Early Childhood Education

The goal of the Guadalupe Center’s Early Childhood Education Program is to provide an educational foundation for the at-risk children of Immokalee so when they leave the Center and enter kindergarten, they are on grade level and have the skills needed to succeed throughout their educational journey.

For most children, early education happens at home through positive interaction with their parents, recreational activities, and various enrichment programs.  For others, early education happens through private early childhood education programs.  For children living under the scourge of poverty, this is not the case.  Children who live at or below the poverty level usually come from single-parent households or have parents that work long hours.  Many of these parents do not have the educational or life experiences to provide education at home, and these are the families that cannot afford quality early childhood programs.

These are the children we serve—children who academically, by the age of 4, are already 18 months behind what is normal for their age group; children who, if not given intensive and costly remediation, will see that achievement gap continue to grow throughout the life of their education; children who ultimately will not be meeting their full potential and not grow into the productive members of society that they can be.

The Guadalupe Center’s nationally accredited Early Childhood Education program works to change these statistics by providing Immokalee’s littlest ones with the literacy, developmental, and social-emotional skills needed to succeed. Our ECE program has 18 state-of-the-art classrooms and is serving a total of 250 students, six weeks to five years of age, Monday through Friday.

Here at the Guadalupe Center, we strongly believe that improving education outcomes starts when education begins—from birth to age five.  This is a critical time for children's development and learning. Catching these children at such an early age and offering foundation skills to reading can offer a path to improving overall achievement. Data conclusively shows that the early formation of cognitive and character skills provides the essential foundation for success in school, college, career, and life.

The Center has a proven record of success due to its high-quality programming and curriculum and is witnessing the children of Immokalee excel. In fact, the Guadalupe Center scored a 180 out of 200 on the Florida Department of Education VPK Kindergarten Readiness Rate Report making us one of the highest rated programs in the Immokalee area.

Your support of the Guadalupe Center’s Early Childhood Education Center is a cost effective investment that pays dividends in better education, health, and economic outcomes. It helps prevent the achievement gap, increases school readiness and achievement, dramatically reduces the need for special education, and produces children who know how to learn through focus, persistence, and teamwork.