| OUR ROOTS |
The Children’s Workshop is not a large company with a cookie-cutter approach.
It once was a family owned company and has always recognized how valuable early childhood education is.
Dave MacDonald founded the company in 1990. At the time, he was a small business owner and struggled as many of his employees found themselves unable to return to work because they could not find quality, affordable child care. In order to provide this much-needed benefit to his staff, Dave made space available in his office building to create a superior early learning facility.
From these humble beginnings, The Children’s Workshop was born. The first school, located in Lincoln, RI, opened its doors with only 18 children, but grew to 80 within a matter of months. In fact, Dave’s youngest daughter, Kate, was among the first graduating class of preschoolers and she now works for TCW.
It quickly became clear that additional high-quality programs were being sought by families throughout the region. The Children’s Workshop expanded to 21 centers across Rhode Island and Massachusetts, meeting the educational, emotional and developmental needs of some 1,800 children daily... including Dave’s grandchildren, Louis, Molly, David, Niko and Sara – most of whom are pictured here with Dave and his daughters, Maggie Teller and Bailey Kent. Maggie and Bailey ran the day-to-day operations of the company for years and now sit on the board of directors.
Today, The Children's Workshop functions solely as a non-profit organization, serving the Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, Rumford and Warren, RI communities.
