News Release

August 14, 2006

First of its Kind Baby Spa to Open in Inglewood

Inglewood child care center expands with Baby Spa for growing population of infants and toddlers

The Children of Promise Child Development Center, located in Inglewood, will be expanding its center to house Inglewood’s very first Baby Spa.

Inspired by private child care centers in Beverly Hills, Kimberly Williams, Director of Children of Promise, decided to offer the same type of luxury service to parents in Inglewood as those offered to parents in affluent communities.

There is a burgeoning population of infants and toddlers and supply has yet to catch up to demand. One of the reasons why supply is strained is due to the high costs of providing care to infants and toddlers. Inevitably, those costs can trickle down to the parent-consumer.

“It is important for me to be an advocate for my parents, because of the challenges parents face around selecting child care”, says Kimberly Williams. “I want to offer the most appropriate child care services and I want to help our legislators encourage policy that is sensitive to parent need”.

One way Kimberly does this is through her work as a parent leader in Community Voices, a Los Angeles County-based parent advocacy group. Kimberly participated in a recent rally in Sacramento to challenge the budget freeze on a parent eligibility subsidy program that has made it difficult for many working parents to afford child care.

“For me, Community Voices is very important”, says Kimberly Williams. “Parents may be overwhelmed, but they still care about the children’s success and about their own family stability”. The project is planning an Advocacy Training Day on September 16, 2006 at the Speech Language and Therapy Center in Culver City to help train parents on being successful advocates.

“Kimberly is a prime example of a parent leader in our community”, says Sydney Kamlager-Santner, Project Manager for Community Voices. “The fact that she is willing to advocate for and offer an expansion of services at her center means that she is in touch with the needs of her community and is working to make a difference. It might not seem like a big deal, but infant and toddler care is hard to come by. The children are here, but the spaces are not. To me, that is advocacy in action”.

The Baby Spa will have lounge canopies, music “rooms” and ample space for human interaction. It will be a place where babies can relax and be stimulated. It will also be a place where parents know they have someone looking out for their needs.

For more information on this story, please contact 323-421-2631.

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