Our Story
In January 1982, Kids' Corner, a pilot after school child care and enrichment program, opened its doors at the Lincoln School in Winchester. Its founders were a dozen local women who wanted and needed quality child care for their school-aged children while they worked full time outside the home.
In 1980, several of these women had participated in the Winchester League of Women Voters' study of the need for after school care in Winchester. Because the study clearly indicated such a need, and finding they could not depend on town funding or official support, these women struck out on their own.
Joined by parents in the community with similar needs, they formed a town-wide planning coalition to establish a program. The first step was to incorporate as a nonprofit organization-hence, the birth of Kids' Corner. The second step was to negotiate rental space in one of the Winchester public schools. After seven months of intensive work, Kids' Corner was in place. It was to be an entirely self-supporting program, staffed by professionals in the field of child development and education, and supported by the parents through a Board of Directors.
Kids' Corner grew by leaps and bounds. During the first full year of operation, the program served roughly 50 families and an average of 35 children per day. A Kindergarten component was added in September 1982 and a special program for older children (grades 4-6) was designed to begin the following September, when the program moved to its new quarters at the McCall Middle School. The program moved to Winchester High School in 1996, and remained there until June 2003, when we moved to our current home in the old Mystic Elementary School.
Since 2003, we have continued to pivot and evolve our program to meet the needs of Winchester families.
In 2009, we begun offering on site enrichment programs for our After School Program that were ran by our staff. We started with a minimal amount of options including Art Club, Spanish, and swim lessons. These programs were popular so we began adding more options, multiple semesters and hiring outside professionals to come teach.
Also in 2009, we started KC After Hours (currently referred to as Friday Night Out). This program allowed children to stay on site at Kids’ Corner after the program ended for the day to hang out with their friends, do activities and have dinner. This then allowed parents to have a date night, get errands done, etc. This continues to be a popular program.
We begun offering a very small Summer Program in 2012. We saw a continued need for this program and begun adding more staff, adding additional activities, special performances and field trips. All of this growth meant that we could increase our capacity and this program has really blossomed over the years.
Prior to 2018, Winchester Public Schools offered a half day kindergarten option for families and we in turn, had an extended day kindergarten program to offer those families. Kindergarteners would be bussed to Kids’ Corner where they would have lunch, have free play outside/inside, and engage in curriculum such as Hands on Learning, Creative Expressions, Art and Science!
When Winchester Public Schools transitioned their kindergarten into an all day program in 2018, we omitted our kindergarten program and welcomed those kindergarten students during the normal after school hours with their older peers.
Additionally, local schools changed their hours to allow for an earlier start time. We also then had to change our hours to reflect for an earlier start time for our After School Program. Once again showing our ability to continually evolve to meet he needs of the families in our community.
As of 2024, we are continuing a successful, quality program serving 140 families in our program.