THE CHILDRENS CENTER INC

The Children's Center is a key to the economic and tourism stability of our community.  By providing early education and child care for those working in support roles, such as landscape, housekeeping, construction and food service our community can maintain the needed employment base to support our vital tourism industry.  Family is the backbone of our society and for parent to have a safe and quality place for their children while at work, they are stronger, more productive and more engaged employees.  When a child comes through the doors of The Children's Center, they feel like they are at their second home with loving adults that desire only to care and develop these children into young people with bright futures.  Our children leave The Children's Center ready to achieve success in kindergarten.

The Board of Trustees has approved a strategic plan that identifies five strategic focus areas, Staff Excellence, Financial Stability, Educational Commitment, Leadership Development and Community Awareness.  Through a collaborative effort of both staff and board, objectives for each focus area, along with an action plan is used to keep everyone focused on mission and purpose in our daily activities. Staff Excellence ensures an emphasis on continuing education for all staff, continued attention on wages and benefits and recognition programs to celebrate achievement by individual staff. Financial Stability is the backbone of any nonprofit organization.   This area focuses of delivery of a balanced budget in conjunction with competitive tuition costs.  Additionally a commitment to securing the necessary funds to operate within that balanced budget is outlined. Educational Commitment is the basis of our purpose.  We will continue to measure our ability to prepare children for formal education and maintain high quality standards as set forth by the State of SC.  Through use of the State of SC Early Learning Standards, we can measure our success and address our weaknesses. Leadership Development addresses the sustainability of the organization.  While funding is a critical issue, the ability to recruit and retain committed community volunteers as Board members is just as critical.  Commitment to recruitment, education, engagement and retention of Board members is addressed in this area. Community Awareness has been a long time challenge for our Center.  Daily we hear from long time residents that they have never heard of The Children's Center.  We have developed a plan to expand our digital presence, reach a larger donor base with the good works of the organization and improve our presence in the communities we serve.

The Children's Center has served the child care needs of working families for many years.  Parents need care for their children while they are working to support their families.  The Children's Center provides the service of care and enhances it to create a place where children grow, develop and thrive.  This wonderful facility can serve up to 200 children through the financial support of our contributors. We are able to help families navigate the somethimes confusing process of state assistance.  We are able to provide healthy food, thanks to our partnership with the USDA and CACFP.  This extends to the weekends because of our partnership with Deep Well's food pantry.   Our ability to reach underserved populations comes through word of mouth and community collaborations.  Our Board actively inspires excellence through both word and action.  Partnerships with Rotary Clubs, community organizations and other service agencies provide a network of opportunities for families and accomplish many internal tasks that would otherwise go unattended or require significant investments, possibly directing resources away from our children. Thanks to these efforts, we are able to maintain a high percentage of donor dollars directed directly to programs for children. We desire to build partnerships with employers that can provide child care benefits for their employment base and offer children a place to build a foundation for a lifetime of success.

In early education, there is not an end to the program, nor is there final goal.  Continuous development of a child's ability to exceed never stops.  As a child moves from infancy to toddlerhood to PreK status, we watch their progress, offer ways for parents to be involved in their own child's growth and encourage confidence and creativity in each individual.  Hundred's of children have graduated for The Children's Center who have become active and successful participants in the community.  We have graduated early childhood teachers, postal workers, insurance agents, dentists and doctors.  Our goal is to help them open their wings and see that the world is theirs if they choose to continue to be creative, to discover and to be confident in themselves and their abilities.  We believe a cure for cancer, a future President of the United States or the fire person that saves a baby's life will be the product of The Children's Center...and the many amazing educators that that touch their lives throughout their educational and life journey.