Group Gets Grants for Child-Care Center

A Ventura-based nonprofit group has received nearly $120,000 in grant funds for its local child-care and preschool complex.

Easter Seals Tri-Counties has received $25,000 from the Weingart Foundation to buy playground equipment for its Henderson Road children’s facility.

The new playground is designed by Easter Seals architects with the help of pediatric therapists and early-education specialists, said development director Janice Rossi.

The playground consists of activity centers, a slide and a climbing structure that will help develop motor skills, Rossi said. It also promotes emotional and dramatic play, sensory stimulation and language and cognitive development.

“Children learn from play,” she said. “We wanted to have a playground that would help students developmentally. That was an integral part of the process of choosing this equipment.”

The children will now have two large circular areas in which to play, one filled with sand and the other covered with rubber matting that is wheelchair accessible.

Easter Seals also received $88,000 in Proposition 10 funds, including $50,000 to fund care for children from low-income families and $38,000 to buy state-required rubber matting for the playground.

The funds will also purchase specialized equipment for the center, including an audiometer for hearing screening, special chairs for disabled students in the classroom and a wheelchair swing for the playground.

Easter Seals also received $6,700 from the Martin V. and Martha L. Smith Foundation to buy furnishings and equipment for the child-care center.

“In the next year or two, we’re going to become a child development center that not only provides preschool and child care for children 3 to 5 years of age like we do now, but also child care for children from 6 weeks old to 5 years of age,” Rossi said.

The preschool, which was founded 28 years ago, is licensed by the state Department of Education to provide educational programs for children from low-income families and those with disabilities. The center provides child care for 60 children each day.