Friendship House Inc

Since 1957, Friendship House has provided quality childcare in the Dalton/Whitfield community.  The mission of Friendship House is to serve families and the community by providing quality, affordable childcare focused on serving, nurturing, developing, and educating the whole child.  Today we have the capability to serve approximately 120 children from the age of four weeks through age four.  During the 2020 school year we served 160 children from 225 family units.  Originally founded by women’s groups from some local churches as a mission, Friendship House has consistently forged and cultivated partnerships with individuals and organizations sharing the goals of Friendship House.  Comprehensive programming, developed to serve the whole child, is recognized as a strength of Friendship House and is an integral component of Friendship House’s ability to achieve and maintain the highest level of national accreditation. We were among the first childcare centers to apply for, and receive a 3 Star Quality Rating, Georgia’s voluntary quality rating and improvement system.

Since the inception of Friendship House, the Board has felt it important to not only provide quality childcare, but to also help families achieve a better quality of life.  For that reason, parents of children enrolled at Friendship House must either work and/or attend school full-time.  We serve not only children who live in the greater Dalton community, but also children whose parents live outside the community and commute to Dalton for work.  In 2020, our 22 pre-k students enrolled for kindergarten in over 17 elementary schools in three counties.   At Friendship House, we consider quality childcare a necessary part of economic development, a critical piece of social infrastructure that supports child and family development. 

Our program offers parents a "hand up" with their child's tuition based on the parent's ability to pay. With our tuition structure, 100% of the children enrolled at Friendship House pay reduced tuition.  According to the most recent Georgia Department of Labor statistics, the Dalton MSA unemployment rate is 4.9%.  While we continue to show economic improvements year-over-year, the rate is still about 1% higher than the state as a whole.  Currently our clients include white, Hispanic, Asian, Black, and multi-racial.  All clients receive some level of financial assistance: 4% of our client’s income are $10,000 or below, 26% between $10,000 and $24,000, 70% with income over $24,000.

Friendship House is unique in that we accept infants at less than six weeks of age, the maximum length of time young mothers can be absent from high school.   Not only are we unique in taking very young infants, but we are also unique in the social and support services we provide to our families. In the nursery most of the education comes from our staff role modeling appropriate practice. Our staff is warm, receptive to our families and builds a supportive relationship that carries through the Center. Getting parents at this stage of the children’s lives allows us so many developmental experience milestones.  Our parents can go to work or school without worry, confident of the quality programming provided their child. Participation in our program assures the parent that every effort has been made to ensure the child enters school ready to learn and the parent is ready to follow up and advocate for their children.

We continue to make improvements in our classroom and playground to encourage both cognitive and physical development. The ability to read is critical for success and we appreciate that learning to read is a process beginning at birth. Classroom activity and experiences encourage brain connections that children will use and benefit from for their lifetime. Our teachers engage their children with music, movement and lots of language. We use a variety of music styles and languages, finger plays, and wordless books to the benefit of all the children. The families watch, learn and can duplicate the experiences outside our program. 

While we appreciate the parent is their child's first and most influential teacher and we build on that foundation. The Friendship House staff is extremely well trained and educated Our staff participate in a variety of in person and online professional development specific to their respective class objectives. Staff are required to complete at least 15 hours of training per year, but we far exceed this minimum requirement with relevant training from a variety of providers.   In addition partner with North Georgia Technical College for continuing education for staff. Currently, over 80% of our staff have an advanced degree and many are enrolled for further education.

We have a long and proud history of service in our community and with the support from our friends and partners we have plans to continue service for many years to come.