A community development approach to early childhood: children: our future communities

Abstract

Recognising that the pre-school centres had the potential of being a community facility and a centre for wider social and cultural needs, CSD began to develop a model that used early childhood education as an entry point for the development of a Community Development Centre which brought the whole school community together. Because of the lack of a frame of reference, the CSD piloted the approach through experiential learning. The Raglan Road Pre-school was selected as the pilot site and over a four-year period, was transformed into a Community Development Centre. The transformation of the pre-school to a community development centre was the first innovative developmental model in the field of early childhood.