Looking for volunteer nannies for low income mom self care project

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

My name is Cheryl Aguilar, a DC based mental health therapist who owns a private practice The Hope Center for Wellness. Before I share a little bit about a project, if you are a nanny I wanted to thank you for dedicating yourselves to caring for children. I work with children among other clients and I know how invaluable it is to have a caring adult in children's life.

I work with many working moms who are low income. One of the topics I promote is selfcare to improve overall wellbeing but as you can imagine this is a difficult endevaour for low income moms working several jobs and lack of selfcare impacts their health and their ability to care for others.

I have an idea for a project where nannies seeking to do volunteer work, donate a few hours a month to care for a child of a low income household so mom or dad can have a few hours to care for themselves or do things that are usually postponed. The long term goal would be to create a sustainable network of bilingual nannies serving the DMv area and to fundraise so this work is funded by foundations, corporations or individuals and nannies can be compensated for their work.

If you are interested in project and want to learn more, please email me at [e-mail]

Thank you in advance for considering.

Cheryl

[Anonymous]

Get serious.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a nanny or a MB, but I'm wondering why you are targeting nannies, when a high school student who knows how to babysit could do this volunteer work. It seems to me that lots of nannies work long hours and there are other capable people who don't work such long hours that would fit your bill. I think it is unfair to target nannies for your volunteer work. Fine for nannies to volunteer, but they should not be targeted as their time is less valuable than others.

[Anonymous]

I think you have to think about why people volunteer - they get something out of it. I think you are more likely to get volunteers if you target high schoolers who are looking to bulk up their sole charge experience. Its win win, your volunteers gain experience and your program gains volunteers.


The poster above said that 'Nannies work long hours' which is true, I do 55+. I don't need more experience or another reference, so your programe doesn't benefit me. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Why are you seeking only bilingual nannies. I do occasionally sit for people at a discounted rate.

Nannies need self care time too. Many of us work long ass hours.

[Anonymous]

She's a young therapist (3 years out of school) looking to build a private practice. She's trying to bill medicaid as therapy calling it self care project to make money. She needs free babysitting in order to provide therapy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She's a young therapist (3 years out of school) looking to build a private practice. She's trying to bill medicaid as therapy calling it self care project to make money. She needs free babysitting in order to provide therapy.

Are you talking about the OP?
If so, how do you know?
More info please.

Thanks so much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She's a young therapist (3 years out of school) looking to build a private practice. She's trying to bill medicaid as therapy calling it self care project to make money. She needs free babysitting in order to provide therapy.

Are you talking about the OP?
If so, how do you know?
More info please.

Thanks so much!

Google her name. She doesn't have a website so I'm assuming this is a new office for her. She is hispanic, therefore looking for the hispanic population. Strange location for wanting to help low income. That's not really a low income area.

https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/name/Cheryl_Aguilar_LICSW_Washington_District+of+Columbia_324677

She might be great but it sounds a bit shady to me when there is no information and it looks like a private practice/make money.

[Anonymous]

Looks like she rents an office out of a suite - she shares with this woman:

http://rosebudcounseling.vpweb.com/About-Us.html

[Anonymous]

" if you are a nanny I wanted to thank you for dedicating yourselves to caring for children."

That is so offensive. Don't you think PARENTS dedicate themselves to caring for children? Parents don't even get paid to care for them.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but I have to make a living too. If I'm going to volunteer, I'm going to do it for a worthy cause, not for some immigrant families who sound like they weren't in the position to wisely have children in the first place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, but I have to make a living too. If I'm going to volunteer, I'm going to do it for a worthy cause, not for some immigrant families who sound like they weren't in the position to wisely have children in the first place.

This isn't a real organization providing support for low income women. This is an woman who is renting space in a suite with several others in private practice. Given what she charges she can pay a teenager or adult $10-20 an hour to provide babysitting. If you are going to volunteer there are far better places to do it. Who knows if she even checked out the homes you'd be going into.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think your heart is in the right place with this idea, but it's going to be hard to find enough nannies to provide any kind of volunteer respite care on a regular basis, particularly when people might most need it (like when doctor's offices and other businesses are open).

A better model might be finding teens (or even adults, who might include nannies) who would be willing to run a drop-in babysitting service at some location a few days a month. Or maybe you could find daycares willing to donate up to x# hours a month to drop-in care. Both of these ideas would probably be easier to arrange and staff than finding an individual nanny who could regularly go to an individual family home.

You are right that these families deserve quality, accessible, affordable childcare. The only way they're all going to get it is if our government finally gets it together to provide that to all families (on a sliding scale, of course). This is a problem for families at all socio-economic levels, though, so I'm not sure why you think it's going to be as easy as asking for volunteers to solve it.

[Anonymous]

Many nannies are low income themselves, OP, and many also work weekend gigs in order to make "extra" money.

You need to expand your volunteer base if this has any chance at being successful. Why not ask other parents to volunteer, or students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many nannies are low income themselves, OP, and many also work weekend gigs in order to make "extra" money.

You need to expand your volunteer base if this has any chance at being successful. Why not ask other parents to volunteer, or students?

I think she wants nannies to avoid having to train people, and to be able to fund raise on the idea that this is "professional" child care, not babysitting.

OP, I think you need to fund raise first if you are committed to the nanny idea; you might find child care professionals willing to do this for a cut rate, but not for free. Self care is important, but it's hard to justify working extra hours for free so that someone I don't know can go see a movie or something. If I want to donate time like that, I have family who needs it just as much.