Friends Early Learning Center

Once upon a time, about five years ago, this was the loveliest little daycare in all of the land. Back then, when it was owned by Clara, we were so pleased to be lucky enough to get a spot for first child and a few years later, our second. We had a few years of bliss until Clara decided to sell/retire. Friends has since been acquired by a faceless and headless corporation that clearly does not have the children and staff in mind when it comes to what matters in this business. It has been a steady decline in all aspects since the acquisition. I had high hopes for Milestone Ed when I heard they had been the purchaser of Friends. I thought: Great! They will come in with new ideas, facility improvements and/or fresh faces to add to the staff and make this place even better. None of those things happened. One by one, the original and amazing staff and leadership was canned or resigned. I’ve watched many of the best teachers and staff leave this place and it continues to this day. Frankly, it’s sad. And I would not be surprised if Friends can survive its current path of demise. Over the five years, I think only three teachers have been able to hold on and, bless their hearts, they are the stars of this tragedy. Mr Rob should be commended for his efforts and his calm and caring demeanor. Ms Amy and Ms Heather are two wonderful human beings who took care of both kids as infants. Ms Trinity also should be recognized for her part in our child’s care. I think she gets put through the wringer but always comes out smiling. Ms Sarah and Ms Ally do amazing with the twos classes. Ms Sarah may be the most sweetest and fun one of them all. I know I’ve forgot some of their names but you know who you are. We appreciate all you for what you did for us and our two little ones. After five years at Friends, we made the hardest decision to leave and switch to another provider. Friends became too much of a wild card in our daily, working parents life. Staffing was a revolving door. No continuity. No stability. Communication was poor, late or nonexistent. Leadership was unclear at many times and also had an issue with keeping a director in place. My advice: Avoid Friends unless you have no other option.

If you were to ask me years ago, if Friends was worth sending your child to, I would’ve answered it almost instantly with “Yes”! Since then, the last 2-3 years, new management has ran this place into the ground. Specialty teachers are no longer employed and it has become a glorified babysitter facility with little care for children in terms of their education and growing needs. Staff, my daughters last year, was cycled through every few weeks. All “original” staff members were laid off or resigned as it slowly deteriorated. They STILL don’t have a glorified teacher to help with Pre-K after more than a year. A YEAR! Children often have no shoes, run around non-stop with no organization or daily activities beyond the necessities. My daughter, when attending, wasn’t allowed to have items like ketchup or cheese on certain foods or at all. Safety. This should be the easiest for this facility to maintain as they have security keypads, but they decide that leaving doors partially cracked to more quickly transfer between buildings is more important. Some days the front door can even be seen open due to “smells”. They’ve had numerous gas issues over the past few years on top of it all. Until this facility starts to focus more on hiring good staff, training them appropriately and taking better care of children, it’s likely to slowly tumble into state ran or closed. When our daughter still attended, bringing these safety concerns up to staff just resulted in temporary fixes and no real follow up. They would then go back to being issues in 1-2 weeks. Leadership would be snarky and respond with quick comments instead of realizing that there’s plenty of room to improve. Avoid at all costs.

We absolutely love Friends! Our daughter has been going there since she was four months old and she is now almost 2 1/2. They do a great job of having fun activities, thoughtful lesson plans and working with each individual child’s skill set. Recently, our son has started going to Friends in December. He is 5 months old now and can show emotion, and he absolutely lights up every day we drop him off to both Ms Amys. I am so thankful for such loving ladies. I also like that the infant room is beautiful, bright and very interactive for the first year of development. They also use the Brightwheel app so we are able to see what our children are doing each day/pics/videos and all activity - gives great peace of mind. Overall, we are very happy with Friends. My husband and I had visited many daycare facilities around town when we first started looking. We chose Friends because of the warm and welcoming feeling it had and we just knew it would be a good fit for our family. Thank you Clara and your team for providing such a safe and happy environment for our babies.

Our daughter started at Friends when she was 8 weeks old and remained there until she was 15 months old. We had such a wonderful experience sending our daughter there. She was loved and was very well cared for. They have an app you can download where they can share pictures with you, note what and when baby ate, etc. With our daughter being our first kid, we didn’t know what to expect and they helped coach us along. They helped her work toward whatever goal we were working on at home. We no longer need childcare and were so sad to pull her away from her friends but we would choose them again if we need childcare.

In 2010, my family moved back to South Bend and we began our search for a high quality child care option for our infant. We selected Friends School and Day Care and we are very pleased with our choice. Both of our children now attend Friends and we know they are in a safe environment with teachers who care about our children and their education. From a young age, the children learn to interact with others, problem solve, communicate and be creative. Whether it is growing a summer garden with classmates, reading books, playing outside or working on an art project, the kids at Friends are having fun while learning. I am incredibly thankful to everyone at Friends for providing a safe and effective learning environment for my children.