Our Services A Community of Caring. A Commitment to Recovery.

Childcare Development Center

Gateway’s Child Development Center provides daycare and learning opportunities to the children of clients in treatment. Licensed by the Florida Department of Children and Families, the Center is open to children 11 years old or younger, including infants and newborns. Programs are designed to improve and nurture the children’s gross motor skills, fine motor skills, as well as their social, physical, and cognitive development. 

The Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. with transportation to and from school provided for children aged 5 through 11. The Child Development Center is also open to the children of clients undergoing outpatient treatment Monday through Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

The Center’s staff includes teachers certified by the Florida Department of Children and Families, and the Office of the Early Learning Coalition of Duval, to provide voluntary pre-kindergarten.

Gateway Community Services is affiliated with Jacksonville Children's Commission and Episcopal Children's Services, which provides training in classroom management, classroom arrangement, discipline, and lesson plans. The Center has separate classrooms for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Teachers develop weekly lesson plans with specific activities geared toward each age group using the Links to Literacy curriculum. Teachers also provide parents with daily detailed information on feeding, napping, and activities. The activity reports indicate the child’s response to each specific activity. The Center provides lunch and two snacks for each child.    

The Center also provides supervised visitation for mothers who do not have custody of their children. Our goal is to maintain the mother’s connection with the child while the mother completes treatment with the eventual goal of reuniting them with their children.