Early Childhood Education Reimagined

The Salvation Army offers quality Christian early childhood education across four centres in Aotearoa New Zealand. Kelly Cooper sat down with Helen Stolten, National Early Childhood Education (ECE) manager for The Salvation Army, to share the transformational impact these centres are having not only on the lives of children, but also on their wider families and communities.

Early childhood is widely recognised as a crucial stage in a child’s development. With so many early childhood education (ECE) centres available, The Salvation Army offers a distinctive approach to learning in the early years.

‘Our real point of difference is that in addition to high-quality early childhood education, we also offer wraparound services for families in ways that most ECE services just cannot,’ explains Helen. ‘We are able to provide support and care from our centre, our connections with local corps (churches) and other areas of Community Ministries.

‘We also offer a smaller service than most other centres and because of this we can build long-term relationships with children and their families. Mount Wellington, Auckland is our biggest centre with a roll of 45 children. This includes up to 10 babies and up to 35 children under two years.’

A holistic approach

One family that has been deeply impacted by this holistic approach is the Taylor* family. Their son Simon* came into the care of the Mount Wellington centre when he was two years old. ‘When we first met Simon, he had very high needs and was non-verbal,’ explains Helen. ‘We worked with him one-on-one for the first six months. He had essentially been bounced around different centres before he came to us.

‘Early on, we recognised some differences in how Simon experienced the world. We collaborated with his family to build their understanding of neurodiversity and offered support over the following year as we moved together toward a paediatric assessment, which formally diagnosed Simon with autism.’

The centre also sought assistance from a speech-language therapist and early intervention specialists, who worked closely with Simon, his family and teachers. In addition to this, centre staff further supported the family to strengthen their home life.

‘Over a three-year period, Simon went from being completely non-verbal to arriving at his graduation day at Mount Wellington announcing, “I am five! I am five!” He was beaming,’ shares Helen. ‘His mum has recently expressed to me how mind boggling it is to see her son in his school uniform ready to transition to primary school.’

Community impact

Along with the Mount Wellington centre, The Salvation Army operates three other ECE centres, including Newtown Early Childhood Education Centre in Wellington, William Booth Educare in Upper Hutt and Kidz Matter 2 Us in Waitakere.

‘We have families that choose us because we’re a Christian centre and we also have families who are desperate and have nowhere else to go,’ explains Helen. ‘We don’t ever want there to be any barriers for children attending our centres and we work with families to come to an agreement on a co-contribution to our centre fees. Our work would not be possible without the sponsorship element we receive from The Salvation Army Supporter Engagement and Fundraising team.’

‘Donations enable us to provide the very best for our children. One family shared with us that they could either pay for their groceries or their fees for the week and we said, “How about we take care of both?” I’ve worked in the private ECE sector for 15 years and I’ve never been in a position to be able to provide for children and their families in this way. It’s something quite special,’ reflects Helen.

Safe spaces

While all teachers care for all children, every child has a key teacher who builds a more intimate relationship with the child and their family. Families are encouraged to share what is going on for them with this teacher, allowing centre staff to offer support when needed. This might include counselling, prayer, food parcels, budgeting services or opportunities to attend Positive Lifestyle Programmes. Each centre also has a chaplain, giving families another point of connection.

Helen notes that some of the children in their care face significant hardships, and she recognises that their centres often become a place of safety and security. ‘We can be the consistent presence in the midst of very chaotic circumstances for our children and their families,’ she says.

‘When you work with someone over a two- or three-year period it is long-term, life-changing stuff,’ reflects Helen. ‘For us, the impact we have on the children in our care, and their entire family, is lasting. When we think of evangelism, we often picture people coming to church. But in our centres, people who may never step into a church are being ministered to in a deeply meaningful way. When I consider how many hours a child spends gathered around our table or sitting in circle time with prayer over the course of a year—if that’s not church, I don’t know what is.’