About Hope 4 Kids

Quality care for your children

Hope 4 Kids Early Learning Centers are faith-based, nature-centered quality programs for children ages birth through kindergarten. We have three campuses in Santa Barbara and Goleta to serve your family: 560 N. La Cumbre Road, 5070 Cathedral Oaks Road, and 7433 Hollister Ave. in Goleta. We have received 5 stars in the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), full accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), and we are a certified Outdoor Classroom Demonstration Site (OCP) working to promote quality outdoor experiences for children throughout Santa Barbara County. We are open year-round, Monday through Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm and close at 5:00pm on Fridays for staff training and development. We offer a variety of scheduling options and programs to serve our community's children. Visit our Programs page to learn more!

Our amazing staff focuses on the importance and value of play, choices, and social and emotional growth and development. We spend most of our day in our outdoor classrooms discovering, exploring, respecting, and loving nature.  At Hope 4 Kids we believe that all children need and deserve quality, loving childcare regardless of ethnic background, religious preference, or income level. We are pleased to offer quality childcare to all families and gladly accept most alternative payment programs including SB County Child Development, EOPS and several other programs funded through the Santa Barbara Resource & Referral Center and the Family Service Agency. Please contact our office to inquire about alternative payment program spaces within our program.

Our DNA

At Hope 4 Kids, quality is important to us. Everything we do is filtered through our vision, mission, leadership team, and supervisory team statements, DNA, and program philosophy

 

Vision Statement

To be a place where teachers want to work, families seek us out, and children never want to leave.
 

Program DNA

Hope 4 Kids is a high-quality, nature-based, God-centered early childhood learning community:
 
  • where teachers are leaders and have the freedom to self-reflect and inspire creativity;
  • where children are innovative, critical thinkers with an uninhibited sense of wonder; and
  • where families partner with us in our who, what, and why with mutual trust and transparency.

Mission Statement

We are a faith-based, nature-centered quality program partnering with your family to help your child reach his or her full potential in relationships, the community, and life.

We partner with families with children birth through Grade 2 from a variety of culturally diverse backgrounds and under-served families such as those caring for foster and adopted children.  Our goals are to prepare and equip children and families with tools and experiences through an innovative program that:
 
  • offers a safe, loving, nurturing, culturally relevant, supportive program for children and their families; 
  • offers developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive experiences in all six domains (physical, cognitive, creative, emotional, social, language);
  • provides opportunities to develop self-worth and self-esteem;
  • offers opportunities to develop Biblical character traits such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control;
  • employs exceptionally trained and qualified teachers;
  • makes community support available on a wide-range of topics to meet the needs of children in our program; and
  • offers opportunities for enrolled families to network and receive support from other families in the area.
 

Philosophy

We believe:

  • that children learn best through relevant and meaningful hands-on experiences;
  • lifelong lessons, relationships, skills, characteristics, beliefs, and strategies and life are developed in the early years through a child's experiences with his or her environment, family, peers, leaders, community, school, nature, and play;
  • children 0 to 5 years should be allowed to fully develop his or her own agenda using free choices of available play-based activities that are facilitated by experiences, quality, and highly educated staff committed to the child's future;
  • students in elementary school should be allowed to answer questions in ways that make sense to them; there are many ways to get to the correct answer or outcome;
  • a child's chance at a healthy, positive, productive, creative future is directly related to how often he or she as a child was permitted to explore ideas outside the box, take appropriate risks, create without the fear of judgment, think for him/herself, freely move his/her body, encounter sensory experiences (singing in the rain, barefoot in the mud, etc.), use language in creative and unconventional ways, and develop meaningful relationships with all peers and adults; and
  • it is critical for a child to know he or she is important, unconditionally loved, cared for, valued, made in God's image, and has a crucial place in this world that nobody else can fulfill.

Our philosophy of caring for children is child-driven, caring for the whole child and based solely on each child's unique and individual needs. Each child feels loved and nurtured by a consistent, loving caregiver or teacher so that a trusting, long-term relationship is established. We base our daily activities and instruction on where children are in their social, physical, emotional, cognitive, creative and language development in conjunction with their extent of prior group care or educational experiences.

We believe in partnering with families in guiding their children's learning experiences. Our goal is to ensure that all families, regardless of home language or culture, feel welcomed, honored, and respected. We will partner with families to gain a deeper understanding of your home culture so we can bring a sense of connection to your child's experience and reduce the stress of his or her first day in school. We will learn important phrases in your home language to bring understanding and respect to our relationship while at the same time increasing your child's self-esteem because, surely through this process, she or he will see that the words you speak at home are important and valuable to us. Where your child comes from...your family's experiences, hardships, triumphs, beliefs, values, and goals pave the way for us to help you, help your child, reach for his or her future...the bright and wonderful world lying just ahead! It is an honor to be on this journey with your child and family!
 

Leadership Team Purpose Statement

Our purpose as a Leadership Team is to create a welcoming, quality environment where we build leaders, educate families, and value children.

Leadership Team Members:
 
  • Cheri, Founder and Director
  • Tania, Programs Manager
  • Dominique, Hollister Supervisor
  • Tasha, Cathedral Oaks Supervisor
  • Karina, Supervisor La Cumbre
  • Christine, Office Manager
  • Juan, Director of Facility Maintenance & Safety Officer
 

Supervisory Team Purpose Statement

Our purpose as a supervisory team is to collaborate with management, harmonize with teachers, be advocates for families, and build loving relationships with children.




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