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The Center For Childhood was founded
in 1985 as The Museum of Childhood by Jon Lappen who believed
that such an institution, modeled on the European concept of
a museum of childhood culture, would be an innovative and effective
way to educate a broad audience about childhood and to promote
intercultural respect. The original plan was to collect toys,
dolls and childhood artifacts and to initiate exhibitions with
educational components. From 1985 to 1987, pilot exhibitions
were held throughout Southern California.
In 1987, the Board of Directors became concerned
about the increase of child abuse, domestic violence, drug
use, teen pregnancy and the lack of quality child care programs.
They began to focus on a different question: What could
this institution do to enhance the daily lives of children?
After a series of roundtable discussions
with teachers, administrators and other professionals concerned
with children, The Museum of Childhood changed its name to
The Center For Childhood and adopted a new mission. Since
then, The Center has undertaken numerous projects to achieve
these objectives.
The Center's goal is to make all its educational
programs and services diverse and community-based. We seek
to reach out to Southern California's many ethnic groups and
to join with neighborhoods, corporations and government institutions
whose goals are similar to our own.
All of our projects are collaborative in
nature. We see this as the most effective way to make meaningful
improvements.
We were founded in 1985 as the "Museum of Childhood" and, not long thereafter, changed our name to the "Center for Childhood". Below is a copy of the Internal Revenue Service's November 18, 1985 "determination letter". This IRS letter certifies that we are a validly-formed non-profit entity, sometimes known as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We are proud that this is our 26th year of helping children and their families!
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