Last year in Oconto Falls, Encompass Early Education and Care opened its eighth center.
The state-of-the-art facility, located at 650 E. Jackson St, opened its doors for the first time June 10, 2024. Since then, the facility has provided affordable day care to the greater Oconto Falls area.
“When Encompass started the journey to open our eighth center in Oconto Falls, we were guided by one principle — expand child care where the need is the greatest,” said Alexa Priddy, the organization’s director of community impact.
The Oconto Falls center boosts the overall volume of child care spaces available in Oconto County, providing all-day child care for ages 6 weeks and older.
“The 140 child care spaces made available here in Oconto Falls increased the county’s total by 50%,” Priddy said.
Encompass is a nonprofit organization based in northeast Wisconsin, whose deep roots were first planted in Green Bay during the early 1900s.
“We have a long and rich history thanks to the several organizations beginning with the Catholic Women’s Club, who in 1919 organized the Green Bay Day Nursery to help women whose husbands did not come home from World War I,” Priddy said.
The Encompass child care experience is more than a typical day care. It implements the HighScope and Conscious Discipline curriculum.
“All children struggle with their emotions and behavior,” Priddy said. “Our evidence-based, trauma-informed approach supports a child’s social-emotional development so that they can build resilience, manage emotions and form positive relationships with adults and peers.”
The curriculums see a child’s behavior not as a problem but as forms of communication.
“When a child acts out, it may be an expression of an unmet need or a skill they haven’t yet developed,” Priddy said. “By addressing the root causes of behaviors, we help children build new skills to navigate their social and emotional worlds.”
Going the extra mile to nurture and support children’s growth has earned Encompass’s Oconto Falls center the highest quality rating — five stars — by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.
“The children who attend our programs meet kindergarten benchmarks and possess stronger literacy skills,” said Priddy.
In addition to all-day care, the center provides a morning 4-year-old kindergarten program through the Oconto Falls School District, an all-day preschool for ages 3 and older, summer day camps for ages 4-13, and before-and-after school program for elementary and middle schoolers.
Encompass can offer families tuition support to help lessen the burden of the cost of care.
“Our tuition support program ensures that families who are under this annual income threshold do not pay more than 15% of their gross household income on child care,” Priddy said. “In 2023, we provided 407 children with tuition assistance to attend Encompass centers.”
The program also helps families get connected to third party assistance programs and supports families who are homeless, teen parents or in crisis situations.
“The Oconto Falls center currently has 64 children enrolled, and 62% of them receive tuition support,” Priddy said.
Opportunities to volunteer at the center are available to the senior citizens of the community.
“We have a Foster Grandparent Program,” Priddy said. “This program gives seniors an opportunity to volunteer a minimum of five hours per week.”
The Foster Grandparent Program is sponsored by AmeriCorps Seniors, an organization governed by the Corporation for National Service and funded by federal and state dollars. Foster grandparents receive a small, tax-free stipend and “lots of love from children.”
“Some of a foster grandparent’s responsibilities might include working with children who need extra attention, rocking infants, reading to toddlers, assisting at mealtimes, accompanying children on walks and field trips, if able, and being an all-around grandparent role model,” Priddy said.
The new center is continuing to establish itself in the community and raise awareness of services provided.
“Our facility here is currently operating at half-capacity, and there’s so many families who just don’t know that the Oconto Falls center is an affordable, quality option here for them,” Priddy said.
Enrollment and other information about Encompass Early Education and Care can be found at their website, www.encompasswi.org.