Laguna Child and Family Development Center

Narratives

Architect Narrative

CHILD AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT CENTER

This Native American Pueblo is located west of Albuquerque with a tribal government that emphasizes the importance of education as a means of improving the lives of the local people. To improve the system of education, the tribal council created a Department of Education (DEC) to centralize all education and related programs, such as Early Intervention/ Special Services, the Child Care Center, Preschool Head Start, and Early Head Start.

The present facilities constitute a series of trailers to accommodate the children’s rooms and administration. Recognizing the need for a more permanent environment and the ability to offer extended family services, a planning grant was awarded to the DEC for a process to engage teachers, staff, parents, and community members in identifying the requirements for a new child and family center.

An initial workshop was conducted with 90 teachers and staff members who were organized into small groups to plan an outdoor play yard based on children’s developmental needs. A follow-up workshop focused on facility planning where graphic symbols of building functions and their area requirements allowed participants to develop building concepts. Again, teachers and staff working in small groups debated conflicting solutions, which were compared and evaluated until they reached agreement. Teachers and staff shared their experiences and space concerns as they manipulated the graphic symbols. When the groups reached an acceptable solution, the symbols were fastened to a base and each team presented their solution.

A final exercise focused on the layout of the playroom and the best geometric shape that would accommodate the learning centers. Teachers compared several shapes and generally concluded that the “L” shape playroom was the most ideal. Building on the results of the teacher workshops, a series of follow-up interviews with key teachers, social service staff, and administrators provided the basis for a detailed building program. In addition to programmatic needs, a continuing theme expressed by the teachers was to create a building whose exterior conveyed the Native American pueblo culture.

From the space-planning workshop we observed that several teams proposed the idea of clustering children’s playrooms around an open courtyard. The courtyard then became the building theme whereby Early Head Start and Head Start children had their own identifiable playroom clusters. Also, from the workshops it was gleaned that all playrooms should be located along the perimeter of the building to provide maximum daylight and direct access to the outdoors, since play yards are outdoor extensions of the playroom.

Family members consulting with home based specialists also have their own special entrance. Establishing such separate identities allowed for the creation of several small intimate clusters of 100 to 120 children in a facility comprising 320 infants, toddlers and preschoolers. In the children’s playrooms varying ceiling heights distinguished between location of high activity levels and quiet activities.

The design of the Child and Family Educational Center represents the culmination of a series of community workshops, interviews with teachers, staff, administrators and pueblo residents and the challenge to create a building whose identity reflects the cultural landscape.

Educator Narrative

The Child and Family Education Center — A Community Dream

The most critical time in brain development and learning occurs during the first five years of life. An environment which is not only rich in design but also age-appropriate and developmental appropriate is essential to promote the maximum learning of young children. Perhaps most importantly, a learning facility must be an environment reflective of the child’s Native culture reinforcing a strong self-concept and unique social identity. The design of the Center is the epitome that environment. This community dream encompasses years of planning and the intimate involvement of multiple stakeholders including teachers, administrators, ancillary staff, parents, Tribal Council and community members. It is important to note that at all times, our design was driven by careful developmental observations of young Native children and their unique and individual learning styles.

The dream for a “ Family Center” was originally conceptualized by the early childhood community in 1993. For over ten years, the dedicated staff and families of young children here have been building a strong and viable Division of Early Childhood (DEC). The development of a collaborative infrastructure allowed DEC to grow from serving a mere 80 children in 1993 to serving over 240 children today. New programs were created and funding quadrupled in that same time frame. The DEC currently operates Head Start, Early Head Start, Child Care, Early Intervention and numerous community outreach services (including a four-year “substance abuse prevention” initiative funded by Robert Wood Johnson).

The existing Head Start campus is comprised of three portable buildings that were purchased by the Head Start Bureau in 1992. These buildings house six classrooms for preschoolers and are quickly deteriorating in spite of repeated attempts to maintain roofs, gutters, entryways and other building aspects. Perhaps even more distressing is the campus which houses the Early Head Start and Early Intervention programs where services are provided to the most vulnerable infants and toddlers. These facilities were built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs nearly 90 years ago with two large classrooms and two student bathrooms. The rooms are inappropriate and there still remains a waiting list of 40-50 children at all times due to lack of space. In summary, quality programs and funding are in place to support the early childhood needs of this community, however space and safety are of high concern and future development is hampered by lack of adequate facilities.

Recently, events and circumstances have aligned themselves and we are now positioned to make the dream of a state of the art Child and Family Center a reality for this Pueblo. Community-wide planning events have taken place with the assistance of our architect. Tribal and Educational leadership are now actively working with legislative leaders to identify building funds.