Our Services
The Lewis Children’s Center
The Lewis Children s Center operated for 30 years on the St. Joseph's Villa campus at 8000 Brook Road. The center provided all-day and after-school care for children ranging in age from 6 weeks to twelve years old.
When it opened, Lewis Children's Center (then known as the St. Joseph's Villa Child Development Center) offered an innovative service: day care to allow mothers to work outside the home. The center focused on providing loving care and education to children and helping them prepare for, and excel in, school and in life.
At the time of its closing in March, 2012, the service was no longer unique: there were more than 20 similar operations within a two-mile radius of Lewis Children's Center. The recession which began in 2008 put additional stress on day care facilities, as newly unemployed parents could not afford to send their children to day care (and had the time to take care of their children in their own homes.
The closing of Lewis Children's Center also was affected by the Villa's growth in other programs. “Closing Lewis Children’s Center is painful,” said Cynthia Faison, the Villa’s Chief Operations Officer. "At the same time, we are optimistic that closing LCC will provide energy we can devote to developing new programs to serve the community. In the past couple of months, more than 500 people attended Parent Education Training classes, and the new Crisis Stabilization Unit is about to open to serve families in crisis. Other new programs are in development, and they will help further our mission of providing unique services to help children and families.”
