A private, for-profit early education center based on building trusting relationships among teachers, children, and parents,
All of Gods Children Developmental Learning Center in Detroit employs teachers who are credentialed child development associates (CDA), many with master’s or bachelor's degrees and some with up to 30 years of early education experience.
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Arleen Allen
“I'm not your traditional child care center. I'm not a babysitting service. I am a learning center,” says Arleen Allen, All Gods Children CEO. “When children leave our center, they will be prepared for the next phase in life.”
All Gods Children has spaces for 47 children ages 6 weeks to 13 years. In past years, 4-year-olds comprised a good share of those spaces. While All Gods Children plans to be certified by the
Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Michigan’s free pre-K program, by fall of 2025, it currently is not. That means many 4-year-olds have left All Gods Children for free preschool elsewhere, decreasing this year’s enrollment.
“During the school year, I ended up with only seven children that were in that age group,” Allen says.
However, because nearby GSRP programs ended in May, some parents have brought those 4-year-olds back.
“I had two families that came over to my program in April because they didn't want to be bothered with waiting till the end of May to find a seat for their child. There's really no summer camps for that age group,” Allen says.
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Making child care providers categorically eligible for a state child care subsidy making that subsidy more accessible to all families would help both young families and Michigan's economy.
Allen notes that being GSRP-certified will not be difficult for All Gods Children because it already has the necessary credentials and teachers with the required certifications in place.
“We are a four-star center because the state hasn't come out to do our observation yet. Once they come out, I'm not worried about becoming a five-star,” Allen says. “I'm actually looking at the building next door, which is connected to us, and expanding space for the 4-year-olds.”
In a
May 2025 Q&A with Early Education Matters, Jeffrey Capizzano, president and founder of
Policy Equity Group, shared three challenges that Michigan’s early education professionals’ Community of Practice (CoP) is focusing on in the coming months: One, better wages for early childhood educators; two, making child care providers categorically eligible for a
state child care subsidy; and three, making the state’s child care subsidy more accessible to families in general.
All Gods Children shares the focuses. Allen shares that retaining quality staff is a challenge. Because of state reimbursement rates and what parents can afford to pay, All Gods Children cannot pay its staff a
living wage.
“In this field, we don't get what we're worth. I require at least a CDA, a Child Development Associate, at minimum, to work for me or be obtaining it,” Allen says. “I've had one woman who went to Amazon because she can make more and had flexible hours. I had stand-out employees that were losing their homes trying to figure out how to stay here, but they had to go work somewhere else.”
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All Gods Children employs teachers who are credentialed child development associates, many with master's or bachelor's degrees and some with up to 30 years of early education experience.
Some of All Gods Children’s staff qualify for state subsidies for childcare for their own children, which helps address the non-competitive wage. And some families receive subsidies to pay for enrollment at All Gods Children. Allen says these subsidies are a huge benefit, but too often they are calculated to cover fewer hours than the parents actually work. Allen believes a better way would be to provide full subsidies for all parents who work, with an earnings cap of $60,000 or $70,000 income a year.
“We almost dropped one parent because we weren't making it,” Allen says. “She works six to six. That’s a long day. So I came to her. We sat down, and we came to a consensus. I said, ‘Hey, you're off on Tuesdays. Come in and help make breakfast or lunch.’ The state is giving them a subsidy, but it's not enough to cover the cost of the care. If the parent works more hours to try to pay us, then they cut the subsidy down more."
In addition, parents often experience long wait times before they are approved for the subsidy.
“I would definitely make the process be sped up,” Allen says. “Why do we have to wait 45 days for a parent to get qualified? I won't allow them to start until they have their approval, because I've been burned.”
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As a 2023 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, Untapped Potential in MI, stated, “Accessible and affordable child care is key to unlocking Michigan’s economic potential and recouping nearly $3B in lost activity while better meeting the needs of working parents and job providers.”
Michigan’s PreK for All program currently enrolls more than 45,000 4-year-olds, saving each of their families around $10,000 a year in preschool or child care costs. For many, this boost to the family budget can mean housing security, healthier food, and the ability to pay for all of their necessary expenses.
However, many Michigan families who need care and early education for their infants, toddlers, and 3-year-olds still struggle to balance employment, caring for young children, and the household budget. And a strong Michigan economy needs a reliable workforce that includes parents of young children.
“I see the state funding early education as a huge benefit,” Allen says. “Parents shouldn't have to pick, ‘Am I going to buy food today? Am I going to pay a light bill? Get a car repair?”
Estelle Slootmaker is project editor for the Early Education Matters series. You can contact her at [email protected].
Photos by Nick Hagen.
This article is part of Early Education Matters, a series about how Michigan parents, childcare providers, and early childhood educators are working together to are working together to create more early education opportunities for all little Michiganders. It is made possible with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.