Mission
The Mission of Good Shepherd Child Development Center is to nurture and strengthen families one child at a time by providing high quality early care and education.
Our programs adhere to best practices in education and childcare and are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. (NAEYC). The Accreditation Standards that we are required to maintain are: Relationships, Curriculum, Teaching, Assessment of Child's Progress, Health, Teachers, Families, Community Relationships, Physical Environment, and Leadership and Management. There are very specific criteria within each of the Standards. Good Shepherd was started by a Milford church in 1969 to help economically disadvantaged families with their childcare needs. They soon discovered that families could not afford the high cost of the childcare services - a fact that is still true today for a majority of the families enrolled at Good Shepherd.
At present, we are licensed to serve 92 children. Over half of our students are on a sliding fee scale determined by Connecticut's Office of Early Childhood, which means that their families earn less than 75% of the State Median Income. The sliding fee scale is possible because we receive partial funding from the state, who developed the scale. Good Shepherd is only early childhood program in Milford that is contracted by the state of Connecticut to provide early care and education to low income families using that scale. Parents applying for a reduced fee are required to be employed and must submit proof of income so that they can be placed at the appropriate place on the income scale. We have a limited number of sliding-scale fee slots and have waiting lists for those, especially for infants and toddlers who often wait for almost a year. Our center strives to offer high quality early leaning experiences for children so that they can reach their full potential, be prepared for school and have a productive life.
Background
Good Shepherd Day Care Center was founded by the Wildermere Beach Congregation Church in l968. Its mission was to help economically disadvantaged families living in the church's neighborhood. Within a short time, they found that families could not afford the real cost of childcare. The church sought help from the State of Connecticut, and in l969 received funding through TEAM, Inc., a non profit social service agency.
Good Shepherd moved to St. Peter's Episcopal Church in l984. The Milford Consortium for Child Care Initiatives, an outgrowth of the Milford Chamber of Commerce, approached all the preschool programs in Milford in l990 to see if they would be interested in developing an infant and toddler program. Good Shepherd was the only organization that responded affirmatively. With the Consortium's seed money, we approached the New Haven Foundation (now the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven) for assistance setting up the program. With their support, a renovation grant from DSS, fundraising, and other grants we opened our infant and toddler program in August of l994.
In 2002, DSS informed all of the child care centers that it supports that they would have to become accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Both of our centers became accredited and then re-accredited.
St. Peter's Church asked Good Shepherd to relocate in June 2003. Board members and the Executive Director began looking for suitable, licenseable space. After an exhaustive search, it became apparent that we would have to build. With a $3 million loan from the Connecticut Health and Educational Authority, Bond and CDBG funds we moved into the new center in September 2008.
Impact
1. Appointment of new Executive Director
2. Center was re-accredited in August of 2015.
3. Held a successful gala November 3rd 2016.
4. Added two board members
Our goals for the current year:
- Increase revenue
- Hold another successful fundraiser
- Continue to improve staff salaries.
- In order to build Good Shepherd's new center, our largest funding source was a $3 million loan from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority. Accessing those funds required us to sign a huge loan agreement which involved maintaining a 90% enrollment of private-pay infants and toddlers. Our weekly fee for those children is $270.00 which is a reasonable rate for children in that age range. However, for many families that amount is a difficult. CHEFA demographics show that there are enough families in our area that can afford that amount. We have found some of those families.
Needs
Our Five Most Pressing Needs are:
- Increase in state-funding, including Office of Early Childhood (OEC) contract and Care 4 Kids payments
- Increasing the number of members on our board of directors
- Finding, paying and retaining properly credentialed staff.
- Raising staff salaries
Good Shepherd is among 110 centers that serve 4,300 children through the state's Office of Early Childhood. Additional funding is received through the Care 4 Kids program, which are federal funds administered by Ct. They have changed some of their eligibility requirements, which means that fewer parents are receiving assistance resulting in both families and the centers losing income. The Care 4 Kids payment rates have not been raised since 2002. In 2013 Good Shepherd saw a reduction of $50,000 from Care 4 Kids, and in 2014 we experienced a loss of $80,000.
