"Caring for Kids Since 1972"
SERVING CHILDREN SINCE 1972:
THE HISTORY OF THE CHILDREN'S COLLECTIVE, INC.
The Children's Collective, Inc. was the brainchild of Director Dr. Jackie Kimbrough, while she was still a graduate student in Psychology at UCLA. In 1972 Kimbrough won her first planning grant of $25, 000 from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, which enabled her to hire 7 people and begin operation.
The small staff which comprised The Children's Collective, Inc. in 1972 moved into an office at the Mafundi Institute, a building on 103rd Street in Watts designed specifically as a focal point for community expression. It was out of that office that they began to conduct research on cooperative behavior in children. Dr. Kimbrough and her staff believed that cooperation was essential to the betterment of society, and that instructing children in cooperative behavior would contribute to the future success of both the children and the community.
The Children's Collective, Inc. began by conducting 3 years of research on cooperative behavior in preschoolers, which was done through interventions in family day care homes. In these interventions, TCCI staff trained child care workers on cooperative learning techniques for use with their children. TCCI staff then observed and tested children who had and who had not been exposed to cooperative learning. As expected, children who had exposure to cooperative learning were found to be higher on measures of self-esteem, cooperative behavior, and lower on agression than the control group kids.
In 1974 TCCI received funding to begin its first general child care program, which opened in Ujima Village. This was the first of many "satellite sites" which TCCI has operated ever since. Later in the decade sites opened at Greater Bethany Community Church, Willowbrook, and Florence.
Curriculum for The Children's Collective, Inc.'s Child Development programs came directly from the cooperative learning training material developed for the family day care home interventions. The philosophy underlying the curriculum, and for The Children's Collective, Inc. as a whole, was the understanding that a child's future success depends largely on a good self image, a sense of self in relation to the larger community, and the ability to interact productively with adults and other children. Activities that promoted a sense of identity and those that promoted cooperation, which were once a part of the research models, are still timely and are still in use today.
The Children's Collective, Inc. continued to research even after the first study was completed and the first child care sites were established. A second 4 year follow-up study was conducted. At the conclusion of the second research study, TCCI found that teachers rated TCCI kids higher on measures of socialization and lower on behavior problems than other children, and they were rated academically equal.
Over the last 10 years The Children's Collective, Inc. has expanded its programs to offer a wide range of services to support the family of each child. Through the Family Development Network, The Children's Collective, Inc. provides case managed referrals, youth advocacy, counseling, and employment assistance. The Coalition for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention is The Children's Collective Inc.'s effort to prevent teen pregnancy. The First Five Program provides assistance for special needs children, and supplies child care training for our staff and for parents. Workforce Investment Act programs offer training for parents as well as drop-in childcare for their children.
Everything The Children's Collective, Inc. does today has its roots in the research Dr. Kimbrough and the TCCI staff began in the early 1970s. The Family Day Care Home Training Program employed now by the First Five Program was based on the intervention model developed back in 1972. Family advocates who comprise the Family Development Network and support our Child Development programs were originally employed to share with the parents of children in family day care homes and TCCI strategies they could use with thier children at home. The teacher training, program philosophy, and many of the activities that made up the original curriculum of our child development programs are still successfully utilized today, as The Children's Collective, Inc. cares for 4,000 unduplicated adults and children in South Los Angeles.