30 percent of Colorado residents live in childcare deserts, but the problem is more acute in some communities — including those with higher Hispanic populations.

It would be an economic opportunity as well for members of our community and our staff who have been working toward becoming certified early childhood educators.

One day last summer, two-dozen Spanish-speaking women practiced first aid and CPR on rubber dummies at a Catholic church in north Denver. An instructor in pointy cowboy boots walked them through the proper responses to various emergencies — discovering an unconscious child on the ground or handling a seizure without knowing the child’s medical history.

The four-hour session was part of an intensive course for family, friend and neighbor providers called Providers Advancing Student Outcomes, or PASO.

The initiative is just one part of United Neighborhoods, a Mile High United Way project focused on education, housing, health and workforce development in Elyria-Swansea and neighboring Globeville. It began last year and is expected to last three to five years.

The course leads to a common entry-level child care credential and represents a key strategy in the United Neighborhoods plan to address the problem of childcare deserts.

Read the full article childcare deserts by Ann Schimke and Yesenia Robles at Chalkbeat