[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by Hazel Applewhite, who is the chief executive officer of Ironbound Community Corporation.

Hazel, good to see you.

- It's good to see you, Steve.

Thank you for having me on.

- Our pleasure, we'll put up the website for Ironbound Community Corporation.

Describe the organization and the people you serve.

- Sure, so the Ironbound Community Corporation, it's an agency that's been around for over 55 years.

We are located in the Ironbound section of Newark, which is also known as the East Ward.

We service the Ironbound and also the greater Newark with services such as environmental justice, youth services, early childhood, family services such as job placement, job readiness.

We have domestic violence programs where we assist victims of domestic violence throughout their journey, senior programming.

And that's kind of the services that we provide within this community.

- Let's go back to the childcare part of it, because you know that we've been involved for a long time, about four or five years now, in a public awareness effort.

Our programming is Reimagine Childcare Website will be up, information for Reimagine Childcare.

Here's the question.

How severe do you believe the childcare crisis is, particularly in the Ironbound community of Newark, A, and B, then I'm gonna ask you about one change, one improvement that needs to be made to make the situation better.

Please, how bad is the situation, Hazel?

- Sure, so when we talk about how bad the situation is, we're talking about quality childcare, right, free and affordable quality childcare for family.

What I will say, Steve, is that in order for parents to be comfortable with returning to the workforce, so going into the workforce, they need to be able to have that partnership with a provider, with a childcare provider rather, to know that their child is being serviced in a safe, quality, affordable environment.

And if that's not happening, our families are not able to go back to work.

We will have kids that are home with grandmas.

Within the Ironbound section of Newark, we serve a lot of non-English speaking families, so that child is at home with the grandmother or the babysitter.

One of the things you're not getting is access to language.

So when they're now, three years from now, four years from now going into kindergarten, right, forget about, let's step back from the social and emotional loss, right.

There's also that language loss 'cause they've not been in a setting where they're communicating with our, you know, standard language, which is English.

So at one point there, right, the language loss when they're, you know, at home, also the social and emotional loss.

If you don't have quality childcare, affordable childcare, we know at that early stages of a child's life that it's critical, right, for their learning, for their development, right.

We know that this critical time, right, can also lead the way for a child to have sufficient reading at third grade.

- We just had a legislative election in New Jersey, November the seventh.

I didn't see one campaign spot, I saw no public discourse around childcare, but it's such a high priority.

What are our, and again, there are state legislators like Senator Teresa Ruiz, check out the interview we did with her, talking about her initiatives, her efforts to increase funding for quality, affordable, accessible childcare.

Here's the question.

Why do you believe that childcare is not a higher priority issue during campaigns when people are paying more attention given the impact childcare, or the lack thereof, has on families, please?

- Yeah, you know, I have myself have tried to figure that out.

As an agency, we've tried to figure that out.

I feel like there is a lot of awareness, right?

Reimagine Child Care is bringing awareness.

We have agencies, advocacy agencies such as ACNJ that are bringing awareness, Turrell Foundation that's bringing awareness.

I think sometimes it's just not at the top of the list.

You know, Senator Teresa Ruiz has always been a champion for childcare, going back to, you know, my predecessor days.

I feel as though doing campaigns is just, it's just not a priority, unfortunately, right?

- But it is.

It's not a priority in campaigns, but it is a priority in real life, right, Hazel?

- Yes, in real life, there's real life issues, real life families.

You know, us investing into childcare at these early age sets our children up for success in the future.

- And what about, I'm sorry for interrupting, but what about families not being able to have a mom or a dad or both work because they don't have accessible...

There's an economic impact on this, please.

- So the economic impact is great, right?

When families are able to go out to work, there's financial stability, right?

There is a confidence that's built within that family.

When a family's working, the local economy does well when that child has a place that, where, you know, health factors are in place, right, faith.

When you're in housing that's safe, - That's right.

- that contributes to the well-being of that child and that child also learning.

I mean, listen, these are basic maths, right?

It's basic math - That's right.

- for the success of a child.

But you're absolutely right.

If a family cannot go out to to work, the very basic, they can't provide to their family, including that child.

- You've been listening to Hazel Applewhite, who's the chief executive officer of a terrific organization down in the Ironbound section of Newark, right below Penn Station, the Ironbound Community Corporation.

We're talking about childcare, our Reimagine Childcare initiative.

Hazel, thanks so much.

- You're welcome.

Thanks for your time.

- You got it.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

RWJBarnabas Health.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Investors Bank.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

And by New Jersey Globe.