Montco nonprofit offers free in-home overnight child care to low-income, single mothers

Workers on the overnight shift live out of sync — clocking in when others are heading home, eating lunch by moonlight, crawling into bed as neighbors caffeinate and plunge into the dawning day.

For Erica Carter, a single mother from Lansdale who works from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., an even bigger problem than the offbeat rhythm of her life was finding care for her 2-year-old son at night.

Like so many single mothers, Carter, who finds treatment for people suffering from substance abuse, was being forced to choose between her child and work. Then someone told her about Along the Way, which sends child-care workers to the homes of low-income single mothers to tend to children overnight or on weekends, primarily in Montgomery County.

“I pray programs like this last forever,” said Carter, who’s studying to become a nurse. “I don’t know how I’d survive without it. Sometimes, I just break down and cry in gratitude.”

The nonprofit, which relies on donations and grants, also sponsors career-help programs and discounted access to lawyers and even car mechanics to allow women to rise out of poverty. All of it is free for single mothers who earn 200% of the federal poverty level or less, which is no more than $36,000 annually for a family of two.

Throughout the nation, child care is usually two things: expensive and available only in daytime.

In Pennsylvania, the median cost for one of its 7,965 child-care providers is $290 per child per week and can rise to as much as $627 per child, some of it mitigated by state and federal subsidies, according to researchers from Pennsylvania State University and Muhlenberg College. Still, federal figures show, of 13.5 million U.S. children eligible for child-care subsidies, just 1.9 million receive them.

Before the stroke of 6 p.m., the vast majority of parents everywhere are expected to promptly reclaim their kids in hectic, daily reunions. Just 8% of U.S. child-care centers and 33% of home-based care facilities are open after 7 p.m. or on weekends, according to Child Care Aware of America, a research and advocacy organization in Arlington, Va.

Along the Way is geared toward helping overnight and weekend-shift workers, particularly people with hotel, retail, and restaurant jobs who were the first to lose their positions during the pandemic.

The nonprofit was founded by three women, one of whom is April Matt, 42, of Souderton, a trauma educator. “Each of us is a Christian who felt called to do something bigger for our community,” she said. Matt was a single mother herself, she added, “but I had a roof, and financial and social support. That’s not the story of the low-income women I see, patching together child care with a neighbor or an ex. Maybe it’s healthy, maybe it’s not.”

Along the Way is believed to be the only nonprofit of its kind in the state.

“It’s very uncommon,” said Cindy Lehnhoff, director of the National Child Care Association, headquartered in Annandale, Va., outside Washington. She couldn’t think of another program like it.

Lehnhoff added that child-care centers can’t attract enough parents or staffing to offer overnight services, even though about 15 million Americans work overnight, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. People with means can hire live-in nannies, she explained, but that’s not cheap.

“What Along the Way offers is very much needed,” Lehnhoff concluded. “We have to have good ideas like this from people who think outside the box.

“More power to them.”

Of five million total Pennsylvania families, 415,000 are headed by single parents, 80% of them women, U.S. Census figures show.

Kristina Valdez, executive director of Along the Way, would like to help them all. Still, she said, the “little diamond” of a program has logged 8,000 hours looking after 15 families with 40 children in its six years of operation. Thirty families are on a waiting list. Limited funding has kept the numbers low, she added.

But that’s about to change.

Along the Way is planning employer-subsidized overnight programs that will offer child care to workers who would pay on a sliding scale. The nonprofit is collaborating with a Philadelphia food-processing plant, as well as two resorts in Northeast Pennsylvania.

“We’re trying to figure out something that’s not been done before,” Valdez said.

Linda Rice, owner of Mountain View Winery in Stroudsburg, Monroe County, said she supports the effort.

“”The challenge we have in the tourism industry is to get folks to work for us on evenings or weekends,” said Rice, who recently joined the nonprofit’s board of directors. “This could help.”

Erica Carter’s son, Carter Daily, loves his Along the Way overnight caregiver so much that he’ll pester his mother to take him to the woman’s house on days she’s not sleeping in Carter’s home.

Carter said she’s relieved that her son and the caregiver, Kori Yancey, 43, of Hatfield, have bonded.

Yancey returns the ardor.

“Carter is adorable, and funny,” she said. “Caring for him is like doing for my own kids. I enjoy the bedtime routines, getting up in the morning. I wash the dishes and put away the toys.”

The mother of six children ages 3 to 20, Yancey has a degree in psychology and family science. Her husband, Will, a second-grade teacher at Samuel Pennypacker Elementary School in West Oak Lane, is home at night for the kids.

Yancey sleeps in a bed at Carter’s house and eats food that she brings. She, like other Along the Way caregivers, has undergone extensive criminal and child-abuse background checks, is trained in CPR, and offers numerous references.

“I think I’m a good fit for this job because of my heart,” Yancey said. “I ended up doing this because I care.

“Besides, my husband and I always do our best when people are trying to better selves, and Erica is a superwoman. We give them as much support as we can.”

As vital as the service is to families, the sleep-over arrangements benefit caregivers, too.

“It’s not weird to sleep in someone else’s home,” said former Along the Way caregiver Carmen Johnson, 29, of Telford, Bucks County. “It’s comforting to be in an environment where the child’s sleeping and everyone’s safe.

“Another family gets formed. It builds new relationships. I love the whole mission.”

That few people have heard of the nonprofit is of little concern to Marsha Eichelberger, executive director of Family Promise, an Ambler nonprofit that helps people experiencing homelessness.

“It’s a great and innovative program serving the community and trying to grow,” she said.

What Along the Way offers is security in an uncertain world, said former client Maria Garcia, 35, of Harleysville, who entrusted her two children to the nonprofit when she worked weekends for CVS.

“I was born in Mexico,” said Garcia, now a companion for adults with disabilities. “I heard the phrase ‘It takes a village’ when I first got to America, and it’s true. Along the Way is breaking cycles, changing how people think of child care.

“They helped me be stable. And they became part of our lives.”

The Inquirer is one of more than 20 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city’s push toward economic justice. See all of our reporting at brokeinphilly.org.