Child Care Associates

ORGANIZATION'S KEY PROGRAMS: For 55 years, Child Care Associates (CCA) has been dedicated to nurturing the possibility in the youngest Texans in need through best-in-class early learning programs. Since its founding in 1968, we have partnered with families to deliver quality early learning experiences to over 580,000 children in North Texas.
Today, we use a three-pronged approach to expand our impact and ensure disadvantaged children and families have the support they need for academic and life success:
1. We educate children by providing academic and social-emotional growth and learning experiences through Early Head Start/Head Start centers and home visiting services;
2. We develop early educators and child care businesses by supporting educators through coaching and mentoring, teacher accreditation, training, and degree support, and
3. We strengthen families by offsetting the cost of child care so that families can work or complete education or training; families set goals that are supported through our early learning centers.

TARGET POPULATION: CCA specifically aims to serve lower-income families with children prenatal to five years old in high-need neighborhoods in Fort Worth and Tarrant County. The core families we serve are 100%-120% poverty level or are lower-income parents working full-time who can help cover a portion of their early ed and care expenses.
Children Served: LOW-INCOME:
-1,800 pregnant mothers, infants, toddlers and preschoolers who are Head Start eligible at 100% poverty, with up to 10% of the program as not exceeding 130% poverty. Approximately 3% of CCA's 2300 children are homeless.
- Approximately 12,000 children whose low-income families receive child care subsidy assistance to offset the high cost of child care and enable parents to work or complete school. CCMS children are deemed low-income based on qualifying household income.

EXPERIENCE/EXPERTISE: For over 55 years, CCA has been dedicated to nurturing the possibility in the youngest Texans in need through best-in-class early learning programs. We bring 55 years of experience in managing child care and early education programming for children from disadvantaged households. In doing so, CCA is living out two of its' core values:
- "Children first. Always."
- "Do it at scale."

Our Needs

Despite ever-increasing understanding of the benefits of high-quality early learning (better health, greater academic outcomes, and higher likelihood of success in adulthood), high-quality early education programs remain both expensive and exclusive making them out of reach for most children in poverty. With public and private support, Child Care Associates provides early childhood education and family services at no cost to families who qualify for Head Start and Early Head Start.

Federal funds cover 80% of Child Care Associates' costs of operating Head Start and Early Head Start programs serving more than 1,800 children and their families each year. CCA must raise the remaining 20% from the local community. Much of that 20% comes through in-kind support (e.g., donated services, materials, and facilities). Securing unrestricted funds from individual, corporate and foundation contributions enables CCA to leverage the sizable government investment made in services, which is crucial to program delivery, while also pursuing innovative opportunities to scale our programs to reach more children and improve early learning quality and outcomes in collaboration community partners.

For example, unrestricted funds help CCA to:
-Improve early learning environments for infants and toddlers. As part of CCA's long range planning during our 50th anniversary year in 2018, we established focus on creating quality infant and toddler classrooms that are child-centric, culturally appropriate, conducive to development and learning, and trauma-informed to better meet the needs of infants and toddlers affected by adverse experiences. Due to federal Early Head Start funding guidelines and requirements, we need private support to help cover the costs of new supplies, materials, and furnishings.
-Build professional development pathways for teachers to strengthen their teacher-student interactions and instructional quality in our classrooms for 3- and 4-year-olds to improve kindergarten readiness outcomes. CCA helps dedicated teachers with Child Development Associate credentials to move toward bachelor's degree attainment and teacher certification.
-Lead system improvement activities and cross-sector partnerships to bring research-based best practices to scale for measurable progress across North Texas toward kindergarten readiness, on-grade reading by third grade, and college and career readiness goals.