WHAT:
Cherokee Nation leaders will gather for a ground breaking on a child development center in Catoosa.
WHEN:
Thursday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m.
WHERE:
West of CNB Employee Health Center, 19240 Country Club Dr., Catoosa, OK 74015
From 193rd East Avenue just north of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa, turn west onto Country Club Drive. Follow signage to parking just past the Employee Health Center.
WHO:
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Cherokee Nation Deputy Principal Chief Bryan Warner
Council of the Cherokee Nation Councilors
Cherokee Nation Businesses leadership
CATOOSA, Okla. — Cherokee Nation leaders will break ground Thursday on a child development center for the Catoosa community and children of Cherokee Nation employees.
The project is a response to a community need for affordable child care, as well as Cherokee Nation employee need near one of the tribe’s largest employment centers.
About half of children under 5 years old in the U.S. live in a child care desert, meaning options are out of reach due to proximity or cost, according to research from the Center for American Progress.
Cherokee Nation has long invested in early childhood education, including its Head Start programs, which were first started in 1978 and now serve more than 900 students at seven locations. Earlier this year, Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. signed into law the reauthorization of Verna D. Thompson Early Childhood Education Act, which provides $80 million to replace aging Head Start centers across the Cherokee Nation Reservation.