The Center for Thriving Children Opens at Brookridge
This week we celebrated the grand opening of the Center forThriving Children at Brookridge. This new childcare center is designed to support families, strengthen the Brookridge team, and foster meaningful intergenerational connections.
The center opens Monday, with capacity for 144 children. Brookridge team members received priority enrollment, but it will also benefit Winston-Salem as a whole.
ThriveMore President and CEO Reed VanderSlik first had the idea for the center more than three years ago. He’d seen a similar model before, and knew the benefits.
“We saw an opportunity to uplift our entire community,” Reedsaid. “A childcare center would not only be a tremendous benefit to our team members with young children — it would also open the door for meaningful intergenerational experiences for our residents.”
To bring the vision to life, ThriveMore partnered with Imprints Cares, a respected local nonprofit with decades of experience serving children and families in Forsyth County. ThriveMore oversaw the construction and owns the building, while Imprints Cares will lease and operate the center, ensuring a nurturing environment rooted in best practices for early childhood education.
The center will provide reliable, on-site childcare for Brookridge team members, and ThriveMore will provide a tiered fee subsidy to them.
At the grand opening event Tuesday, mayor pro tempore Denise D. Adams said she hoped more Winston-Salem businesses would invest in their team and the future of the community like this.
“Children are the future,” she reminded the audience.
Brookridge team member Marisha Foust is the mother of a five month old who will attend the center. She shared at the grand opening that Brookridge is like family to her and it means so much that she will have on-site childcare for her baby.
“I do appreciate all that you do,” she said to the team, adding that she knows she and her family will receive the care and support they need there.
Another key benefit of the Center for Thriving Children will be its intergenerational programming. Children and Brookridge residents will participate in shared activities both at the childcare center and on the Brookridge campus.
“It’s going to be a really strong intergenerational connection,” said Betty Wood, Imprints Cares Chief Operating Officer. From the first time she met with Reed, she said the idea of seniors and little ones being together really spoke to her.
This connection will benefit both seniors and children, said Dean Clifford, Brookridge resident. Spending time with children gives seniors purpose and joy, lowering blood pressure and even helping prevent depression, she said. And children benefit from receiving more love and care, not to mention learning from elders’ wisdom and experience.
“This is going to be a place of joy and life in our community, and I’m grateful to everyone who made it possible,” she said.