The Children’s Center Society
March 25, 2009
Tumbler Ridge News

….The Society Board of Directors, responding to the demand for quality child care, hired [Jody] Penner as the Director for the Tumbler Ridge Children’s Center Society. Penner has 14 years of experience in the Early Child Education Field.

The Children’s Center has experienced a lot of growth over the past 30 months. …when she started in September of 2006 the enrollment was about 30 children and today the children’s center accommodates and care for about 107 children. The Children’s Center offers seven preschool classes a week for ages 3-5, Group daycare for children ages 2 to 5 and out-of-school care for children ages 5 to 12 years. ….

The Center employs seven staff and three full time support workers. More than just a day care service, the center is the link for many children and families requiring extra support and services. We help our families to connect with out-of-town services, speech, language, physical and physiological needs. About 25 percent of the children in our care require these services and support. The center takes the responsibility of screening the children to ensure they are meeting their ages and stages of development. The key to a successful start in kindergarten is early intervention and building on the children’s skills and needs. ….

A goal that the program would like to establish is to have all children age 0-6 in our community have the opportunity to access programming geared to their age group. ….