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AS AN organization sharing Our Place's mission of serving young homeless children, we certainly hope that the story reported last Saturday has a happy ending, and that Our Place can continue its important work serving homeless children and their families ("Day-care center for homeless may be forced to shut doors,'' Metro).
Young homeless children need every opportunity they can get to participate in high-quality early education and care. And thanks to the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, which has established child care slots for 600 homeless children at 29 providers across the Commonwealth as of July 1, more homeless children will now have that opportunity.
While we are encouraged by the new slots, we are also mindful that well over 1,000 homeless children living in Massachusetts shelters and shelter overflow motels - let alone tens of thousands more homeless children whose families bounce from one makeshift arrangement to another - will keep waiting for their turn. Until we give all homeless children both a place to call home and access to early education and care, we will continue to deny them the childhood and the chance to succeed that all of them deserve.
Sue Heilman
CEO
Asa Fanelli
President
Horizons for Homeless Children, Roxbury
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
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