How one healthcare worker is benefiting from Learning Grove pandemic response childcare centers

When Ohio’s stay-at-home order took effect last month, Jena Stugmyer of Liberty Township needed to keep working as a social worker at the VA Hospital in Clifton. But the Learning Grove day care center where she took her two-year-old son Benjamin was forced to close.

The solution came quickly: Learning Grove opened two pandemic response emergency childcare centers, one in East Walnut Hills and one in Covington, to serve essential workers like Stugmyer. It’s just one way Learning Grove and other non-profits are helping health care workers and others serving on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.

“It’s a huge deal,” said Stugmyer, a single mother. “A lot of my co-workers and friends are making arrangements for their parents to fill in, or trade off taking care of the kids. I have no one to alternate with. It’s just me.”

A Learning Grove scholarship fund helps essential workers with quality, affordable child care. A $200 donation will support the weekly cost of pandemic child care for a family that needs all of our support.

“These workers deserve our support so they can provide quality, affordable care for their children,” said Shannon Starkey-Taylor, CEO of Learning Grove.