$20 you saved us on this toy can go towards this staff training can go towards more playground equipment. Like every little bit Yeah. Is helping us.

Phil:

Yeah. It sounds like the entire community in so many ways really is coming together. It has to just support Bright Futures childcare because they recognize the great need and the great blessing that. It will be to so many people who are struggling in Columbus. Yeah. That's awesome. So many stories of just amazing things. Any other stories? I know that there have been so many things that have been accomplished there. So many.

Anna:

We had to get the DPH inspection. Okay. So we've talked about decal, we've talked about DOT. Now we've got Department of Public Health in the kitchen, making sure that the kitchen's clean. So let's just add another agency.

Phil:

Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot, there's a lot of moving pieces. I never really thought about all of the agencies that you would have to get approval from for something like this, but it's a lot. It is a lot.

Anna:

It's so much. I like we, we've risen to the challenge. Yeah. And we'll continue to rise to more challenges like every couple of months when we got delayed because of a big project that needs to be done. Neil's say God's got it. God's got it. He's not gonna take us as far, just take us as far. And it has, it's finally come to fruit and we can all just take a big breath of relief now. But now on Monday when kids come in and we have parents calling and we're doing tours and we're picking up kids from school and we're trying to get meals and snacks and all those things, we're gonna get more challenges. As we grow but as we've been rising, we will continue to rise to any challenge that has been presented to us.

Phil:

Awesome. So Monday this week? Monday this week is first day of school. Official day one.

Anna:

First day of school. So excited.

Phil:

That is fantastic. Now, have you already done like a grand opening or is that something that is planned.

Anna:

We did a ribbon cutting on the 20th with Mayor Skip Henderson some board members, some major donors. And that was great. That was a great opportunity to show the community what's coming. I would invite anyone who's interested in setting up a tour, setting up a community partnership. They can reach out to you at Safe House. They can reach out to me and we can get connections going.'cause I, I wanna show the whole city what we're doing. Because it's amazing.

Phil:

Yeah. And it's gonna be amazing for so many people to help them really just get out of the rat race. The hardship of homelessness the struggles that they're facing to get back on their feet. The, and it, and what a peace of mind to know that their kids are gonna be loved and taken care of so well. Any other stories that come to mind? Really neat things that you have seen God do along the way?

Anna:

I think our team is really heaven sent. Yeah. The ladies that have come to work for Bright Futures, one actually is a former employee of my program that I had before, and I always said if I knew how to clone, I would clone that woman. If I had one shot at it, I would just clone Miss Gale'cause she is fantastic. She comes from a three star quality rated center. She's been working in childcare longer than I've been alive. I think combined with all of our staff, we have over two centuries of experience. Wow. In ECE, and. Their experience is recent, so they're up to date on best practices, and I'm not having to train out old ha bad habits that they've learned from a center that doesn't meet our standards, and they're really working as a team and they're, it's a cohesion of Fellowship of Women that I have not seen before.

Phil:

That's awesome. That's awesome. So take a second and think about a couple of stories that maybe you could tell of, crazy things that you have seen in childcare?'cause I know there's some of those things.

Anna:

Oh, I could sit for hours if you wanna open that door, but yeah, I can

Phil:

just a couple, I don't know. Give us a little insight into the wonderful world sometimes the insanity that, that comes along with. Managing and investing in kids.

Anna:

So we'll talk about the agencies for a second. I was a food program participant and that's, they make sure that you're serving nutritious meals and snacks, fruits and veggies, whole grains, lean meats, those kinds of things. Yeah. They inspect you just like licensing does. And right after COVID ended, they were just getting back into the swing of in-person visits. So I had C-A-C-F-P come for breakfast and they left at about nine. And then at 11 o'clock licensing knocks on my door. So I had both inspections in one day and my. My kids were already crazy from the last inspection. And then another new adult came in and they just lost their minds. I said, okay, we're all going outside. We're going for a walk. We gotta get this energy out. And then six months later I was due for another inspection. C-A-C-F-P came and I was looking out the window like, miss Penny should probably be rolling up any minute now. And she came the next day. But that's my fun state agency story. I think the best stories are actually just from my own kids.'cause they always say teacher's kids are the worst teacher's. Kids, ah, teacher's kids act up more like preacher's kids. Yeah.

