Welcome to Childspace!

Childspace opened its initial center in the Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia in September 1988, serving 20 children aged three months through two years, with an After school program for 40 children in grade k-6th.

In September 1992, Childspace opened a new center, “Childspace Too” at 5517 Greene Street in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. Another expansion came about in September 1999 when Childspace partnered with HELP Philadelphia and PHMC to open its third center, “Childspace West”.

The Mt. Airy Center relocated to the New Covenant Campus in August 2011, occupying a large 4 story building, Smith Hall. The center has expanded it's capacity serving two classrooms for each age group, Infants ages 4 months through 12 months, Young Toddlers ages 12 months through 2 years, Toddlers ages 2 through 3, Preschool ages 3 up to Kindergarden as well as a Summer Camp and After School Programs serving ages Kindergarden through 5th grade.

The Childspace Centers were organized to provide high quality day care spaces for a diverse mix of children. An organizational structure was designed which would (hopefully) motivate talented day care workers to join and to remain in the field of early childhood education. The Childspace Model involves two organizations:  Childspace Day Care Center, a non-profit organization which has a board made up of parents, child development specialists, community supporters   and center staff, and Childspace Management Group, Inc., a worker cooperative whose member/owners are the Childspace staff. This model was designed to recognize the important roles that both parents and day care staff play while creating more opportunities and incentives for the day care staff to be committed and invested in the quality of the day care program.  This model also reflects a desire to create better quality jobs in day care because we feel (and studies substantiate) better quality jobs are directly related to  higher quality care for children.