The Children's Center Portland

The Children's Center provides early care and education in a vibrant learning community that emphasizes personal development, social relationships, and family involvement, in order to establish a foundation for lifelong learning.
We offer programs for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners, at our campus on Stevens Avenue in Portland, Maine.
Our Vision: By 2013, The Children's Center will be widely recognized as a premier early care and education center, celebrated for its creative and engaging curriculum delivered by dedicated, knowledgeable, experienced, and loving teachers in a state of the art facility.

Description:
The Children’s Center is a private non-profit early learning center that is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. For the past 30 years The Children's Center has served the community in the following ways:

• The Center educates 80 to 85 children between the ages of 18 months and 6 years.
• As an approved site for Child Development Services (CDS), children attending the Center include those with moderate to severe disabilities and developmental delays.
• The Center serves as a training site for early childhood education students at Portland Arts and Technology High and Southern Maine Community College thus helping to enhance the quality of future early childhood teachers.
• The Center has and continues to develop developmentally appropriate curriculum for children ages 18 months to 6 years which has been used as a model throughout the state.
  
  

We believe that each individual is unique and has his/her own temperament and learning style. Each person brings this uniqueness to new experiences and takes an active role in the process of learning. We, adults and children alike, learn through our actions and interactions with people and our environment. As teachers, we continue to test and perfect our theories about how children learn and how we may best facilitate the process.

History:
The Children's Center was founded by Westbrook College as a learning center for students in their Early Childhood Education program. Westbrook College later merged with the University of New England (UNE). Upon learning that UNE would be eliminating the Early Childhood major, a group of TCC parents created a 501(c)3 and negotiated with UNE to take over the program and the building. TCC has been a not-for-profit agency since 2000 with a volunteer Board of Directors. We continue to be a training site for people preparing to become early childhood teachers and caregivers, most frequently from Southern Maine Community College and Portland Arts and Technology High School.

Contact people:

Gabriel Coleman, Board President, (email) Tabitha Parker, Administrative Assistant, (phone), (email)

Address:

721 Stevens Avenue Portland, ME 04103 (See a map)

Web Site: http://tccmaine.org/

Directions:

We are located on the corner of Stevens Avenue at Waverly Street. From Route 9 turn north (right) onto Stevens Aveune, look for sign on right. Please park on Stevens Avenue so that parents can park on Waverly. . . (more)   Nearest Bus Stop: Across the street at UNE, 1 minute walk

Last updated on July 31, 2009