About

BlueSkies is committed to providing a high-quality support system to children and their families, ensuring the health of today’s working families and society. BlueSkies, a private, nonprofit 501(c)3 program founded in 1983, is the only NAEYC-accredited childcare center in Oakland. We are one of the most multicultural and diverse full-time childcare centers in the Bay Area and a model of excellence for teachers studying early childhood education. The mission of BlueSkies is to practice and teach an optimal approach to education and care of young children based on the interrelated disciplines of human development. Such an approach sustains and supports today’s children and families and provides a model of excellence and an educational center for caregivers and the community. The history of the organization begins years before official incorporation when the founder ran a center in East Oakland caring primarily for the children of young teen mothers in residence. The center served babies starting life in the most fragile circumstances, lacking financial resources or family support, and institutionalized with their teen mothers who needed to learn parenting skills. During the founder’s six-year tenure she developed the foundation of the BlueSkies method, coupling the nurturing of home with the enrichment of preschool in one full-day program. The program, developed for an extremely underprivileged population and now in place at BlueSkies with children from all socioeconomic backgrounds, proves that all children thrive when they are given respectful, developmental support by educated, caring adults in a healthy environment.