The U.S. Navy base in Coronado is opening a new child development center today -- one of more than 100 serving the Navy worldwide. Despite the need, the Coronado base had gone without one for seven years.
Research shows that 90 percent of a child’s brain development occurs in the first five years of life. So considering the need of thousands of military families here, San Diego County’s Family Services’ First 5 Commission invested $5 million to build the center.
“We have dual military couples where both mother and father are in the military, and we have a lot of single parents, so having a quality facility readily available, right where they work is wonderful for them,” said Capt. Yancy Lindsey, a commanding officer with the Naval base at Coronado.
Military families experience frequent moves and deployments, and can often be headed by single parents, so the needs of their children are particular.
The new center will work with children five years old or younger to prepare them for school.
“We have a program where we get caregivers that actually provide care in the homes for small numbers of children, so we had tremendous effort on trying to expand that number while we were waiting for these centers to be built,” said Lindsey.
San Diego County Health and Human Services spent $5 million to build the center, with revenues from Proposition 10, also known as the cigarette tax.
The center has the capacity for more than 100 children, and a secondary facility is expected to open next spring.
