In a room filled with toys and brightly colored balloons, HIV-infected preschool children play with building blocks and randomly scattered puzzle pieces. A nurse spoons oatmeal into the mouth of a 3-year-old hooked up to an IV, while other youngsters suck on bottles of warm milk and scamper around the room.
Come July 1, these sick children might be turned out of their day-care facility, leaving them looking for a new place to play and receive medical treatment. The Children’s Place Association, 3059 W. Augusta Blvd., received notice about three weeks ago that about $800,000 of its state funding could be cut as a result of Illinois’ current $1.3 billion budget deficit.
The Children’s Place was the main beneficiary for this year’s Suitcase Party and received more than $30,000 from the student group. But that will not be nearly enough to save the day-care program, which serves about 60 children with specialized services.
“Their original thinking was that (the children) could go to another day-care center,” said Cathy Krieger, president of The Children’s Place. “But what we do is not only day care. The kids need medication and nursing care. … Our day-care center was set up for low-income people at the risk of family disintegration and death.”
The Illinois Senate passed the budget Tuesday night by a vote of 30-26; the House still needs to approve the cuts.
Suitcase Party leaders gave their donation to Children’s Place to use at its discretion, said Erin Burke, the group’s outreach co-chairwoman.
“It went to organization as a whole,” said Burke, an Education sophomore. “We never decide where money is going to go.”
Krieger anticipates a grim future for many of the children at the day-care center.
“They will probably get sicker and maybe die,” she said. “They might end up in foster care because their parents are too sick to take care of them.”
The charity currently receives about $780,000 a year from the Illinois Department of Human Services, all of which goes to the day-care center, as well as about $260,000 a year from private funding. The charity’s residence program, which has beds for 10 HIV-infected infants, will continue to operate.
Those served by the day-care program include 15 HIV-infected preschool children, who require medication and monitoring by a registered nurse, and the children of 20 mothers too ill to care for their children full time. Because of these needs, the specialized nursing staff is the biggest expense.
“Especially when working with little kids, it’s very labor intensive and you need one nurse for every four children,” she said.
Landra Turner, a nurse who has been working at Children’s Place for about a year, said she is very disheartened by the thought that the day care might lose funding.
“It would be a big problem if they did cut it,” she said. “There are a lot of sick kids in the program whose parents just cannot look after them.”
The Children’s Place has staged rallies and press conferences to raise awareness about the issue. They also have made repeated phone calls to their legislative representatives to persuade them to reinstate the funds.
Suitcase Party members have joined that fight, as well. About eight group members continue to volunteer at the residency two days a week, Burke said, and several members have joined the letter-writing campaign.
“We’re urging people to e-mail Gov. (George) Ryan and call his office,” she said.
According to Krieger, slashing funds to the Children’s Place actually would cost the state more money because most of the children likely will end up as wards of the state.
“It really makes no sense,” she said. “Surely the state of Illinois can find three quarters of a million dollars to help kids with HIV and AIDS.”
