Center houses three child programs.
By Jerry Hume
Monday, March 16, 2009 at 5:44 p.m.
Read more: Local, Education, AMCAB, Kids, Head Start
MARQUETTE TOWNSHIP -- In this tough economy, more families are relying on help from organizations like the Alger-Marquette Community Action Board, or AMCAB. That's why they say their new early childhood education center couldn't have come at a better time.
The new Brookton Early Childhood Education Center in Marquette Township is filled with 80 kids in AMCAB’s head start, early head start and great start readiness programs. The programs are free for low income families or children at risk.
"We have seen a significant change in the demand for all the services in AMCAB,” said AMCAB Executive Director Earl Hawn, “not just in our early childhood, but in commodity foods, in senior programming, in home weatherization."
Their new $800,000 building, which just opened for children in January, now centralizes all three programs under one roof.
"It's nice to have the programs in one building because the children can interact with each other and the teachers can do some common planning activities together,” said AMCAB Director of Early Childhood Education Marjorie Klein, “plus it helps transition our early head start into our head start program."
AMCAB decided to build their early childhood education center at the Lost Creek Development to connect with seniors in the area.
"What we see this early childhood center being is a focal point in our communities for young children to come and receive an education, socialization, opportunities to interact with our elderly," Hawn said.
