An outgrowth of the former St. Joseph’s Orphanage on Quinpool Road, St. Joseph’s Children’s Centre is a not-for-profit, non-denominational organization concerned with providing excellent, specialized childcare services to the Metro Halifax area. Our doors first opened on March 1, 1968 on the recommendation of the United Way, Department of Community Services and the Halifax Regional Municipality in response to a pressing need for supervised childcare facilities for children of working mothers and a growing number of single parent families.
Originally our childcare services were only available without cost to those parents who qualified for social assistance. All other parents paid the full daily fee until the City of Halifax recognized that many lower income families were in need of assistance and implemented a funding arrangement. In 1972, the Provincial Government formally recognized the need for financial assistance for families in paying increasing childcare costs.
Recognizing the need for trained childcare workers, our Board of Management implemented the first pre-service training program in Nova Scotia in 1970. Today the program has evolved into St. Joseph’s College of Early Childhood Education, which offers a two-year diploma in Early Childhood Education and also provides in-service training opportunities within the community.
Our curriculum is based upon a child-centered, developmentally appropriate approach that was built upon the principles and practices of the High/Scope Educational Model. As part of this curriculum, we created an on-site 24-month in-service training program funded by the C.E.I.C to train teachers to implement the High/Scope program.
St. Joseph’s was the first childcare centre to offer the first full-time Developmental (1972), Montessori (1974) and Bilingual (1980) programs in Halifax. We also developed and initiated the first comprehensive nutrition program incorporating current nutrition recommendations into a nutritionally balanced daily menu. The nutrition component is a major part of our early childhood education programming. In 1990 with funding from the Childcare Initiatives Fund, “The Early Childhood Educators Resource Centre”, a lending/training centre was established. “The E.C.E Resource Centre” serves as a resource for Nova Scotia childcare centres and nursery schools.
Among our other accomplishments, St. Joseph’s introduced a “sun safe” policy in 1991 in response to the increase in ultraviolet rays from the sun. The following year we designed and manufactured sun hats, whose purpose was to protect the ears and nape of the neck from the sun. We also created a “playground checklist” in order to identify local playground equipment that is suitable for use by St. Joseph’s children while on their class outings.
Since our inception, the demand for childcare has continued to increase leading St. Joseph’s to expand our programs and to include not only those attending pre-school but those requiring after-school care. Operations continued to expand as well. Our programs have operated in several public schools such as Oxford Street School, St. Patrick’s School, St. Thomas Aquinas School, Morris Street School, Westmount School, Burton Ettinger School, St. Mary’s School as well as the Maritime Centre and Quinpool Centre.
Today we have 5 locations throughout metro: 2326 Brunswick Street, 2155 Monastery Lane (off Quinpool Road), Scotia Square (Duke Tower), 59 Glenforest Drive (Clayton Park) and our new centre at 30 Damascus Road (Bedford Commons). Today, we have over 300 children enrolled at our 5 locations and employ approximately 45 teaching staff. Our management team consists of an Executive Director, Special Needs Coordinator and 5 Centre Directors who oversee our Centres and Administration Office. We also employ three office staff, a co-operative education student, a maintenance specialist and 3 kitchen staff.
In March of 2008, St. Joseph’s celebrated thier 40th Anniversary of providing Metro families with the highest standard of early childhood education. An outstanding accomplishment in childcare!