As of 7/1/14 we received a slight increase in our reimbursement rate from the Office of Early Childhood. However, we had not had an increase in several years so the increase did not come close to covering our continuing rising costs.
CEO Statement
The church members that started Good Shepherd were responding to a need. Families were struggling as was the fledgling center. They were using old Sunday school tables covered in contact paper, wooden room dividers, and any materials that were at their disposal. Members of that church remained on our Board for over 20 years. It has been a pleasure to work with staff and Board members over the last 39 years, being able to take advantage of various private, state, and federal programs that have helped the center buy equipment and supplies, develop and grow the enrollment and serve more children and families.
There are always children and families that need help. We have developed community relationships that enable us to help families with various needs, including food, heating assistance, psychological and medical services, etc. Our centers have staff that really care about children and they show it. In some cases, the center is the most stable part of a child's life. Young children face many stresses, spending most of their day away from their family, being part of a group, and adjusting to the children and adults at the centers. They may not live with both parents, could be living with grandparents or other family members. Parents too are under great stress, financial, housing, relationships, and problems connected with their job. Some of these stresses spill over onto their children. Our staff has to help the children first, and the families if they are seeking or willing to accept help. In this complicated world, we try to be an oasis.
We have the privilege and responsibility of providing quality early child care and education. We take that responsibility very seriously. Besides the social service we provide, we are also a small business. Our operating budget for 2016 is $1,295,000. We employ thirty people who have to meet standards set by the State Dept of Public Health, Office of Early Childhood and by NAEYC. Our income from the state and parents' fees do not equal the cost of providing the service. Thus, we must seek additional funds.
Board Chair Statement
From Ms. Kyle Eberts, Board Chair:
I have been involved with Good Shepherd for almost a decade and have enjoyed my association tremendously, complete with all of the joys and challenges.
It is a place where I can apply my interest in early childhood education and put my business and technical background to good use. The joy of knowing that we successfully have served a wide age-range of infants and children in a financially vulnerable community for many decades adds to the satisfaction. It is a great place to be a part of and I am honored to be on the board.
Being a non-profit we face many challenges that others deal with. Funding and staffing are on-going issues. We continue to fine-tune our fund-raising to try and meet the demands of the center. Staff education requirements are difficult to meet with our low salaries. We are very fortunate to have the dedicated staff that we do and work to retain them through job benefits other than pay.
Our newest challenge is the need to replace our Executive Director who is retiring at the end 2016 after 40 years of completely dedicated service. To address this, we have engaged a consultant. In the process, we are reviewing the goals and plans for the center, its staff and the board. It is an exciting time.
Good Shepherd has had a long history of excellent childcare and education. The construction of our new building which opened in 2008 allowed us to expand our reach. We hope to do nothing but improve children's lives for a long time to come.
After retiring from a position of director and teacher of a nursery school I continued to have an interest in early childhood education. When I was asked to serve on the Board of Directors I accepted. There is a need in the community to provide affordable day care for infants through pre-school children. In order to provide the care and educational benefits that these children are entitled, it takes adequate finances and adequate leadership.
From Board Member Kyle Eberts:
As a former business woman, I see the effective management, strong organization and skillful dedication to purpose. I realize the difficulty of running a not-for-profit and applaud the choices made over the years to grow this business and move it into a new facility with opportunity for the future. I am happy to lend my financial skills as Treasurer of the Board. Staff, parents, board members and volunteers work together through-out the year to do fund-raising and support the organization. Outside agencies are a vital part of the funding necessary to run this vibrant organization.
I believe that this is a very worthy organization to support in any way that I am able. The proactive educational approach combined with a nurturing staff and well-designed facility make for an exciting opportunity to meet the needs of the youngest members of our community and their families.