Lending a Helping Hand………………

Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) offers communities, child care professionals, and parents a unique blend of direct services, planning expertise and data collection.  CCR&R agencies work to connect families with quality early care and education options and facilitate professional development opportunities for the adults who care for and educate our youngest Iowans. CCR&R also works to build the supply of quality care and education in communities, collecting data that impacts local and statewide policy decisions to help families and communities ensure that Iowa’s vision is met:

All children, beginning at birth, will be healthy and successful.

Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa has a long history of helping parents find child care and supporting child care providers in providing quality care. The Polk County Child Care Resource and Referral Center was founded in 1975 as a community based program of the Polk County Department of Social Services through a federal grant, and  a start up grant and volunteer support from the Junior League of Des Moines.

In 1980 with seed monies from the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation, local corporate contributions and volunteers from the Junior League of Des Moines, a comprehensive child care referral service with an emphasis on parent and provider education was formalized. A new Partnership for Day Care Funding was promoted and funded by the Polk County Department of Social Services, Junior League of Des Moines, United Way of Central Iowa, and the Iowa Commission of the status of Women. The purpose of the partnership was to increase both public and private sector resources in order to increase the quantity and quality of affordable child care.

In 1989 the ChildNet program was implemented as a unique public-private partnership with the Polk County Child Care Resource and Referral Center and Des Moines employers. The Polk County Child Care Resource and Referral Center became branded as ChildNet/Child Care Resource Center.  The employees of the employers who were members of ChildNet received enhanced referrals to child care and on site Lunch and Learn parenting classes.  The fees paid by the employers for ChildNet services were used to develop the ChildNet curriculum and certification. In 1995, the ChildNet curriculum was revised and a train the trainer held to implement the curriculum statewide. There have been several revisions to update the curriculum since then.

The Polk County Child Care Resource Center was awarded one of the first grants supporting child care through the Iowa Department of Human Services in 1989.  When the Iowa Child Care Resource and Referral statewide system was established through a Request for Proposal in 1992, the Polk County Child Care Resource Center was a successful bidder and became the lead agency for Region 4, Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa.     

Beginning in 2000, primarily through early childhood funding from local Empowerment Boards, and sub-contracts with local agencies, Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa expanded services into all ten counties of Region 4.   In 2004, the Polk County Board of Supervisors issued a Request for Proposal to relocate Child Care Resource and Referral of Central services in Polk County.  The Orchard Place Child Guidance Center was selected as the new site for Child Care Resource and Referral of Central Iowa.   Through consensus with the programs in the other nine counties of Region 4, it was agreed all regional services should remain in Polk County.