About Us
About Us
The Gustavus Children's Enhancement Program (GCEP) is a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) established in 2007. GCEP was organized exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes, more specifically to house The Rookery at Gustavus, which holds a child care center license for the Preschool Program and the Child Care Program and other childhood development programs.
Mission Statement
The Gustavus Children’s Enhancement Program (GCEP) is a parent-governed, child-focused cooperative that offers early childhood education programs to all young children in Gustavus, Alaska. Our core value of being a parent cooperative is based on the belief that our children thrive in a dynamic environment driven by involved parents, creative staff, and a supportive community.
Current programs include a preschool program for ages 3-5 and a child care program for ages 0-9. Both programs include a focus on learning outdoors to inspire children with a connection to the natural world. The underlying goal of the Preschool Program is for each and every preschool-aged child to have access to an early childhood education regardless of their family’s socioeconomic status. This is achieved through parent-volunteerism, scholarship program(s), donations, fundraisers, and collaboration with each family and/or child’s representative. The underlying goal of the Child Care Program is to provide a safe, reliable, age-appropriate, educationally-stimulating environment for children to grow.
Early childhood research shows that young children learn primarily through developmentally appropriate practices (DAPs) which we define as exploration through play, facilitated by an adult. This offers children the freedom they need to try out new ideas, practice developing skills, and imitate adult roles. Children are given the opportunity to socialize, problem solve, develop self-help skills, use their imagination, work toward independence, and learn about numbers, letters, science, math, art, etc. These experiences build on one another, and help children to develop skills for more formal learning elsewhere.
Tagline: Learn to play - play to learn.
