CCRC’s Commitment to Community
Each month, CCRC provides quality, support, development and education to over 100,000 children, families, and providers across our 22,500-square-mile service area. Under the leadership of Dr. Michael Olenick, who assumed the position of President and CEO in 2003, CCRC now has over 1,200 professional staff members working from more than 30 different locations. To further the agency’s mission of cultivating child, family and community well-being, CCRC offers a wide range of programs for both parents and child care providers. These services have grown over the last four decades thanks to outreach into the communities of the Antelope, San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys, as well as the entirety of San Bernardino County.
In addition to distribution events, fundraising activities and social enterprises, CCRC has formed relationships with community partners that make the agency a unique and distinctive leader in the child care industry. Current programs include home visiting, workforce development, family engagement, subsidized care, Head Start preschool, Early Head Start, The Partnership, and much more. Additionally, utilizing research and evaluation, CCRC’s government team in Sacramento builds and sustains a base of support and action to improve child and family experiences today to ensure better outcomes for all Californians in the future.
Watch Our Story Unfold
CCRC’s Evolution: A Solution to a Child Care Deficit
Asked if there was adequate, quality child care in the San Fernando Valley in 1974, families responded with a resounding “no.” A group of committed volunteers began looking for a way to support families struggling to find quality child care, development, and education services for their families.
After the first child care resource center in the San Fernando Valley was proposed, then L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley accepted the proposal and gave the newly founded Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) a space in Van Nuys City Hall Center. With the formal dedication of CCRC in January of 1975, Marj Morris became the agency’s first paid director and volunteers staffed the organization to respond to an average of just 60 requests per month from parents in need of quality child care. A grant from the California Department of Education allowed CCRC to begin providing financial support to help families pay for the cost of care.