There are many childcare programs in Northern Kentucky that provide care for kids that have yet to enter into Kindergarten, but a lot of times, these agencies need a helping hand to learn about how to provide the best care to the children, as well as maintaining a standard of quality of care that the state requires.
4C for Children is a Covington-based organization that assists many early childcare providers in the area in these ways.
“We advocate for good, quality early childhood education and we also work to support the adults who care for children. That includes parents through our parents-services program, childcare providers—both home and center based. There are multiple layers of how we do this,” said 4C Communications team member Jean Bach.
Research has shown that within the first three years of a child’s life is when the educational foundation needs to be firm. 4C services eight counties in what is more loosely defined as Northern Kentucky. The agency has been in operation for 40 years and has had an office in Northern Kentucky for just over 20 years.
“We really see ourselves as a resource to families and to the community at large when it comes to child care,” said Director of Kentucky Services, Julie Witten. “The way we do our work is really through the adults that care for young children. We have a variety of supports for parents that let them choose child care. We also provide training and support for parents around raising their own children.”
There are 202 state-licensed childcare programs in Kenton, Campbell, Boone and Grant Counties and a large part of 4C’s mission is to help these programs improve.
“What we do with the training that we provide is designed to help them do better. We also can provide some information so that they can participate with the state star-rating,” Witten said.
The state has in place a star rating system that allows parents to better judge the quality of care a childcare facility offers. 4C does not issue the ratings, but, because of their professional knowledge of the system, they work to better prepare childcare agencies to achieve the highest rating they can possibly obtain once it’s time for the state to rate them.
“Over the years we have through various projects directly impacted the increase in star ratings for over 50 child care programs,” Witten said. “Our funding is a mixture of public and private funding, but we are a designated childcare resource and referral agency in this area, so we universally provide assistance to any provider who wishes to have it. Some of our private funding through the United Way or other private donations allow us to do more intensive work with some centers, but generally speaking, our training is open to anybody.”
Not only does 4C help agencies and parents directly, they also work as childcare advocates who are active in Frankfort to help keep the state focused on giving the issue of childcare to its citizens.
“We have a very active presence in Frankfort,” said Witten.
Childcare providers that are licensed are required to have 15 hours of training every year put on by a credentialed trainer. 4C has a robust calendar of training opportunities where agencies can come and get their continuing education to satisfy this requirement.
“We help people all through the continuum of thinking about opening a childcare center through to reaching the highest level of quality possible,” Witten said.
The training that is open to the general public most often has a nominal fee of $22 for a two-hour training session.
“We try to keep those costs as low as possible because the providers themselves operate on a very narrow margin. These are often non-profits, faith-based programs or independently owned small businesses. We try to make that as nominal as possible and when we can offer things for free, we do.”
More information about 4C for Children can be found at their website, 4CforChildren.org.
Written by Bryan Burke, associate editor