Agency Details:

Mission:
We strive to support the diverse groups of children and families of Oakland by providing a safe and nurturing environment where children can thrive in all areas of development.

We understand the need for working families to have access to high quality infant-toddler care. In order to offer such care we must build community partnerships and public support of early care and education that will allow us to provide the best possible care to our youngest members of society.

Mission to the Early Childhood Workforce:
We support our staff and the greater early childhood workforce to build on their existing knowledge, skills and professionalism in the field. Through the sharing of resources we can in turn build a stronger community.

Description:
Programs/Activities (Specific Business Objectives)
The following are specific objectives our program will use in order to follow through with our mission and vision statement:
(a) To provide childcare services for parent(s) and/or guardian(s) of young children between the ages of five months and three years old.
(b) Childcare services will be for a diversified group of working families that range in socioeconomic status. A fixed percentage will be for low-income parent(s) and/or guardian(s).
(c) Sliding-scale tuition available.
(d) When time permits (weekends, national holidays that BBCDC will be closed to the families enrolled in program) the facility will be offered to community-based organizations needing early childhood spaces to suit the needs of families served within that agency.
(e) Infants and toddlers with a suspected or diagnosed developmental disability or other special circumstance will receive priority status over a fixed number of childcare slots available in our program.
(f) Facility will serve as a community resource where childcare providers from other agencies will be able to participate in the workshops given to staff for continuing education purposes in the field of early childhood development.
(g) Monthly Saturday play-groups will be available to families; enabling longer periods of the parent(s) and or guardian(s) to observe and engage with their child in playing with other children his/her age.
(h) Full-time staff will be compensated for their commitment to children and families in the program with exemplary staff appreciation practices, recognition, continuing education opportunities and adequate salary and benefits package.
(i) Families and staff will also have access to an on-site early childhood library used to further educate families on children’s health and development.
(j) To advocate for the greater need of all children to have access to high quality early care and education.
(k) To sell materials such as educational books, t-shirts, tote bags, and baby attire in which all proceeds will go to the general fund of agency.

History:
The founder has been examining the for-profit childcare industry for the past 4 years; 2 of these years have been spent operating a full-time family childcare business out her home in Castro Valley, in which she served a total of six infants in her program. 3 out of these 6 families either lived or worked in Oakland. Posing the question as to whether or not there was an even greater need for Oakland residents to access childcare services. With this prospective dilemma in mind, she based her market feasibility study that concluded in her discovering a most definite need for infant-toddler childcare services-resulting in the establishment of Building Bridges Child Development Center (BBCDC).

Through a culmination of extensive volunteer support demonstrated by the generous efforts of construction and design professionals who have assisted with the child care center's pre-development plan, and the fund-raising and planning efforts put forward by the agency's Board, our program is expected to begin construction mid 2009.

This program is aimed to not only provide a very small and intimate setting for high quality child care services, but it will serve as a community hub to help train prospective early childhood educators in the field, and grant additional families access to a high quality early childhood play-space.

Contact people:

Rachel Aoanan, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Michael Vennari, Treasurer, (phone), (email)

Address:

585 9th Street Unit 529 Oakland, CA 94607 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.buildingbridgescdc.org

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 12th Street BART,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5 minutes

Last updated on January 21, 2010