The Bronx Community College Child Development Center was established after preliminary work by a group of students and faculty members who recognized that many students at the Bronx Community College (BCC) needed child care assistance. The Center was opened in a former faculty lounge and was licensed to care for a maximum of twenty-two preschool children. It was fully funded by the City’s agency for child development. The objective was to offer quality day care at a price affordable to the students, many of whom are from low-income, single parent homes.

In 1973, BCC moved to its University Heights Campus, making it possible for the Child Development Center to provide full services in the off-campus building where it is still housed. The cost of renovations for the new site was shared by the Student/Faculty Association and the Agency for Child Development. The ACD continued to fund the program, which could accommodate thirty children.

In 1976, however, because of the financial crisis New York faced, forty-nine daycare centers were de-funded, the BCC Center among them. In spite of what looked like an irreversible setback, the Center refused to close its doors; the need was as great as ever. Operating with volunteer staff and buttressed by the students, parents and a grant from the Student/Faculty Association, the Center launched a search for alternative funds. For the next ten years the center operated with funds from various sources, including C.E.T.A., Con Ed, and The Hecksher Foundation.

Keeping the facility open had become a yearly struggle, but success came through determination and perseverance. In 1983, at the request of then City University Chancellor Murphy, the city of New York began to allocate funds to C.U.N.Y Community Colleges for child care services. The state matched those funds, and childcare services provided on City College campuses expanded dramatically. The Bronx Community College Child Development Center, then twelve years old, was used as a model for other centers that opened throughout the city.

Since 2001, the Bronx Community College Child Development Center has been host to the annual Bronx Kids Festival, a fun-filled educational event emphasizing health and safety for the entire family. The event draws over 1000 participants each summer. Since 2002, the Center has worked with the NYC Administration for Children Services-Agency for Child Development Bronx Resource Area I, host the annual Multi-Cultural Festival to kick off the National Week of the Young Child. In 2006, BCCCDC held it first Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Forum which inform and educates the community about resources to help prevent child abuse and domestic violence.

In 2002, as part of the Center’s commitment to support the professional growth of its staff, the Center partnered with the Whitcomb Family Foundation to offer a scholarship program for the staff which pays for six college credits. We also partnered with Bank Street College of Education to offer a comprehensive Professional Development Program for the Child Development Center staff. Since 2002, we have partnered with Cornell Cooperative Extension Program to provide nutritional education to the children and student-parents which we serve. During the 2003-2004 year, BCCCDC partnered with the Day Care Council of NY to provide an On-Site Social Service Provider (OSSP) to serve the families of the Center and surrounding early care education programs. Since 2004, BCCCDC, Inc. has partnered with Studio in a School to provide a professional resident artist who works with the children, parents and staff of the Center to promote literacy through the arts. In the summer of 2006, BCCCDC together with Jumpstart and Manhattan College partnered to enhance the current efforts of the Center to build literacy, language, social, and initiative skills in the young children which we serve. Corps members from Manhattan College were paired with our preschool children to build caring and supportive one-to-one relationships for an entire school year.

Currently, the Bronx Community College Child Development Center, Inc. operates a fully licensed facility for 66 preschool children ages two years and nine months to five year olds and a licensed School-Age Program for children ages five to twelve. We are also proud of our record of assisting and training individuals to become family daycare providers.