The Early Childhood Learning Center is conveniently located downtown at the corner of Sixth St. and Walnut.

231 Sixth St. NE, Canton, OH 44702

The Early Childhood Learning Center is open:

Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Building Skills to Ensure Kindergarten Readiness!

YWCA Canton believes a successful child is one who uses their abilities to develop skills that help form positive personal attributes that will lead them to a successful life. Our teachers are trained to create a learning environment that allows each child to build from their current development. Teachers collect information in all areas of development and learning to create individualized activities that prepare children for kindergarten.

High Quality Teachers

We are dedicated to hiring and retaining quality teachers. In addition to their teaching certification, our teachers are required to complete 30 hours of specialized training every 2 years. Training consists of, but is not limited to, Conscious Discipline, Building Kindergarten Readiness, Literacy for Infant-Kindergarten, Trauma Informed Care, Family Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, and Curriculum and Assessment training.

Emphasis on Literacy

YWCA Canton is the proud recipient of a four-year Ohio Department of Education (ODE) Comprehensive Literacy Grant that aligns with Ohio’s Plan to Raise Literacy Achievement. This grant will help improve student literacy to children who have traditionally been underserved, while also supporting professional learning and coaching for staff. This grant increases our ability to identify and develop additional professional development opportunities to facilitate center quality improvements, family engagement, and integrated support systems with special emphasis on language and literacy.

Family Engagement

We believe family engagement is critical to the overall success of the child. We engage families through parent events which offer resources for financial literacy, education, employment, and housing. In addition, parents are encouraged to help in classrooms and attend parent-teacher conferences to reinforce the curriculum and school readiness.

Research Based, Creative Curriculum

YWCA Early Childhood Learning Center is committed to school readiness and reading proficiency. We utilize Creative Curriculum and Teaching Strategies Gold to support the development of the whole child. These curriculums align with Ohio’s Early Learning Academic Standards. We also utilize ‘Ages and Stages,’ ‘Ages and Stages: Social-Emotional’ and Devereux Early Childhood Assessment to screen each child upon acceptance into childcare and several times throughout the year to measure social and emotional development.

Our program model is based on the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) national standards for high quality childcares. NAEYC’s standards include research-based curriculum, teaching using approaches that support the children’s learning goals, assessment of the child’s progress, promoting health through nutrition, maintaining supportive relationships with families, establishing, and utilizing community resources, ensuring the program’s physical environment is safe and well maintained, and hiring and retaining educated staff.

In addition to NAEYC’s standards, we also abide by the Early Head Start Performance Standards, Ohio Step Up to Quality standards and those set forth by the Ohio State Licensing Rules for Childcare. Through funding from the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), our program is participating in a four-year Comprehensive Literacy Project to improve the language and literacy development of our preschool participants.