By 
The gymnasium at the Burma Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, comes alive each day as children arrive at the Catching the Dream Learning Center (CDLC).
About 70 children explore the large space, running, bouncing and climbing under the watchful eye of adults. For children ages 2-5, this kind of active play is more than fun; it helps support brain development, coordination and learning.
Most of the children are Burmese American and are growing up bicultural and bilingual. They speak English in the classroom while also speaking languages and dialects from Burma, also known as Myanmar, with their families at home.
“Our teachers are so passionate about teaching and helping children grow,” said Helen Pau, program director for CDLC. “Our teachers love bringing the culture into classrooms because it’s something we’ve been losing in our community. At CDLC, we value helping children find their identity and own value in the classroom. We use family languages in the classroom. Most can speak one or two of the Burmese dialects.”
For CDLC’s 23 staff members, language and culture are strengths to be celebrated, nurtured and shared. As the first Burmese-owned early learning and care center in the United States, CDLC serves Burmese and non-Burmese children, helping them grow and thrive through culturally responsive care that supports the whole family.
“We focus on providing quality childcare, furthering the teacher’s education and improving our classrooms to sustain quality. We also focus on family wellbeing,” said Lashi Mai, executive director for CDLC. “We include everybody here; different ethnic groups and languages. We all come together here and make this place a safe place. We practice love in this place.”
Realizing the dream
Mai and her family moved to Battle Creek in 2011, where she and her husband, Pastor Biak Lian Thang, raised their three daughters. That same year, the nonprofit Burmese American Initiative was established, which received support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to open the Burma Center as a community resource center at a former high school in the nearby city of Springfield.
Since the early 1980s, the Burmese population has steadily grown in Battle Creek, primarily driven by Chin minorities fleeing religious and ethnic persecution under the military junta-controlled nation, which is known as both Burma by those opposed to the current government, and Myanmar, by those currently in control of the country. According to estimates from the Burma Center, nearly 6% of Battle Creek’s population — or about 3,000 out of 52,000 people — identify as Burmese, making it among the highest percentages of American cities with residents reporting Burmese ancestry.
Over the decades, as Battle Creek’s Burmese community grew, so did the need to provide culturally responsive early learning and care.
“I saw that we were struggling with the language barrier,” Mai said. “Our children learned English and spoke our home language less, which made it difficult to communicate in the family. Children struggle with their identity. … Many families struggle with that. We encouraged some of our community leaders to work together to make this center happen.”
Through partnership with WKKF and Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Mai and her husband opened CDLC in 2021 as a faith-based nonprofit early childhood education center. It occupies a wing of the Burma Center, with three teachers assigned to each classroom.
The early learning and care center is funded by WKKF, GSRP, Strong Beginnings and United Way of Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. It is free to qualifed families via scholarships in addition to income-based tuition assistance.
Family wellbeing
Recognizing that children are more likely to thrive when their parents are healthy and well-adjusted, Catching the Dream Learning Center works to address the needs of the entire family through wraparound support and engagement opportunities.
CDLC partners with the Burma Center to host monthly breakfast gatherings to bring families together to talk, reflect and strengthen bonds. They also address the complex challenges and generational trauma that many Burmese families face as first- and second-generation refugees from a nation still at war.
One such family breakfast gathering was titled, “Understanding Anxiety and Depression: A Parents Guide to Strength and Support.” It was facilitated by Catching the Dream Community Outreach Project Director Holy Sung and Pastor Mang of First Baptist Church of Battle Creek.
“We want our children to grow physically, mentally, emotionally and academically. To do that, parents need to be healthy and well in all aspects of their life,” Mang said. “Me and Holy are reaching out to parents to help them become a better version of themselves. From Burma, mentally and emotionally, we are not so healthy. We want to see parents engaged in the child’s life and help them.”
Sung added the whole family approach is tailored to serve the unique needs of both parents and children.
“We want them to see who they are as a person and value themselves,” Sung said. “We don’t want them to think that because they are different that they are less. It’s a culture we want to bring to our kids and parents. … We are seeing a lot of open minds who were ready to learn.”
‘Planting that seed’
Sara Thang is a mother of two children enrolled at CDLC and said the center has filled a void for the local Burmese community.
“We moved here when I was younger, and the first thing I noticed when I moved here was the lack of my people, and I longed for that,” Thang said. “I know when my kids are growing up, they will be in the Battle Creek community with different ethnicities and races. I know as a parent, I’m going to do my part to make sure they are rooted in their culture and where I’m coming from so that they can be proud of who they are. Catching the Dream embraces our culture and community.”
Christina Khim is the executive director of the Burma Center and a mother of two. Her daughter attended CDLC before graduating to kindergarten, and her son currently attends the center.
“I’m a working mom who is very busy, and I’m able to focus at work because of CDLC,” Khim said. “That’s how high quality they are in terms of the academic, social, emotional and cultural aspects. For me, it’s perfect. CDLC meets all my expectations as a parent and I’m very thankful.
“We want them to be proud of themselves and who they are. We want them to be proud when they go to the big school. Planting that seed is very important.”
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