Finding a child care center with excellent teachers, high parental involvement and a strong sense of community is a challenge for most working parents. So when Denice Ross discovered this ideal environment for her son Jamie, now 26 months, at Gris Gris House in New Orleans, she felt like she had struck gold. "It had that special X-factor. I could tell that (my son) was progressing each day," says Ross.

Then Hurricane Katrina struck.

Ross' voice still cracks with emotion when she recalls the August day a year ago when her family made arrangements to evacuate to Texas days before Katrina hit. She picked up her son from Gris Gris and talked with other worried parents about their plans. It was the last time she would see many of the parents in the tight-knit community her family had been a part of since her son was five months old.

It wasn't until two weeks later that the parents of Gris Gris were able to reconnect via email. Luckily, many of the families escaped major disaster and planned to return to their neighborhoods in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. But their child care center wasn't so lucky. They discovered that the roof in the kitchen of the facility had collapsed. The owners of Gris Gris House struggled to get a small business loan to repair the damage. Then the landlord decided to raise the rent to attract higher-paying tenants. That was the final straw. The owners of Gris Gris decided to shut it down.

As soon as Ross and the other parents realized that their child care center would not reopen, they started talking about starting up a center to replace Gris Gris House. About half of the families from Gris Gris returned to New Orleans after the storm. Many were faced with flooded houses and no jobs but were determined to rebuild their lives.

After several meetings in November and December, the group decided to organize a non-profit corporation and start their own center - The Abeona House, named after the Roman goddess of children who leave home for the first time. They elected five parents as board members and hired a director. In February they secured a site for the facility.

Parents putting the finishing touches on Abeona House

When it opens it doors, as planned, in September, Abeona House will likely be the first new child care center to start up in New Orleans since the storm. Only 20 percent of child care centers in the city have reopened. Since the Abeona House parents begun their planning, three more groups of parents have decided to take action and hope to open their own parent-led centers.

Rebuilding the child care system in New Orleans is considered by many experts to be a key piece of the city's economic recovery. They point out that without good child care, parents can't return to work and the entire New Orleans economy suffers. For the Abeona House parents who were lucky enough to have a job when they returned, piecing together child care arrangements until the center opens has proven to be a major obstacle. Several, however, have been able to get by using hired Abeona staff in nanny-share arrangements.

One report commissioned by the Louisiana Department of Social Services, called "Investing in the Child Care Industry: An Economic Strategy for Louisiana," states that for every dollar that is spent in the child care sector, $1.72 is returned into the economy. Similarly, for each new child care job that is created, 1.27 jobs are created in the larger economy.

The Abeona House founders have received nearly $60,000 in zero-interest loans and parent donations. Ross and her husband, a member of the U.S. Marines, put the combat pay he received from his recent deployment in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa toward the cause.
 
After nearly a year of navigating complex safety codes, accessibility guidelines and zoning and licensing requirements, the facility is scheduled to open the week after Labor Day - more than a year after Hurricane Katrina. For a group of parents with no background in starting a child care facility, it has been a learn-as-you-go experience.

"No one provides detailed information on the applications and plan submittals required, turnaround times for reviews, appeal processes, inspection schedules, etc. Even within an individual agency, sometimes there is no clear understanding of the process," says Lisa Treece Keleher, a parent and vice-president of Abeona House.

Staffing the center proved to be another challenge. The parents of Abeona House decided that their teachers should be paid competitive wages and have health care benefits. But hiring quality staff for a nonexistent facility in a hurricane-ravaged city proved to be a serious problem. What's more, the cost of living had risen in New Orleans post-Katrina and fast food restaurants were frequently paying more than child care centers. Many qualified caregivers left New Orleans in search of something better.

Through online postings, newspaper advertisements and word of mouth, the group was able to hire a director and teacher, Emmy O'Dwyer, who had previously worked as the 8th grade Language Arts teacher at New Orleans Charter Middle School, and three experienced full-time teachers, five part-time teachers and one daily volunteer.

Denice Ross and her son Jamie measure the non-skid tape for the ramp going up to his new child care center.

There are currently 28 children (not all former Gris Gris kids) enrolled in the center and 60 children on the growing waiting list. Parents of children enrolled as well as those on the waiting list get together every Saturday to work on painting and landscaping the new facility in anticipation of its opening in a few weeks.

"Life after Katrina has been hard and many people lost their social supports in the storm," says Ross."Parents desperately need each other and they can't do it alone." After her tireless devotion to the project, she hopes Abeona House will be "an extension of their family" -- something truly positive to emerge from a devastating storm.