Our staff are qualified professionals who enjoy working with children!

Our staff are qualified professionals and child development specialists, who receive up to 40 hours of annual training in child development, early childhood education, health and safety issues.  They are selected not only for their early childhood education skills, but also for their ability to interact lovingly with children.  Led by a highly experienced administrative team, Fun & Friends staff members share warm, supportive relationships with the children, enabling them to learn, grow, and create positive self image.  Program Director Inell Ellis has a BS in Child Development and has been at our center since 1990.  Elizabeth Garcia, our Director of Operations, has an MS in Educational Administration and Supervision and has been employed by Fun & Friends since 1998.  Both directors provide on-going support and supervision to the lead teachers and assistants in the areas of curriculum development, professional development, observation and evaluation, as well as the day to day operations of our highly appraised childcare center.

Fun & Friends contracts with the Foundations for Families (www.foundationsforfamilies.com) to bring on site professional development opportunities for the staff and workshops for our parents and staff.  Over the past two years,  Child Development Associate (CDA) training has been brought to our site. Initially ten members of our staff committed over 120 contact hours after school and on weekends. They completed their portfolios and received their credentials. In Year Two, ten more staff members have made this same commitment.  Topics of study include: Establishing the Environment, Child Growth and Development (Cognitive, Physical, Social and Emotional), and Introduction to the Early Childhood Profession: Families, Program Management and Professionalism. We are very proud of our staff for undertaking this professional development opportunity as it will continue to strengthen our program and educational environment for the children and their families.   Fun and Friends also contracts with Catholic Charities (www.ccda.net) to provide ESL classes to staff members wishing to improve their English language skills.  By doing so, our very dedicated teachers will be better positioned to share with our parents the wonderful developmental progress that the children make on a day to day basis.  In addition, their teaching and their teamwork will be greatly enhanced.  The staff at Fun and Friends dedicate themselves on a continual basis to the improvement of their skills, which only reinforces our mission that we offer "child development, not just childcare."