By Kris Leonhardt

Editor

STEVENS POINT – The Helen R. Godfrey University Child Learning and Care Center (UCLCC) was established at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1973 and is now in its 50th year of serving local families.

UCLCC Director Becky Helf said that the program came out of a desire to assist UWSP students with child care while they obtained a higher education.

“Upper leadership, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and the Student Government Association, they had all worked together and determined through surveys that there was a need for UWSP students with children to have child care here on campus so that they would be able to better attend classes and complete their higher education degrees,” explained Helf.

“So, then they established a fund, a segregated fee, through the Student Government Association, where a portion of the money that college students pay comes to fund a portion of the child care which goes into our overall operating budget and then it also allows us to offer a slightly lower rate for child care for student parents.”

In 1988, the program received accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and through the years has been located in numerous areas of the campus before finding its home in Delzell Hall.

The program has grown from 30 children in 1978 to an annual max capacity of 63, accommodating mostly student parents, staff families, and alumni, even though the program is open to all families.

In 2012, the UCLCC implemented an environment and learning approach using the Reggio Emelia educational philosophy.

In accordance with the philosophy, the program maintains a heavy focus on outdoor environmental education and nature-based programming.

They recently began conscious discipline teaching, which uses mindfulness to address children’s feelings and emotions.

The third person in the room

Helf said that what makes this and other campus child care programs unique is that in addition to just educating youth, they are educating college students as well.

“We serve as the lab school for the university so students have to come here for classes and complete observations they have to do,” Helf explained.

“They might have a practicum placement or a student teaching placement where they have to come here and practice implementing lesson plans with the children.

“So, we have a lot of like collaborations with the university for the students on campus who are completing their education degree. The kids go over to the gymnasium and physical education students practice doing gym lessons with them.

“You know, we’ve gone over to the art studio and the students will read a story and learn about Jackson Pollock, and then they’ll go over to the art studio and actually complete a Jackson Pollock painting, with the college students over there.

“We do swimming lessons with the aquatics program on campus.

“So, there are a lot of extra opportunities that you wouldn’t have at just a regular child care center.”

The program has four classrooms that attend to children ages six weeks to 12 years old.

Each classroom has two primary head teachers and there are currently about 30 UW-Stevens Point students who work in the rooms.

“They come in between their classes. So some of them might work six hours a week, and some of them might work 20 hours a week depending on what they’re able to handle,” she explained.

“But having that third person in the classroom allows us to give the children a lot more individual attention.

“Whether they are struggling at drop off time, you know, separating from a parent [and] they just want some extra time being given hugs and having a story read to them. Or, if there’s a child who is having some mental health or behavioral challenges, it allows somebody to address that with still being able to teach the larger group. So, not everybody has that either.”

Helf said that UW-Stevens students get more than just an education in a child care setting.

“Especially now in a time where I think everybody is aware of the mental health issues going on,” she said. “A lot of the students who come here, they find this to be a very easy setting.

“Yes, they’re coming here to work, but there’s just the enjoyment of being around the children. It doesn’t feel like work for them. It’s a break a mental break from their classes, from whatever else might be going on, and just having that joy of being around kids who want to give you a hug and think you’re the most amazing person in the world.

“Basically, it’s like little people therapy.”