History

CDI Mission:  CDI’s mission is to provide early childhood education which encourages, enhances, and reinforces the development of each child as a whole child, respecting each family’s uniqueness.

 

For over 40 years CDI has dedicated itself to provding the Madison community with quality childcare, focusing on preschool education programs that are vital to school readiness.

 

In 1965, a group of concerned citizens, headed by Junivenile Court Judge Irvin Bruner, joined together in response to a stated need for a day care for young children in Dane County.  Their mission was to provide affordable, high quality childcare to families with preschool children of all nationalities and income levels.  They started Day Care, Inc,. now known as Child Development, Inc.  The first Board of Directors was composed of representatives from several community groups; Juvenile Court , Chamber of Commerce,  Madison Federation of Laboar, Community Action Commission, Commmunity Welfare Council, Attic Angels Association, Madison Board of Education, Dane County Board of Supervisors, City of Madison and Dane County Citizens for Children and Yourth.  Day Care, Inc. operated several smaller childcare programs in Madison churches, and, at one UW site during the next 20 years.

 

In the spring of 1968, a group of Madison citizens who began to look for a project to counter their concerns for the  problems of the African American low-income population of Madison.  They became interested in the CDI’s child care center, located at that time in St. Martin’s House in South Madison,  A volunteer organization was formed called “Foundation for Friendship”, a name chosen to express hope that many foundations for friendship would grow out of that group.  As their first project, the group decided to build a new childcare center for CDI in South Madison, on land available and adjacent to the South Madison Neighborhood Center, now known as Madison’s Boys and Girls Club of Dane County.

 

The Foundation for Friendship applied for support from the Attic Angel Association and received the necessary funds to buy the land and build the building at 2012 Fisher Street.  More than 300 citizens of Madison took part in the painting, landscaping and furnishing of the building which would have four classrooms and could serve up to 65 preschool children.  In 1986 it  remained one of the only two builidings in the state of Wisconsin specifically built for preschool children.  In 1990, Attic Angel Association donated the building to CDI. Today, the site is maintained through donations and various governmental funding sources that continue to help provide preschool education to infants through Pre-K youngsters, summer school programming and collaborations with its neighbor, the Boys and Girls Club.

 

During this time, the Foundation for Friendship continued to support CDI.  In addition, the invaluable services of Attic Angel volunteers andmany other groups were regularly involved in the programs at CDI’s centers, but specifically the newest, CDI’s Fisher Street location. Several senior citizens have served as Special Grandparents; Neighborhood Youth Corps and the Madison high school’s students have worked with children at the center; and the University of Wisconsin has sent students to acquire skills in their areas of expertise ex. nursing, speech and hearing therapy, music appreciation, etc.  On an on-going basis other resources from the city and county have brought skills and tools to CDI’s programming effort.  There has continued to be effort to build awareness with foundations, educational institutions and governmental agencies over the course of CDI’s existence.

 

 At the time the new building on Fisher Street was donated to CDI, it was accompanied by a generous start of a building fund.  To insure the center’s future a group of supporters formed the South Madison Building Committee and proceeded to hold a “Building for Kids” fundraiser.  This fundraiser was a successful effort and the proceeds were earmarked for maintenance and upkeep of CDI Child Care Centers.

 

The continuation of these efforts created a group of loyal supporters who started the CDI Scholarship Committee. Its purpose was to solicit scholarship funds for at-risk, low-income South Madison families.  With the initiative of W2 this scholarship fund  helped parents with their co-payments and, at a times, provided emergency funds  to include full tuition expenses for families with children already in the program.  Many parents have been able to continue working, training, or attending school at a time when they would have otherwise been forced to return to government assistance and further dependency.

 

In 1997, CDI responded positively to Dane County’s request to operate a Drop-In Center at the county’s Job Center site at 1819 Aberg Avenue.  This location allows parents to drop their children off at a safe learning evironment while they obtain training or look for work.  In 2010, it continues to have a regular number of children served and families are provides with a drop in preschool learning environment for their children.   

 

In  2001, the organization accepted an invitation from the St. Vincent DePaul Society to start a CDI center in their building at 412 Baldwin Street, known as Nature of Kids.  It was here that CDI prepared to serve up to 45 preschool children.  During the past 9 years CDI was able to again provide excellent  preschool  programming for children, excluding  infants.  Evaluating NOK in 2009 it became apparent that this center was limited to expanding its services and programming  to include  infants, like that of the Fisher Street mode. It was also determined  the expense of expanding  this site to include this population,  and maintaining the building itself,  was financially prohibitive and not sound.  In July of 2010, NOK was closed and children were given the option of transferring to the CDI’s South location where there is a strong  program for infant age youngsters through Pre-K aged children.  

 

At this juncture, Child Development, Inc. continues to move forward with an established curriculum and child focused program that includes many resources from within the community. Their mission has not changed its focus on the needs of families and their children, and in fact continues to grow in those receive this service.  Given the structure of CDI’s funding sources, and successfully securing these sources, CDI will remain a viable option within our community’s low-income, economically disadvantaged family structure.   CDI will continue to be an option that provides these children the chance to reach a level of “school readiness” and create an opportunity for their future accomplishments.