We Are NDCC

We are Northern Door Children’s Center.

We are THE essential service.

When we think of essential services, we typically think of firefighters, medical personnel, and police officers. Yet as we learned during COVID, none of these essential workers could do their jobs without high-quality, affordable, accessible child care. That’s why throughout the pandemic, Northern Door Children’s Center remained open, providing care for the children of the people who care for our community.

Child care is essential for more than just emergency service workers. Northern Door Children’s Center serves the children of the people who serve our community. From restaurant wait staff, to grocery store workers, teachers, bankers, utility company workers, accountants, landscapers, and so many other working people – the availability of high-quality, affordable, accessible child care is essential if we are to fill the jobs of the people who serve all of us. Yet the importance of Northern Door Children’s Center goes far beyond simply providing Door County with a workforce.

We have recently launched a collaborative partnership with Gibraltar Area Schools to provide 4K programming that has existed at Northern Door Children’s Center since 2007. However, learning at Northern Door Children’s Center begins far earlier than that. From the earliest days when children become part of our Center family, we are looking for ways to provide proper, age-appropriate stimulation and activities to nurture their minds and bodies. We foster social and emotional growth of the children and provide tools to their parents to help strengthen their families. We serve Door County’s youngest and most precious residents. But sometimes, some children do not thrive right from the start. Thankfully, Northern Door Children’s Center is here to help.

Our early childhood educators are trained to recognize the developmental stages of young children. Though every child reaches milestones on their own schedule, it is important to recognize when a child may be outside the area of typical development and is not yet thriving. From a physical limitation to cognitive delays, the professional staff of Northern Door Children’s Center recognizes when referral to early intervention professionals may be needed. The early recognition of a potential delay or disability, followed by professional assessment and intervention, typically makes the remediation effort much easier. Further, we provide information and support for the child’s parents during the intervention process. Northern Door Children’s Center is a partner for parents and a source of support.

Through the remarkable generosity of our community, we provide scholarships to working families who find the cost of early care and education to be a strain on their family. The parents who work in northern Door are contributing members of our community and the work they do helps to make Door County the wonderful place that it is. If a parent is working hard to make a living, Northern Door Children’s Center is there to support them on their journey.

Phase I of the campaign was a $1.2 million effort to construct a new multi-purpose room that houses our 4-year-old kindergarten classrooms, a teacher resource area, and a shop/equipment and material storage center. Thanks to the remarkable generosity of a new donor who contributed $1 million, Phase I construction is complete. Phase II is a $2.4 million series of planned improvements and expansions of everything from the 3K program room, to the toddler classrooms, infant classrooms, playground area, and academic support space. We invite you to peruse the materials to learn more about the campaign – or we invite you to take a tour of the existing facility so you can learn more. Your generosity is essential to our effort.

Northern Door Children’s Center is one of only three licensed child care facilities in all of Door County and the only one dedicated to serving the people who live or work north of Sturgeon Bay.

We are Northern Door Children’s Center.

We are the essential service on the northern half of our peninsula.