July 17, 2025
At the end of May, members of the Early Edge team had the opportunity to visit West LA College’s Child Development Center, meeting with center director and Early Edge Advisory Group Leadership Council member Joanne Grey to learn more about the early learning and care program, the families it’s serving, and the unique learning experience it offers West LA College students.
The Center is a free program for income eligible families, prioritizing the campus’s student parents, but is also open to qualifying families in the community. It offers state-subsidized child care and preschool programs for children starting in infancy. Early Edge staff were able to visit dynamic classrooms that Grey and her team have designed for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, filled with a diverse array of activity areas to serve the developmental needs of each age group. Outdoor learning also occurs at the center in spacious play areas for each class. Currently the program is serving 34 children, including three infants and twelve children between 18 months and 3 years old, with the capacity to serve more. Children who age out of the program are celebrated in a special graduation ceremony at the end of the school year. The Center also has a family resource center that supplies diapers, formula, food, clothing, shoes, and other items for their families. In addition, families can access the campus’s basic needs center and other campus events that provide resources.
In addition to providing care to families, the Center also serves as a lab for West LA students who are enrolled in the Child Development Program. They’re able to fulfill program requirements at the Center including observing teacher-child interactions and obtaining their practicum hours. For those doing their practicum, these are the first hours they obtain to reach their program certificate. Grey shared that she has student teachers supporting the program throughout the year; students have the opportunity to work in the program while they’re studying at the college for up to four years.
Grey’s passion for her work to support children and families comes through in the way she has set up the Center’s learning environments, the way that she works with West LA students, and the vision she has for the Center’s future. Starting as an infant and toddler teacher 30 years ago, Grey has been on a mission to bring nurturing, developmentally appropriate approaches she learned at one of her early caregiving roles at Pacific Oaks to more children from under-resourced communities. As her career progressed from classroom teacher to faculty teacher in several Los Angeles-based colleges, she has made it a mission to keep learning along the way and has traveled to countries including Italy and Denmark to observe early childhood programs and bring back new approaches to apply to her work.
Grey has worked at the Center for 18 years, and when she started in her current role as Center Director 4 years ago, she began advancing her vision for the Center’s potential to be even better. She recently secured a $2 million grant to make major renovations inside and out – including completely revamped outdoor learning spaces built from eco-friendly materials, studded with shade trees and wooden benches, and designed for exciting learning opportunities throughout the children’s days. “There will be a little hill with a telescope, and when they look out, the children will be able to see the ocean.” The outdoor area will also have a theater for the kids to perform. Other renovation plans include a new connection area for children and families to spend time together, a study area for parenting students to do homework, a milk locker and refrigerator, and a fully-stocked family resource center.
Alongside her passion for seeing kids thrive, Grey supports her staff to keep learning and growing through professional development. She closes the Center for one half-day each month for all-staff trainings, usually focused on the Program for Infant Toddler Care (PITC). With the upcoming renovations, due to be completed in 2026, her goal is to become a PITC model and to expand the program to more families.
We thank Joanne and her staff for welcoming us to the Center and allowing our team to observe this amazing program in action.
Learn more about West LA College’s Child Development Center.