New child care center targets 'a major barrier for students' at PCC St. Mary-Corwin campus
Pueblo Community College has partnered with Life Center Academy to offer child care for college students at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital.
"We know that child care is a major barrier for our students. When we started exploring the idea of our Teaching and Learning Center at St. Mary-Corwin, we also started looking for partners who would be interested in establishing a child care center there," PCC President Patty Erjavec said.
Life Center Academy will offer child care from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays at the PCC Teaching and Learning Center — home to the college's Nursing and Allied Health Programs. The academy is licensed to accept about 30 children aged 2-and-a-half to 6.
St. Mary-Corwin staff and community members also will have the chance to claim open slots.
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Life Center Academy is a child care provider with three locations in Pueblo. It's first location, 807 San Angelo Ave., opened in 2013 by Pastor John Richardson and his wife Dana.
It was the first child care center in Pueblo to receive a "Level Five" rating from Colorado Shines — a program rating business practices, health and safety, learning environment, parental participation and staff training for early learning providers throughout the state.
A second Life Center Academy location, 3939 Redwood Lane, began as an after-school program for children ages 5 and up, but has since expanded to include care for infants and preschool-aged children. Between its San Angelo Avenue and Redwood Lane locations, Life Center Academy serves more than 100 children.
While Life Center Academy at PCC is licensed to serve about 30 children, there is space for future expansion. Life Center Academy currently occupies a 1,200 square-foot classroom area and an 800 square-foot office space in the Teaching and Learning Center, but unoccupied rooms nearby have the capacity to be converted into additional classroom areas.
In addition to hosting the Life Center Academy at PCC child care center at the hospital, PCC's main campus, 900 W. Orman Ave., is home to Children First, a child care resource and referral center.
"We know that Pueblo has been known to be an underserved community," Dana Richardson said. "We believe in the richness of bringing things that are needed to our community."
"PCC is definitely an institution that promotes that through Children First to make sure that early childhood education is a focus. We can step in and partner together to make sure families have that experience here," she said.
To learn more about Life Center Academy, go to lcapueblo.org or by contacting them at 719-561-0656.
Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Child care center debuts at Pueblo Community College learning center
