David CookThe year was 1968.
The story goes that some board members from Chambliss Children's Home -- at the time, our city's orphanage -- were lunching together at Wally's when they struck up a conversation with their waitress.
It was a tiny conversation, probably held over the filling and refilling of coffee cups.
But it would radically and beautifully change the social fabric of our city.
The waitress told them her story: I'm a single mom and I don't have child care. One day I left my kids with my neighbor so I could go to work. She wasn't watching them and they wandered into the street, and the state got them and took them into custody. Now I only see them on weekends.
In that moment, as the Chambliss board members saw the cracks in her life, an idea was born.
Chambliss could provide child care for the working poor -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"It was completely unheard of," said Katie Harbison, vice president of development for Chambliss.
It still is.
Since that 1968 lunch, Chambliss Center for Children (as it's now called) has provided child care and early childhood education around the clock, every day of every year. That amounts to more than 400,000 hours of child care delivered to the working poor, at a sliding and affordable rate, which sets a standard that is rare not only across Tennessee, but the rest of the country.
It serves as an investment in job retention, poverty reduction and childhood development. Chambliss serves 300 families, with nearly that many on the waiting list. They're working second shift, night shift, retail, anything minimum wage. They're in school. They're single parents.
They all say the same: Without this child care, we'd lose our job.
"These are people who say we just got offered a job, and we can't take it without you," said Harbison.
Today, it's a birthday of sorts for Chambliss.
On Dec. 7, 1937, the cornerstone was laid for its current location. Until then, Chambliss -- first established in 1872 as one of our city's oldest social programs -- had been housed on Vine Street, but 77 years ago, it moved to 17 acres and a 90,000-square-foot location on Gillespie Street, where it stands today.
The building has the feel of an old school or manor, and performs three stately functions.
1. Early childhood education.
"Every dollar invested in childhood education equals a $17 return in the life of a child," Harbison said.
Chambliss children -- from 6 weeks to 12 years old -- are taught age-appropriate curriculum that readies them for grade-level entry into school, which is an act of poverty reduction and social investment.
"The single greatest predicting factor of failure in school is poverty," Harbison said.
Chambliss interrupts this by surrounding its children with high-quality child care instructors, who then step in as replacements for what could have been -- remember the neighbor who watched the waitress' children? -- and create something positive and holistic instead.
"Our main goal is to make sure these children are ready for school," Harbison said.
2. A residential program.
In a separate and secure part of the building, Chambliss provides an eight-bed residential group home for children and teens coming out of abusive and troubled situations. In foster homes across the area, Chambliss also provides support for 20 or so other children.
"We are the only group home in 11 counties," said Harbison. "We get calls from the state every day."
It is not passive care, but rather an active and engaging journey into which these children are asked to participate.
"We do whatever we can to make sure that when they turn 18, they are able to live on their own," Harbison said.
3. Child care for teachers.
Within eight Hamilton County schools, Chambliss provides care for the children of teachers, a program that increases teacher retention when working parents are able to teach with their own children close by.
"Each time a school builds a new building, they build us a space," said Harbison.
Chambliss also provides satellite child care at five different locations, which means that each year, it interacts with nearly 1,000 Hamilton County children.
It's like its own miniature school system.
And like our own school system, it exists on shaky ground.
Cuts in federal funding.
Cuts in local funding.
For its birthday, we owe Chambliss and its long echo of influence a new thoughtfulness, one that would recommit both funding and support as an act of investment in the precious lives of hundreds and hundreds of working poor families.
This coming year, let's be bold and forward-thinking.
Just like 1968.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.