Pathways Early Education Center in Immokalee works with nearly 125 children to be school-ready on a level with their more advanced classmates. Unfortunately, there’s still a waiting list of more than 400. Every year Pathways must turn away the majority of families who need its help. To work toward remedying that, Pathways is expanding to serve 50% more children, giving the program room for more young minds. The organization has embarked on a $2.25 million campaign, Brighter Futures, to improve the infrastructure of its current facility on Colorado Avenue, add mobile units for specialized education and invest in new programs. There are five other childcare/early learning centers in Immokalee, and those, too, have limited openings. Day care centers exist, but the Pathways mission is to address children with particular needs, its officials explained. Children with special needs and those who qualify for school readiness funding through Florida from a federal Child Care and Development Fund Block Grant are prioritized. So are children whose families are being served by the Florida Department of Children and Families or who are in foster care. “Early education is definitely the first stepping stone because this is the age, infant all the way through 5 years of age, which is where we observe at Pathways, when we would be able to recognize different deficits in each child.” explained Michelle Blackmon, Pathways Center director. What the data show Statistics support the mission: According to studies supported by Harvard University, 90% of a child’s brain develops in the first five years. A Michigan school study that followed children from their years in an early learning program to age 40 found them 25% more likely to graduate high school. Similarly, a study by the Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina found its group of early childhood learners four times as likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher by age 30. Pathways has been filling that early assessment and education need since 1964, when it remodeled the space inside an old bathhouse for farmworkers to become its first center. Since then it has grown and developed its programs to the point that its children are surpassing both Collier County and Florida levels for kindergarten readiness, according to the organization’s spring 2024 impact statement. Some 80% of children who attended Pathways programs for two or more years met the benchmark for kindergarten readiness. Part of its success, Blackmon points out, is that Pathways treats its students holistically. They interview “not really for ‘Is the child a good fit?’ so much as for ‘Are there any needs for the family?’” Blackmon said. Basic needs are met — a shower and a clothes closet — and the children receive breakfast, lunch and a heavy afternoon snack daily. Children receive dental in addition to health checks. The center’s 2024 impact statement says it provided 62,300-plus pounds of f...