FARMINGTON – With development effectively underway, the College of Maine at Farmington’s nationally accredited Sweatt-Winter Youngster Care and Early Schooling Middle is on monitor to open in early summer season 2023 at its new location at 274 Entrance St. in Farmington.
Reasonably priced, high quality baby care is essential for Maine households and the renovated constructing will double the present constructing’s sq. footage to 10,384 sq. ft., opening up 20 new slots for high-quality toddler and toddler care. It would additionally enable enrollment in UMF’s undergraduate and graduate early childhood education schemes to develop by at the least 20% in help of essential state workforce wants.
“The Sweatt-Winter program has served households in Franklin County and the encompassing space for greater than 30 years. Our new facility will develop on each that legacy and Farmington’s persevering with dedication to supply baby look after working mother and father and to teach Maine’s future technology of early childhood educators,” stated Joseph McDonnell, UMF interim president.
Two Portland-based corporations, CHA Consulting, Inc., and Optimum Development Inc., are offering the design and development for the state-of-the-art studying heart.
“The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered a dire scarcity in early childhood professionals in Maine. Enlargement of the College of Maine at Farmington Early Childhood Schooling Middle to extend the provision of high quality childcare could have far-reaching optimistic results for the workforce and households not solely in Franklin County, however throughout the state,” stated Charles Woodworth, govt director of the Higher Franklin Financial and Neighborhood Improvement.
The brand new facility contains spacious school rooms for preschoolers and faculty age youngsters with locations for sharing meals, studying by way of play and exploring, and the facilitation of vital self-help abilities. It additionally options two new classroom areas to assist meet the wants of space households, one for a brand new toddler and younger toddler program and one other for older toddlers.
“We actually wished to create a toddler care and early training heart with a home-like atmosphere for youngsters and their households,” stated Patricia Williams, professor of early childhood training and member of the Sweatt-Winter constructing committee. “Households are able to reconnect with the group once more and we hope they see the brand new heart as an area with a wealthy array of experiences that enrich early studying, nurture youngsters’s development and the place their household can really feel snug.”
Statement areas are strategically positioned in every room to assist pre-service lecturers observe and perceive youngsters’s play, habits and studying kinds and observe high-quality developmentally acceptable instructing practices. Extra areas embody an undergraduate/graduate pupil classroom, a nursing room for moms, artwork and multi-purpose areas, workplace house and a kitchen/laundry space. There may even be out of doors nature-based playgrounds particularly designed to satisfy the developmental wants of every age group served by the middle.
“The brand new Sweatt-Winter facility will probably be a mannequin for high quality baby care and early training in Maine,” stated Katherine Yardley, affiliate provost and dean of the School of Schooling, Well being and Rehabilitation. “Our undergraduate and graduate college students could have the most recent instruments at their fingertips to look at, be taught and put into motion finest practices for early childhood training. It has actually taken a village of dedication and help to make this a actuality.”
UMF obtained approval to advance the renovation of the previous name heart from the College of Maine System Board of Trustees earlier this 12 months. Funding for the growth got here from voter-approved state bonds, Governor Mills’ Maine Jobs & Restoration Plan and congressionally directed spending secured by Sens. Collins and King. The Lennox Basis contributed $100,000 particularly designated for the out of doors nature-based areas.
“This exceptional facility units Farmington aside in relation to assembly the wants of early childhood educators, space households needing high quality baby care and Maine employers,” stated McDonnell. “We’re grateful for the help from Governor Mills, Senators Collins and King, the Maine Legislature, and the College of Maine System Board of Trustees. We sit up for assembly the wants of the individuals of Maine and are grateful for his or her continued help.”
For extra details about the middle and availability of areas, contact Julie Farmer, heart director, at 207-778-7480 or julie.farmer@maine.edu.
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