Nurturing Center

NURTURING CENTER MISSION STATEMENT

We believe children are the world’s greatest asset. Moment by moment, we aim to nurture, protect, love, and educate our infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, earth’s most precious gifts. Our charge is to inspire, instruct, model and value. Moreover, it’s imperative that we demonstrate kindness, ethics, fairness, and reverence. One hundred percent of our efforts point towards accomplishing our goals and exceeding our stakeholder expectations.

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The purpose of the Teenage Parent Program (TAP) is to provide uninterrupted learning opportunities for expectant youth and teen parents who volunteer to attend one of the two centers in Miami Dade County. Like the traditional middle/high schoolers, our students benefit from health care education, prenatal/post-partum instruction, family planning counseling and community-based support.

Special support services like transportation, childcare, health, and social services are provided. These services support the students in their efforts to continue their education as well as deliver the highest standard of childcare as dictated by brain development research.

NURTURING CENTER PURPOSEAND PHILOSOPHY

The C.O.P.E. Center North Nurturing Center is a full-service early learning facility with emphasis on the developmental, social-emotional, and educational needs of young children. Our center provides nurturing infant stimulation, educational experiences, and quality care for children between the ages of four weeks to four years of age. Additionally, we serve as a laboratory for teen parents to receive hands-on experiences to facilitate acquisition of parenting skills.

We are dedicated to individual development. Our program offers a warm, nurturing, safe and loving environment. In the Nurturing Center, internal perceptions are embraced, independence is encouraged, and uniqueness is respected.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN (NAEYC)

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a nonprofit organization of early childhood professionals and others who are dedicated to improving the quality of early childhood education. NAEYC focuses on professional preparation, resources, and training for individuals who educate children birth through age eight. Working with higher education institutions to set standards for preparing teachers, NAEYC provides guidelines for appropriate teaching strategies, curriculum, and assessments for children in preschool through third grade.

The State of Florida provides funding to care for infants and toddlers of students enrolled in public school. In addition to our Parenting Laboratory, the Childcare program provides “hands-on” parenting skills during bonding time. Our activities developmentally age appropriate for infants, toddlers, and pre-kindergarteners. On-site childcare is provided for children from 1 month to 4 years of age. The childcare program is licensed and is funded through the TAPP (Teenage Parent Program). The parents earn bonding passes to work on and improve their parenting skills with their children, provided they attend school daily.  At the end of each school day, the childcare nursery professionals debrief the teen parent on their child’s activities for the day.  This provides the parent with information at the end of the day to assist both baby/child and parent transition from school to home.