Phil:

Yeah. They have that reputation.

Anna:

Yeah. My son during a licensing visit dug into the licensing representative's bag and was like digging into her paperwork. Wow. And her, and she's talking to me and getting files from me and information from me. So I'm not clocking it at all. I was clocking the other kids that did not belong to me. Oh wow. To make sure they were not in her things. And he just walks up with her iPad and he goes, I play. He's probably two. And she goes, oh no. This is government property. Maybe we don't do that. And she did. That's crazy. She did a virtual inspection while we were in COVID. Henry was probably one, one and a half, and she's okay, I need to see the bathroom. I said, of course, we'll go see the bathroom. And I'm holding him and as soon as we walk in, he starts rubbing his hands together. Hand washing. She's I know you guys are washing hands.'cause as soon as he saw the sink, he started doing the thing. I said, that's right. Good boy.

Phil:

He's see there. So he helps you?

Anna:

He does. He

Phil:

gives you a little stress, but he also has

Anna:

a little bit. One of the church at the fort that we were partnering with to make bright futures happen. One of the workers who works in their Sunday school program was like, I would love to just take. Henry and just run around with him. I said, I don't know if you know what you're volunteering. I don't know. And he goes, I'll make sure he doesn't escape. I'll go, I'll put zip ties on the door. I'll figure it out. I said, the only way you're gonna keep him out with zip ties is if you put them on him because he will find a way We always know if my nanny's had a hard day, I'll get home. I'll say, how was, how are the boys today? She goes, Henry's an excellent problem solver.

Phil:

Wow.

Anna:

Because she's told him not to do something and he's finagled himself figuring it out.

Phil:

So you might do some amazing things in this world.

Anna:

I'm sure he will. The boy talks about bioluminescent, phyto plasm. He's five years old, so I'm sure he'll be a wonderful mad scientist someday. So to all the school age staff at Bright Futures now and forever. Bless you for keeping him safe.

Phil:

Oh wow. Tell us. The best way to reach out if you want to volunteer or partner and help in the ministry work that we're doing to try to help others with childcare or if you want to enroll your child and look into that process.

Anna:

Yeah, so the best way to get in contact with us is by calling us, and our number is 7 0 6 9 4 0. 7, 5, 9, 8. You can also email me directly at anna a n nna@brightfuturescolumbus.com. You can schedule a tour, you can ask me questions, you can just chitchat to me about your baby.'cause I love baby stories. And we will get you set up either with a tour with enrollment, paperwork with volunteer. Start up whatever, and we'll get you, we'll get you rocking and rolling and if you wanna help Safe House, you would contact Phil.

Phil:

Yeah. And I can absolutely connect anybody that reaches out to you straight to me. Yeah. And vice versa. Yeah. Awesome. I lo I have appreciated you being here. I love your spirit. I love your joy for children. Yeah. We need more of that in this world. Yeah. I think there are too many people that. They just view children as a burden.

Anna:

Yeah.

Phil:

And

Anna:

yeah.

Phil:

That's not what they are. They're Notre a blessing. They're

Anna:

not. They are.

Phil:

It's it, they're amazing. And they enrich with all

Anna:

of the frustrations and the gray hairs. They're not easy.

Phil:

They're not easy, but it's so worth it. And. When the Lord gives you children and he brings them into your life, there is a depth of life that you could never have otherwise.

Anna:

Yeah. I think a lot of moms can attest to that. Like I barely remember what life was like before Henry came, and then Jesse came three years later and I said. I don't even remember what parenting one child is like.'cause now I have these two who are constantly just playing and getting into things and shouting and I was like I don't remember a quiet moment in our home. Which maybe that's done purposefully. Don't worry about what happened back then. This is where we're at now. This is where we're gonna stay. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yeah.

