OUR MISSION:

Child’s Path strengthens and enriches the lives of working families and underserved children in Collier County through high-quality early childhood education.

To do this, we commit to:

  • Engage families to assure their children’s future success
  • Provide scholarships for eligible families of children ages birth to 5 years old to ensure access and school readiness
  • Emphasize the arts and nature through experiential learning
  • Encourage children’s innate ability to develop cognitive, physical, and social-emotional skills

Our Vision

We strive to inspire children’s love of lifelong learning.

Ten Things to Know
About Child’s Path

  1. Child’s Path strives to give working families and economically-disadvantaged children access to high-quality early education so they are able to enter kindergarten “ready” with all their developmental milestones met. Research indicates that 75% of children who enter kindergarten developmentally behind will never catch up.
  2. We provide our Bright Paths scholarships to low-income working families, and over 75% of the 400 children enrolled annually receive this tuition assistance.
  3. We operate four early learning centers in Collier County, specifically in Immokalee, Golden Gate, East Naples, and Naples.
  4. Child’s Path seeks to meet the need for early education during a child’s most crucial developmental years. By age 3, a child’s brain has reached 80% of adult size. By age 5, it has reached 90% – nearly full grown!
  5. Child’s Path aims to stop the cycle of poverty at its roots. At-risk children who do not receive high-quality early education are exponentially more likely to later drop out of high school, become a teen parent, or commit a violent crime.
  6. Child’s Path uses the highly-regarded Reggio Emilia approach to education, which instills a love of learning in each child by building upon his or her interests. There is also a focus on art experiences and engagement with nature.
  7. Child’s Path provides approximately 85,000 healthy meals annually free for the children.
  8. We aim to attract and retain the best and brightest teachers.
  9. Child’s Path demonstrates its impact and quality. Approximately 83% of Child’s Path children test “kindergarten ready” by the state, compared with only 50% of children in Collier County.
  10. We assist parents in being their child’s first teacher by offering monthly parent workshops on topics that parents express an interest in.