| Lakes Region Child Care Centers is the second oldest non-profit child care center in the State of New Hampshire and has provided quality, affordable child care services for families in the Lakes Region since September, 1968. As the needs of families have changed over the years, so has Lakes Region Child Care Centers expanded and grown to meet those needs for children ages six weeks through twelve years.
Lakes Region Child Care Centers (LRCC) was originally organized by a group of local women to meet an emerging need, i.e. more and more women joining the As more women entered the workforce, the LRCC expanded to accommodate the growing need and moved several times before moving to our current location on Meredith Center Road where we are licensed to serve ninety-one children. When the City of Laconia cut their public kindergarten program in 1990, Lakes Region Child Care Centers opened a licensed kindergarten program that continues to operate with a morning and afternoon class of fifteen children. The year 1995 became one of the most challenging and rewarding years to date. This was a year of tremendous growth and development for Lakes Region Child Care Centers. The opportunity to expand our before and after school programs was presented to us by the Laconia School District Administration. In September we opened before and after school programs in all three Laconia elementary schools, increasing the number of children served from 25 up to 120! A second opportunity was presented to us by Lakes Region General Hospital in October, when we were offered the opportunity to manage and operate the child care centers on Fairview St at Lakes Region General Hospital. In total, Lakes Region Child Care Centers went from a licensed capacity of 121 slots up to two 270 available child care slots during 1995. In 2003, the Fairview Nursary relocated to a building attached to the First United Methodist Church in Gilford. The program was renamed Gilford Learning Center. In 2003, the board changed the name of the overall organization to Lakes Region Child Care Centers. The program on Meredith Center Road was renamed the Laconia Early Learning Center. These name changes from day care to child care and early learning reflect the changing mission and abilities of LRCC. In 2006, after a successful capital campaign, and with appreciation for the generosity of many in the community, LRCCS built a state-of-the-art facility in the Scott & Williams building on Strafford Street. We moved the Laconia Early Learning Center from the its long-time home on Meredith Center Road to Downtown Laconia. Next in the summer of 2007, Gilford Early Center had to be moved due to changing needs of the First United Methodist Church in Gilford. That program was folded into the Laconia program. A few weeks later, in October 2007, LRCCS acquired Seeds of Promise in Belmont and renamed the program Belmont Early Learning Center. While these endeavors placed a strain on our financial status, the Board of Directors and staff of Lakes Region Child Care Centers recognized the needs of families in our community. We have made a commitment to meet those needs and with the ongoing support of the Lakes Region United Way, we continue to move ahead to serve the ever increasing number of families in need of child care services. |
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workforce. Their first mission was to develop quality, affordable early learning and child care services for families and they have been unswerving in their dedication to that ideal.