There are many daycare facilities all over the Greater Kansas City area, but none like Operation Breakthrough - St. Vincent's Family Services (OB-SVFS), founded in 1938. Since its inception, Sister Coritta Bussanman and Sister Berta Sailer have helped many low-income families by providing reliable and affordable childcare.
Since the time these two women decided to open the facility, the name "Operation Breakthrough" has been the theme. They operate the center under the premise of breaking through poverty.
"We opened the doors in 1968 because a mom said,'We need child care for our little kids.' In 1970 someone said, 'You should get incorporated.' At that time, the city was burning and we thought we could help break through the causes of poverty, which is why we named it [Operation Breakthrough]," said Sailer, Co-Director of Operation Breakthrough.
The center has been helping families for 38 years. Although it began with only six kids, St. Vincent's has grown and now has more than 600 students. They accept children from six weeks of age to eighteen year olds.
Sailer and Bussanman have continued to help the community by reaching out to those less fortunate. For many years, St. Vincent's has "given priority to those families who have foster children in their care, the homeless, or those in domestic abuse shelters," Sailer said.
"We bus from all the homeless and battered women shelters. We pick up kids at home and we're also partnered with Gordon Parks School, so we pick up about 120 kids per day and bring them to school.
"We are also partnered with the KU Medical Center, and Children's Mercy has a clinic in our building now. Well, we always had [the] Clinic here but we never had much space. It was in a space about the size of my office [approximately 15 square feet], until we added on three years ago. We also have an adult clinic run by Truman Medical Center two nights a week, from 4pm to 7pm," Sailer said.
In the clinic, a nurse practitioner treats many minor symptoms that kids may experience. "They treat the kids if they have a cold or if the kid is pulling on their ear. Having the nurse practitioner here is really nice. Say one of the kids is pulling on their ear, [a sign of an ear infection] the nurse can examine the child and, if necessary, she can order antibiotics for the child," Sailer noted.
She continued, saying: "We work with a pharmacy nearby and one of the drivers will go pick [the prescription] up. We'll get permission from the mother to give the first dose and then when mom comes at night, she gets the antibiotic [to take home for the child]. The clinic does all the physicals and well baby checks and the Kansas City Health Department does our shots."
St. Vincent's also runs a dental clinic and a Therapeutic Learning Center (TLC) for speech therapy.
"Full Employment Council (FEC) provided some computers so our moms can look for work. We will partner with anyone who will partner with us to get the services that our kids need. We're also trying to get the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program here as well," Sailer said.
St. Vincent's is funded partially by city and state governments, and the remaining money is raised through fundraisers and donations. "We get money from the city for the homeless project and the money lasts for about six months, but we keep the kids all year. We raise the money [to make up] the difference," Sailer said.
"We get state money," Sailer continued. "The state subsidizes the moms that are below 127% of poverty level. The USDA Food Program pays for our food. We get money from foundations and have to raise money all the time because we have to fill in for our free kids whose mothers can only pay a certain amount."
St. Vincent's also has support programs for older students with college aspirations. "We have a literacy coordinator here who works on helping those students who want to go to college to obtain scholarships, grants and to prepare for the ACT test. We want to give the students choices, so we've implemented the Job Shadowing program here, so that the students can see what a particular profession is like," said Sailer.
Operation Breakthrough-St. Vincent's Family Services is open from 6am to 6:30pm Monday-Friday and also accepts donations during those hours. For more information on available spacing, or if you would like to donate food, clothes, or money, contact Coritta or Berta at 816.756.3511.
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