Help Out Penninsula Children's Center
You can help make a difference in the lives of children & families
In a city where the median household income for a family of four
is $67,900 a year, 68% of households served by Peninsula Children’s Center have incomes less than $18,000 a year, and without Peninsula these families would have no options for quality, affordable care in N/NE Portland. And quality, affordable child care is key for children’s development and for families’ – and our community’s – economic growth and stability:
“Good early child care and education help foster each child’s physical well-being and social development and give them opportunities to develop their early learning skills in a safe and secure environment. Yet finding and affording quality child care is a challenge for all families, particularly low-income working parents for whom the cost of quality child care is a real and daily barrier.” Children’s Defense Fund report, 2000: The High Cost of Child Care Puts Quality Care Out Of Reach for Many Families.
“Child care is critical to worker productivity. A lack of reliable, quality child care can cause workers to lose time and be less productive on the job.” Oregon Commission for Child Care report, 2001.
What Makes Peninsula Children’s Center Special?
Peninsula Children’s Center is the only North Portland child care provider with a sliding-scale tuition structure, which is based on gross monthly income and family size. Peninsula also provides transportation to and from local elementary schools for our before- and after-school program – a vital service for working families.
In addition to a sliding-scale, Peninsula ensures families of all income levels have access to quality care through acceptance of Oregon Department of Human Service child care tuition reimbursements, which cover only 50% of the full cost of care. DHS support is vital to many of our families, families who otherwise could not afford child care while in pursuit of job training, education or other programs that lead to financial stability and well-being.
Our affordable tuition structure is an essential component of our service – without it many of our families simply could not afford child care. This is where you come in: As an independent nonprofit child care center serving primarily low-income children and families, community support is crucial. We need you to help us help families.
About Peninsula Children’s Center
Founded in 1970, Peninsula started out in a church basement with seven children. Today, we have the capacity to serve 240 children, ages 6-weeks to 12 years old, out of five locations.
- 68% of Peninsula’s children come from families with incomes less than $18,000/yr. Portland’s median household income is $67,900/yr.
- Peninsula’s children are: 45% African American; 28% Caucasian; 12% Latino; 4% Native American; 3% Asian; 8% other/unknown.
- 81% of our families are single-parent households. 32% of households in Multnomah Co. are single-parent.
Find out about how Peninsula Children’s Center makes a difference in the lives of families.
Here’s how your donation can help support our children & families:
- $50 is enough for bottles of green and orange and purple and red and blue and yellow and brown and white paint, and 82 paint brushes, 6 smocks and 12 paint palettes – the tools for masterpieces.
- $250 buys 36 new books so our children can enjoy and learn from The Bear Under the Stairs; Things I Like About Grandma; and Running the Road to ABC.
- $500 pays for 2 lbs. of pom-poms; 900 wiggly eyes; 1 lb. of feathers; 450 sheets of tissue paper; 3,000 craft sticks; 1,500 tongue depressors; and 6 rolls of butcher paper. Children need art because “[b]y fostering different kinds of learning, arts programs have been shown to help students use analytical thinking and problem-solving skills,….” (Carol Fineberg, “Arts and Cognition”).
- $1,200 buys a month of breakfast, lunch and snack for the 42 little ones in the Infant, Toddler and Junior rooms.
- $10,000 provides program scholarships for two months of quality care for 60 children in our Preschool Program!
For more information on supporting our work with children and families, contact Development Director Joellen Pail: (503) 280-0534, ext. 13; joellen@penchild.org
To make a tax-deductible donation toward our programs for children and families, download, print out, complete, and mail this form with your check to Peninsula Children’s Center:
Click here to download the donation form
This form is in Adobe Acrobat format if you need the free acrobat reader program you can download it here.
Interested in volunteering? Click here for the Volunteer Questionnaire
Thank you!