Mission to Families:
BBCDC aims to serve a diversified group of working families that resemble the larger community in which we live. In providing quality childcare services, we do our best to build strong partnerships with families fostering their trust in our ability to provide the most beneficial and nurturing care for their children.

Mission to the Early Childhood Workforce:
We support our staff and the greater early childhood workforce to build on their existing knowledge, skills and professionalism in the field. We understand that in order to provide the best possible care for our children we must participate in continuing education opportunities that support our work and dedication to the families we serve.

Building Bridges’ Vision:
Through our community oriented approach for early care and education we provide young children with the strong foundation needed to succeed in life. We envision a larger structure to help establish additional quality infant-toddler childcare programs helping all families get the support needed to reach economic stability.

Description:
Programs/Activities (Specific Business Objectives)
The following are specific objectives our program will use in order to follow through with our mission and vision statement:
(a) To provide childcare services for parent(s) and/or guardian(s) of young children between the ages of five months and three years old.
(b) Childcare services will specifically be for low-income parent(s) and/or guardian(s) who need full-time childcare services in order to obtain or retain full-time employment.
(c) Tuition for these childcare services will be on a sliding-scale basis, completion of an application and commitment of at least one hour of volunteer service to the daily operations.
(d) When time permits (weekends, national holidays that BBCDC will be closed to the families enrolled in program) the facility will be offered to community-based organizations needing early childhood spaces to suit the needs of families served within that agency.
(e) Infants and toddlers with a suspected or diagnosed developmental disability or other special circumstance will receive priority status over a fixed number of childcare slots available in our program.
(f) Facility will serve as a community resource where childcare providers from other agencies will be able to participate in the workshops given to staff for continuing education purposes in the field of early childhood development.
(g) Monthly Saturday play-groups will be available to enrolled families; enabling longer periods of the parent(s) and or guardian(s) to observe and engage with their child in playing with other children his/her age.
(h) Full-time staff will be compensated for their commitment to children and families in the program with exemplary staff appreciation practices, recognition, continuing education opportunities and adequate salary and benefits package.
(i) Families and staff will also have access to an on-site early childhood library used to further educate families on children’s health and development.

History:
The founder has been examining the for-profit childcare industry for the past three years; two of these years have been spent operating a full-time family childcare business out her home in Castro Valley, in which she served a total of six infants in her program. Three out of these six families either lived or worked in Oakland. Posing the question as to whether or not there was an even greater need for Oakland residents to access childcare services. With this prospective dilemma in mind, she based her market feasibility study, assigned through San Francisco State University’s Policy Analysis Department, on researching whether or not there was a lack of infant-toddler childcare programs available to Oakland residents. Her conclusion: there was a most definite need for infant-toddler childcare services, as well as for a higher level of quality childcare services, which can only officially be determined through an accreditation process. Thus, resulting in the establishment of Building Bridges Child Development Center (BBCDC).

Contact person: Rachel Aoanan, Executive Director, (phone), (email)

Address:

585 9th Street Unit 529 Oakland, CA 94607 (See a map)

Web Site: None specified

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 12th Street BART,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5 minutes