by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
A month has passed since the Jax Kids Campus opened at their new location, and they are already making great strides to make this Jacksonville’s premier family and child care center.
The Jax Kids Campus, located on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, includes the Jacksonville Children’s Commission and the Brewer Early Learning Center.
The Brewer Early Learning Center has been in the works for four years.
“It is very special, because it is state-of-the-art,” said Pam Paul Dopf, director of strategic communications. “It is a model of what the best kind of early child care can be like.”
The center is open from 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, and the staff sees about 80 children a day. Some go all day while their parents are at work while others may be there for a half a day or for just a few hours.
“It all starts here,” she said. “Preschool is a big deal because the research and quality that goes into the preschool pays off for the children in the end. They get a good foundation.”
The Early Learning Center has classrooms, an outdoor playground, a large room to eat their lunch or snacks, and there are also two-way mirrors for others to view what goes on the classrooms as a method to improve other early learning centers. Also, different colors are used in certain places to connect with the different age groups.
Children from birth to 5 years old can enroll at the Brewer Early Learning Center.
In addition to the Early Learning Center, the rest of the brand new facility houses offices for the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, including a toy lending library, a family services area, early literacy area to go along with Mayor John Peyton’s early literacy program, and a youth development in training area to help improve the skills of the people that work with the kids.
“One of the biggest things we do is provide financial assistance to families who can’t pay for the cost of child care, because it is very expensive,” said Dopf. “It also gives us an opportunity to help find out any other needs they may have.”
The toy lending library is available for parents to take toys and books home for their child to continue learning at home.
“There are roughly 13,000 children placed in child care through our financial assistance program,” she said. “We do all we can at this point of entry to get them connected to others to help raise their child the best they can.”
The Jacksonville Children’s Commission also offers programs such as Healthy Families Jacksonville, early learning and literacy, youth development and school success, youth development/intervention and treatment, and youth development/work force preparation, among many others.
Dopf said since the Children’s Commission moved to its new location they are having a much larger impact on the surrounding neighborhoods.
“We are so much more accessible for the families,” she said. “It has given us an opportunity to reach out into the community with our new building, our staff of 140 and a park that we can use across the street.”