Army child care program in St. Paul gets an “A”
The Salvation Army uses your donations to provide critical services like food, shelter and disaster relief.
Yet there’s another service of which few people are aware: child care.
In St. Paul, The Salvation Army King Family Child Development Center (CDC) provides top-notch care and education for toddlers and preschoolers. The program is literacy-based, research-tested, and of the highest quality.
Thanks to your donations, the program is also free or affordable. That’s a blessing to parents like Lisa, a hardworking single mother from St. Paul. Her daughter Isabella (pictured below) entered the program in 2015, at a time when Lisa was financially strapped and out of options.
“We received a scholarship,” Lisa said gratefully. “The program’s curriculum and family-centered approach have helped Isabella to shine. When she entered kindergarten this year, she was ahead of her class.”
Isabella’s success is not a coincidence. The CDC’s curriculum is specifically engineered to prepare children for kindergarten. The program has been certified by the nation’s top accreditation nonprofit for early childhood education and has a four-star rating from Parent Aware, a nonprofit that grades Minnesota’s pre-K learning programs.
“We focus on literacy all throughout the day,” affirmed Lindsay Montana, CDC program director.
The center also exists to strengthen families.
“We try to do quarterly events that involve family night,” said Montana, citing a gathering on Feb. 2 that featured a fun-filled dinner and meet-and-great with Peter Rabbit (pictured).
The center can accommodate 34 children, but right now only 21 are enrolled.
“People call here daily wanting to enroll their children,” Montana said. “With more scholarship money, we could enroll more kids. Eighty-five percent of our families are at the poverty level.”
If you would like to learn more about providing funds for a scholarship, please call 651-602-3018.
Please join The Salvation Army by volunteering or making a donation to support your local community.