Family F.O.C.U.S. was founded in 2000 by our Executive Program Director and current President of the Board, Prudy J Tanner. Mrs. Tanner recognized a desperate, unmet need in the Central Valley, for Infant and Toddler Care, starting in Porterville. Prudy has been in the Early Learning & Education business for more than 30 years. She started off meagerly, with a home daycare in the early 1970s. It wasn’t long until her reputation for providing sound educational programs from home got her noticed by Porterville College (PC). In the 1970s, a large portion of the PC student body was made up of return students, many of whom were parents. Porterville College asked Mrs. Tanner to bring her extensive knowledge about preschool curriculum to their campus.
The first preschool on the PC campus opened its doors in 1975 and was lovingly called Kiddy Kollege. As the preschool industry blossomed, so did Prudy. She went on to earn her master’s degree in Child Development and became the Department Head of the Child Development Program offered at Porterville College. Prudy designed and oversaw the creation of Porterville College’s first state-of-the-art Child Development Center. The center’s design and reputation were so strong, in fact, that Bakersfield Memorial Hospital asked Mrs. Tanner to design and implement a child care center intended to meet the needs of their doctors and nurses for quality child care. Soon after, Prudy became a sought-after preschool consultant and grant writer, all while retaining her position at Porterville College as Center Director and Department Head. Many of the child care programs operating in Tulare County have staff who have trained with Prudy or one of her students. Prudy developed three child care centers for Porterville College during her tenure, and even after all three centers were opened and enrolled, PC alone was still not able to meet the growing need for Infant and Toddler Care in the area. This led Prudy Tanner to conceive and develop the 501©(3) non-profit we know today as Family F.O.C.U.S.
Initially, Family F.O.C.U.S. offered only Infant and Toddler Care in Porterville. The first Family F.O.C.U.S. Infant/Toddler Center, Kessing, opened its doors in 2000 to just 25 grateful children and families. Since then, the Kessing Infant/Toddler Center has grown immensely and now serves more than 60 families and employs more than 25 certified and trained staff members.
On April 6, 2015, Family F.O.C.U.S. grew by leaps and bounds as they adopted multiple YMCA sites in Visalia, California. These programs originally included preschool-age programs and school-age programs throughout Visalia. Family F.O.C.U.S. has since converted the after-school programs, once offered by YMCA, into Infant/Toddler programs to better suit the needs of the Visalia community. Today in Visalia, we offer full-day care to children 2 to 6 at our Family F.O.C.U.S. Caldwell Preschool site and full-day care for children 2 months to their 3rd birthday at our Family F.O.C.U.S. Whitendale Infant/Toddler Center. In 2018, Family F.O.C.U.S. added a Preschool Center in Porterville, lovingly called Olive Preschool, where they serve an additional 32 preschool children.
Additionally, in March 2024, we opened the doors to our Grangeville Infant /Toddler Center, the first of its kind in Kings County. Most recently, Family F.O.C.U.S. has opened our 6th site in Exeter, serving an additional 59 children. Family F.O.C.U.S. proudly continues to provide free or reduced-cost child care to more than 250 families in need here in Tulare and Kings Counties.
