Joey Saunders

Urban Sprouts Child Development Center was founded in 2009 by Black mother and educator, Ellicia Lanier. Lanier held a variety of positions in the early childhood field including work at a well-resourced center for a Fortune 500 company. Through these experiences and her continuing education, she came to understand what high quality early childhood education (ECE) truly comprises. With that understanding came the realization that people that look like her and grew up in the community in which she grew up, high quality ECE is heartbreakingly hard to come by. It became her mission to make that easier. Urban Sprouts was born out of this determination and commitment to racial and economic equity.

Urban Sprouts became a Reggio-inspired center. The approach, seen more commonly in affluent, majority-White early learning environments, is rooted in child-driven inquiry and represents the contemporary gold-standard for research-based ECE. Urban Sprouts adopted the approach to bring the highest-caliber level of excellence and autonomy to diverse, urban populations at an affordable price point.

Word spread of Urban Sprouts intentional family engagement and how our program consistently and successfully prepared young minds for kindergarten and beyond. As demand increased, Urban Sprouts built a gorgeous new location in University City, north of Delmar, and transitioned to become a non-profit in 2015 to further advance its mission to provide low- to no-cost high quality ECE to families and children most in need. Urban Sprouts now has the capacity to serve up to 150 children. 98 percent of Urban Sprouts students graduate meeting or exceeding kindergarten readiness standards, we achieve this without ever sacrificing the joyful, play-based pedagogical approach that plants the seeds for a lifelong love of learning in the heart of each child we serve. As excited and proud we are of our legacy, we currently have more than 400 families on our waiting list and are perhaps even more excited about our future.