Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Centers. The Sheltering Arms is a nonprofit organization providing early education and child care to low-income families. The organization has seventeen centers located in seven counties in and around Atlanta, Georgia. The organization provides care for children from six weeks old to five years old, as well as summer camp and after school care through age eight. Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Centers offer Head Start, Early Head Start and Georgia Pre-K programs. Sheltering Arms centers serve 2,500 children daily.
Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Centers was established in 1888 by Dorothy Arkwright and several of her friends. Dorothy Arkwright and her friends established a sewing circle at the First United Methodist Church’s John Barclay Mission. The goal of the sewing circle was to mend clothing for street children. The sewing circle delivered clothing to families and discovered a 2-year old child tied to a bed post. The child’s mother was working in a factory and tied the child to the bed post to keep her safe. After this discovery, the women established Sheltering Arms to provide safe child care to the children of working families. The first Sheltering Arms Center was established in an old railroad car. The second center consisted of borrowed space in a local drinking establishment.
The mission of Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Centers is to nurture and educate children, strengthen families, and build communities by providing:
High quality early care and education that prepares young children to succeed in school and that is accessible to all, regardless of family income
Comprehensive support services for families that promote healthy self-reliance
Professional development based on core competencies for early education and family services practitioners that improves the effectiveness of service delivery
Community partnerships and collaborations that create a more synergistic and seamless system of supports for children and families.
The Sheltering Arms curriculum is based on the following philosophy of early childhood education:
High quality early childhood education meets the total needs of the individual child.
Children learn best through play - actively participating in and manipulating their environment.
Children learn all day long - during teacher-directed activities and child-selected activities.
Children learn in a variety of individual ways using all five senses.
Children learn best in a positive stimulating environment designed to enhance their self-confidence and self-esteem.
The instructional program for children is based upon current research that documents developmentally appropriate activities for infants, toddlers, and three- and four-year-olds.
Parents are viewed as important partners in their child's care and education. Partnerships with parents include plans and dreams articulated during the enrollment interview, daily reports and regularly scheduled conferences, volunteer opportunities, frequent dissemination of suggestions for parent-child homework activities, parenting skills classes, readily available information on ages and stages of development and positive guidance, and book ownership events. Family Support Coordinators also assist parents in accessing the resources to provide for the health, housing, and education of their children.
Sheltering Arms bases the instructional or educational program upon guiding principles set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Every experience plays some part in the growth and development of a child's personality. The educational philosophy is guided by the following principles:
Children "learn what they live". Sheltering Arms provides honest and fair action with all children, loving and calming words and gentle hugs of encouragement as the most powerful ways to teach children how to live in the world.
Teachers provide a positive environment where the rules are clear and consistent.
Teachers encourage positive behavior by being well prepared with age-appropriate learning activities directing children whose behavior is inappropriate to another activity praising and encouraging specific behavior.
Teachers use positive guidance techniques to direct children's behavior. Physical punishment or verbal abuse by any adult, including parents, is not allowed on center property.
The goal of discipline is to help children learn an inner control over their own behavior. Helping children express emotions using words rather than physical force best accomplishes this goal.
Conferences may be scheduled with parents to discuss concerns about a child's behavior in order to gain their understanding and support. The goal is to work in partnership with parents.
When persistent behaviors make it difficult for them or the other children to fully benefit from classroom activities a written plan is developed to involve parents, teachers, management team, staff, and community resources.
The Sheltering Arms curriculum revolves around a comprehensive system of:
establishing partnerships with parents, with sensitivity to their changing needs,
screening for developmental delays or health issues,
assigning a primary caregiver (bonding group),
ongoing individual child assessments,
enriching the learning environment,
following a daily schedule with a balance of child selected and teacher facilitated activities,
lesson planning,
teacher observations,
developing a child's portfolio,
teachable moments,
positive interactions between teachers and children,
parent involvement and conferences,
teacher training.
The curriculum is also reinforced through well-equipped classrooms, state-of-the-art facilities and playgrounds, and the provision of nutritious meals and snacks and nutrition education for parents.
Accreditation and recognition
16 centers are accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
All 17 Sheltering Arms centers are recognized by Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning as Centers of Distinction
National Head Start Association Program of Excellence
