NOTE: This event was rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy; media are invited to Dec. 5 celebration
How do you celebrate a first birthday? With a party, of course, complete with cake, a candle and little voices joining adult ones to sing happy birthday. But in this case, the birthday star is the Rutgers-Newark Child Care Center.
WHO: Children and staff from the Child Care Center, parents, and invited guests from Rutgers-Newark and the Newark community.
WHAT: A celebration to mark the first year of operation of the Child Care Center which serves children of students, faculty and staff at Rutgers-Newark. Following greetings and some remarks, the ceremony will include a rendition of “happy birthday” and holiday songs by the children, and a release of balloons. Tours of the center will be available.
WHEN: Dec. 5, 2:30 p.m. – 4 p.m.
WHERE: Rutgers-Newark Child Care Center, 75 Halsey St., Newark NJ
BACKGROUND: The Child Care Center, a state-licensed facility offering full-time care for children of R-N students, staff and faculty, opened in September 2011. The year-round center is also open evenings to accommodate faculty and students who teach and attend class in the evenings and need extended child care options. Catholic Charities, an experienced provider of child care in the state, was selected through competitive bidding to operate the center, which incorporates a research-based curriculum coordinated with the Rutgers-Newark Department of Psychology and the Rutgers College of Nursing. SEE FACT SHEET (attached)
MEDIA CONTACT: Carla Capizzi, 973/353-5262, capizzi@andromeda.rutgers.edu
THE RUTGERS NEWARK CHILD CARE CENTER AT ONE YEAR OLD
- The center, which cares for 30 children ages 2 ½ -5, serves primarily Rutgers Newark students faculty, staff and alumni. It is at full capacity for day sessions and also provides evening care.
- Full-time students who are eligible for Pell grants are can apply for special federal department of Education grants to help offset their child care needs while attending classes at Rutgers Newark.
- A donation of computers from the Rutgers-Newark Psychology Department is helping the children with on-line learning.
- The Center is affiliated with the Rutgers College of Nursing (CON) and the Psychology Department in support of clinical study and research that promotes an understanding of early childhood. In fact, the Department has developed a lab course in Developmental Psychology that allows select undergraduate students to engage in community-based, experiential learning about early childhood development. Students design and conduct observational and experimental research with young children, both at the Child Care Center and at Head Start sites in Newark. This course aims to provide its students with knowledge, skills, and hands-on experience they will be able to use to successfully generate and critically interpret original data on social, cognitive, and emotional processes in children in the real-world context within which development actually occurs.
- CON and the Rutgers Newark Child Care Center are a natural fit; undergraduate and graduate nursing students are learning to provide evidence-based care and health education and screenings for the children. The relationship is a win-win: Nursing students gain relevant experience caring for young children, and the center's children have access to high quality health education and screening. Early screening and detection of health problems can have a positive impact on a child's life.
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