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RCMA provides
quality child care and early education for children of migrant farm
workers and rural, low-income families throughout Florida.
RCMA
was founded Oct. 1, 1965, by Mennonite Church volunteers in the Redlands
farming area of southern Miami-Dade County to provide a safe, nurturing
environment for children while their parents worked in the fields.
From
three centers with approximately 75 children in the Homestead and Florida
City area, RCMA today serves nearly 8,000 children in over 75 centers,
including two charter schools, in 21 Florida counties. More than
2,000 children are on waiting lists.
The largest non-profit child-care provider in Florida, RCMA is a leader
in high-quality early childhood services; more than half of RCMA’s
child-care centers are nationally accredited.
A
non-sectarian association, RCMA is built on principles of incorporating
the family into child development, healthcare and educational activities
and hiring and training staff from the communities served.
This
provides security for the parents, knowing their cultures are respected,
while their children are being prepared to enter school. For the children.
this provides both the strength of their ethnic origins and the Anglo
society that they are being prepared to enter.
Overseeing RCMA is a volunteer Board of Directors, drawn from the geographic
regions where RCMA operates and the constituencies served.
RCMA is funded by local, state and federal grants, as well as the
generosity of the United Way, agribusiness and other corporations, community foundations
and individuals. Volunteers and
donors are always welcome.
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