Immokalee Child Care Center

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Our humble beginnings …

It was Christmas, 1962, and Santa wasn’t making a whole lot of stops in the farm town of Immokalee. Two wonderful “church ladies” from Naples—Mrs. Jessup and Mrs. Fuller—decided to make the season brighter by bringing gifts to the children of migrant workers.

As they soon found out, these children needed much more than toys.

The migrant workers often had no one to care for their little ones during the workday. Some locked their children in shacks to keep them safe, while other pulled their babies along in cardboard boxes while they worked in the fields.

This didn’t sit right with Mrs. Jessup and Mrs. Fuller. In January 1962, they related their experiences at a meeting of Church Women United and touched a lot of hearts. By spring, they had organized a benefit tea and raised $500—which was then matched by the Migrant Committee.

What does $1,000 buy? Well, a glimmer of hope—and a burst of determination!

Soon community groups banded together. They located an old washhouse in the “Negro District” of Immokalee they could lease for $ a year. The county offered to pay for the utilities. People rolled up their sleeves, renovating the building, and created one large room for the children, a kitchen (with donated appliances), and a bathroom. In 1964, a daycare center was born.

Hard-working parents could breathe a sigh of relief; their little ones would be safe, and well nourished. The Immokalee Child Care Center (ICCC) took in 25 youngsters that year—with a staff of two and the hearts of many more.

Volunteers did everything from cooking meals to washing laundry to sewing curtains to rocking babies and singing lullabies. While there was never a shortage of love, money was another story.

By 1967, with only $45 in the treasury, there was a great concern that the Center would have to close. But churches rallied. People stepped up. Angels dug deep. The Immokalee Child Care Center never turned away a single child.

ICCC STAFF
Valarie Bostic
Executive Director

Andy Spaulding
Center Director

PROGRAMS
Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten
The Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program – or VPK – is a free prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds. VPK gives each child an opportunity to perform better in school and throughout life with quality programs that include age-appropriate curricula with a strong emphasis on early literacy skills, accountability, manageable class sizes and qualified instructors.

School Readiness
The School Readiness Program offers financial assistance to low-income families for early child education and care so families can become financially self-sufficient and their young children can be successful in school in the future. School readiness programs provide developmental screenings for children and referrals to health and educational specialists, and work in cooperation with other programs for young children such as the VPK program.

Early Literacy and Learning Model
ELLM is a literacy-focused curriculum and support system targeting preschool children ages 3, 4, and 5 years old, particularly those from low-income neighborhoods. The program is designed to enhance existing classroom curricula by specifically focusing on improving children’s early literacy skills and knowledge, and also contains a family involvement action plan.

START Program
START (Science, technology, arts, reading together) is designed to enhance the overall educational experiences of the children by incorporating science, technology, the arts and fitness into the curriculum through hands on methods. The program will provide a dynamic, interactive curriculum that will combine science, technology, art and the dramatic arts together with a strong focus on literacy.

ICCC 2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President:
Gary Wilson

Secretary:
Susan Nunner

Treasurer:
Amy Cooper

Vice President of Development and Community Relations:
Julie Accorsini

Vice President Governance:
Pete Garlock

Vice President Building & Grounds:
William Murdy

Vice President:
Beverley Vining

Board Member:
Pru Boyson

Board Member:
Val Enghauser

ICCC FOUNDATION
Who We Are
The Foundation for the Immokalee Child Care Center was established in 1996 to provide an endowment fund for ongoing financial support for the Immokalee Child Care Center. Its goal is to help continue the Center’s mission: To serve the Immokalee community by providing exceptional educational programs and the highest quality childcare.

The Immokalee Child Care Center was established in 1964, by a group of concerned Collier County citizens to provide subsidized care for the children of migrant farm workers and other low-income working families. The original facility was located at an open-air washhouse converted for use as a childcare center. As the Center’s needs grew, a new 11,000 square-foot center was built, to accommodate the growing number of children in need of child care. The new Center provides care and an accredited early education program for children from four weeks to five years of age. The Center can accommodate 103 children.

The Center operates year-round, Monday through Friday, 6:30 to 5:30 , to serve families, most living at or below poverty levels. The degree to which a child’s care is subsidized is determined by their family’s income. The majority of families pay less than 50% of the cost of their child’s care.

The Immokalee Child Care Center is a partnership designed to give children the best possible start in life and to support parents in their role as their child’s first and most important teacher.

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ICCC Foundation Board Members
Dr. Donald Vining
Charles White
Jim Hart
Tom Massey
Doug Newell
Jerry Carbone
Don York