St Michael & All Angels Day Care Centre

General information

In the late 1970’s, discussions began among the leaders of the St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church as they sought to reach out to the surrounding neighbourhoods. Their hope was to develop ways to connect with the families in this multi-cultural community.

Consulting with local politicians, church and community members, the group began to focus on child care using part of the large church facility located at the southeast corner of St Clair Avenue West and Wychwood Avenue. At the time, the Church was led by the Rev Canon Arthur Brown (later to become Bishop). Bishop Brown brought together stakeholders to develop this community enterprise along with his wife Norma Brown, Arthur Downes, Bea Longworth and other hard-working church volunteers.

In June of 1976, the consultations and discussions resulted in a not-for-profit day care centre offering quality childcare services for infants to school age children (ages 6 weeks to 12 years of age). Housed in the lower level and parish hall of the church, the church formed committees, sought out financing, worked with government leaders and staff to ensure that all the policies, procedures and regulations were covered or exceeded.

The centre has always been able to attract and retain highly committed staff. Over the years a few individuals filled the role of Supervisor for the centre. The longest-serving Supervisor was Carrie Brown, daughter of two of our founders, Bishop Arthur and Norma Brown. Starting with the centre in 1981 in the Junior Preschool Room, Carrie was promoted to Supervisor in 1997 and ran the centre until her death in 2012.

The centre has changed over the years, adjusting to the needs of the community and government guidelines for child care centres. At the moment, we are transitioning the centre in order to adapt to the Province of Ontario’s move towards full-day school-based kindergarten. We are always looking for ways to grow and evolve the centre to best serve the needs of the families and community we serve.

We are grateful for the tremendous amount of support given to this organization from the parents, children and staff and hope for many more years of continued success.