Phil:

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Any other last thoughts or ideas or things that you want to add?

Anna:

I just, this is such an exciting project for me to have worked on, for my team to have worked on, for Safe House to have worked on. It's been a lot of hard work. On a lot of people's parts, and I'm so proud of all of us as a team for getting this done. But we have so much more to do and we're ready to do it. So I would encourage anyone who feels called to volunteer with us to volunteer with Safe House, to reach out because we're doing great. Needed work.

Phil:

Yeah. Awesome. And what are the actual hours of operation and services and the details that you could tell people?

Anna:

We are open from 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday through Friday. The goal eventually is to be 24 7.

Phil:

Wow. There's probably not a lot of childcare providers that are open.

Anna:

No. And for the mom who's working 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM at Piedmont, what's she to do?

Phil:

Yeah. Yeah. Are there any, are there even any right now like that? Not here. Okay. The only

Anna:

overnight care I've seen is like closer to Atlanta.

Phil:

Yeah. It's, and if you don't have any relatives that you can

Anna:

right away,

Phil:

like a lot of the

Anna:

military spouses who work in healthcare.

Phil:

Wow. Yeah. Okay, that's really good. Okay, so right now it's 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM right now and working towards being able to do 24 hours. That's fantastic. Yeah. And number of kids that you're able to bring into the program Right now?

Anna:

Currently we're at 65. As we get more equipment, we can expand in around a hundred forty five.

Phil:

Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. Fantastic. It's exciting to see. Come Monday, everything. Launching. It's encouraging it's encouraging to just hear of all the stories of many people that have given in so many different ways. Yeah. Whether financially or whether their time, their skillset, their expertise. People that have bought things off the Amazon wishlist and sent them. Yeah, like so many things. What a lesson

Anna:

that's been, I think over a thousand dollars worth of materials. Have been purchased off of the Amazon wishlist and a lot of them are like small individual purchases and it, that's a thousand dollars we can spend somewhere else. Yeah. Like paying our people living wages. Yeah. And putting gas in the vans that picks kids up from school.

Phil:

It's encouraging. It's because there are so many people in Columbus, Georgia and the surrounding area that love. Others. And want to help others. And that give to help others who are just struggling. Yeah. And need a hand and need some help, need some support, some encouragement so that they can get back up on their feet and just thrive in their lives and with their families. That's right. It's wonderful. Yeah. And it's so exciting. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for being here.

Anna:

Thank you for having me. That was great.

Phil:

You mind if I close this in a word of prayer? Go for it. Lord. Thank you for your goodness. Thank you for. The many amazing things that you have done, thank you for what you've done in Anna's life and her family and for bringing her here to Safe House Ministries, to be able to start Bright Futures Childcare as a part of the ministry work and the support. That Safe House brings to this community. Just bless her with wisdom and guidance. Bless her family, her husband, her children, guide them and strengthen them just in their path. Bless the work that is being done at Bright Futures. I just pray that you would bring in the support and the people that continue to want to help in so many different ways that you would just strengthen that program, that it would be able to provide the crucial and needed support for so many who are trying to get back on their feet. To have peace and a place to put their kids that they know they'll be loved and taken care of, so that they can save money and work and just take care of the foundation of their family. We praise you. We love you, and we thank you, father in Jesus name. Amen.

Anna:

Amen.

06-21-23 SAFEHOUSE-CH2:

We look forward to being with you again next week as we share another testimony about the power and the goodness of God to change lives through Safe House Ministries. if you are someone listening to this podcast that loves to hear these stories of the great things that God is doing in changing people's lives for the better, and if you would like to be a part of that work, please reach out to us You can reach us at 2101 Hamilton Road, Columbus, Georgia, 31,904. You can call us at seven oh six three two two. 3 7, 7 3, or you can email us at info@safehouse-ministries.com.

Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone)-2:

Thank you so much for being with us this week for the renew restore and rejoice podcast of safe house ministries, we pray that God will bless you this week. And we look forward to having you back with us again next week for a new episode.