“We’re moving because Living Hope Church, the pastor and his board, are going to be utilizing the educational wing in September,” Foxx said. “Our goal is to open in Miamisburg by June 1. That’s when our summer camp starts.”
One of the academy’s program’s is a co-op that assists parents who need help until they find employment, she said.
“They’re trying to find work, they have no money, they’re trying to get their child into a child care center so they can get work and nobody else will take them,” Foxx said. “We give them a 3-month scholarship right off the bat, they prove to us that they’re trying to find work, show us the places that they’ve been and once they find work, we put them on a partial scholarship for six months.
“We go to what their budget is.”
Foxx said the academy does that because it wants families “to be able to thrive, not just survive.”
The academy not only offers child care for newborns through 12 year olds, it also offers a parent advocacy office to support the whole family, not just the child, she said.
“We help them find work, we give them a scholarship until they can find work,” Foxx said. “We also have a teen program that allows teenagers to come in at the age of 15 and volunteer and be on the premises to learn entrepreneurship, to learn good work ethics and then, when they turn 18, we give them a job.”
Creative Children of Promise Academy, which incorporate heavy academics with play, draws students from Huber Heights, Xenia, Springboro, Sharonville and other Southwest Ohio communities because parents find it a welcome alternative to “the alarming cost” of childcare and private schools, she said.
It treats children as individuals with different levels of learning, teaching them at the speed and in the ways that they learn best, Foxx said. Each child is assessed and a individual lesson plan is created for each child.
The academy is gearing up to move into another five churches within the next five to 10 years after it moves to Miamisburg.
“We’re excited about what’s going on and how we’re going to be able to help more families,” she said. “People will have child care in their neighborhood that won’t cause them to go bankrupt.”
Moving into Miamisburg will be an asset for not only the academy, but for the city itself, as it will provide easily accessible day care near Mark Twain Elementary School, Foxx said.
Lowe’s on Wilmington Pike will donate mulch and chain link fencing for one of the playgrounds at the new location, which is still in need of more fencing and mulch, as well as new or used playground equipment, she said. The academy also is looking to hire a kindergarten teacher and pre-school teachers for the fall.
Foxx said she plans to use a new online venture, Small Branches Academy, to help individuals learn to open their own in-home child care or preschool centers or licensed-based centers. Proceeds earned from Small Branches’ efforts will benefit Creative Children of Promise Academy.
“Every non-profit needs a for-profit to sustain it,” Foxx said.
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