History
SSOCC was created in order to ensure that the Alderwood House School program would be able to continue and expand, regardless of changes to BC’s child care landscape. SSOCC entered into an agreement to purchase AHS – London in 2018, and in 2019, SSOCC began to expand the Alderwood House program by opening Alderwood House – Southlands. In 2021, SSOCC opened our third location – North River, located at Tait Elementary in Richmond.
Our Board
Our board of directors is made up of child care experts and parents from across the province:
2021/22 Board of Directors:
Amanda Worms
Alisha Neuman
Jason Wu
Chris LeClerc
Strategic Plan
SSOCC’s strategic plan is viewable here.
Expansion Goals
SSOCC holds Alderwood House School’s vision of outdoor based, Reggio-inspired child care programs that focus on social-emotional learning. Alderwood House School founder, Pamela Wallberg, first imagined the possibility of what Alderwood could become when she learned of the Blueberry Atelier in Santa Monica (now the Branches Atelier), during a visit to the Wonder of Learning. The idea of a small, residential learning environment that was a licensed group program rather than an in-home program was an exciting idea, one that Pamela revisited multiple times only to put on hold as she waited for the right opportunity to realize this dream.
SSOCC seeks to ultimately expand in two ways:
- Build a network of small licensed group child care programs operating out of residential homes. A new concept to BC, this approach to licensed group child care offers families some of the many advantages that in-home child care programs provide young children: small-group sizes, home-like environment and flexible and responsive community based programming. Yet, as part of a network of licensed group child care programs, this approach will still provide the professional training to Educators, the Alderwood curriculum, pooled resources between programs, and licensed group programs (including the ACCB funding and infant toddler or preschool age groupings) that are more commonly associated with larger group centres.
- Work with school districts to expand our programs collaboratively, building on both our child care expertise as well as our teaching team’s education and experience working as primary school teachers. These larger group centres will serve as an administrative and curricular hub to the smaller residential-based programs.
Who we are
The Steveston Society of Children’s Centres is a not-for-profit organization operating in Richmond and Vancouver, BC. Our leadership team includes:
Pamela Wallberg , Director, tasked with growing Alderwood network of programs
Christine Ames, Administrative Director
Athena Affan, Administrative Manager
Andrea Voon, Southlands lead
Endie Williams, London lead
Heather D’Amore, North River lead
The SSOCC Board supports the Alderwood team with our decades of not-for-profit and market-based child care operational experience, child and youth outreach work and, of course, parents who care about quality education.
SSOCC is committed to engaging in outdoor education, social-emotional learning and trauma-informed practice.
SSOCC recognizes the value of ECE’s in a child and family’s life and will continue the work that Alderwood House School Inc began in 2017 when it first began advocacy efforts for ECE’s in BC. SSOCC is proud to be a fair-wage employer, paying ECE’s pay parity with the school district, offering competitive benefits and work conditions that address the need for mentorship, professional development and designated time for program planning, classroom prep, and pedagogical narration.
Licensed ECEs and ITEs looking for employment with SSOCC can send their resumes to [email protected].
SSOCC is actively seeking funders to support the creation of new Alderwood spaces in Vancouver and Richmond. Interested donors or partners can write [email protected].