The Child Development Associate (CDA) credential is the most widely recognized in early childhood education; the CDA presents child care providers with opportunities in career advancement, in-service hours, and new job opportunities. In this series, we’re highlighting providers who have taken the step to further the quality of their care by completing their CDA! Get to know them below!

Kendra Ginn

Tell us a little bit more about yourself and something you’d like people to know about you. 

My name is Kendra Ginn, and I operate Lil’ Rascals Daycare. I have been doing child care for 12 years, and I wouldn’t want to do any other job, watching kids gives me so much satisfaction. Just to see them grow from a small child, and then to see them later on in life and remember the impact you left on them.

How long have you been working in the child care industry and how did you begin your journey as a provider?

12 years. A coworker needed child care after I left my job due to the loss of my dad.

Describe your experience completing your CDA – what made you want to obtain it? Were you impacted by the pandemic? If so,
how?

It has helped me feel like I have improved my knowledge in learning more about child care and helping out families. Some of my coaches talked about it and said it might be a good idea, and it also helped out with my Step up to Quality. I was impacted by the pandemic when my family got sick with Covid, then I was out sick for a month.

What is it like to be in the child care/education industry? What impact do you wish to make or are you making on the lives of
those in our community, both young and old? 

It is stressful knowing so many families need care and we as providers can’t do anything to help out families when we are at our max. I am there for both my parents and the children. I help the parents by watching their children while they work and the children get the love and affection that they deserve and need.

If you could change one thing about child care in our community, across our state, or even around the world, what would you
wish to change?

I want in-home providers to be able to have more of a voice and be more of a voice at a state level. I want to have coaches and trainers who have not only been in child care but have been in-home providers. Child care is an amazing career, but in-home child care is a whole other ball game.

What do you wish other people knew about child care/education in our community?

That it is a tough job, but it is so worth all the ups and downs like any job. Just seeing the smile on the children’s faces and listening to the stories that they tell you. Children need to be in child care for the social activities.