What is the Statewide CCR&R and Why is it Important? A Three-Part Series: Part I

Two adults hold hands with two children

Part I: What is the Statewide CCR&R?

CCR&R stands for child care resource and referral. It is carried out by organizations that focus on building the supply of child care and supporting child care programs through training and technical assistance for early childhood educators. CCR&R agencies emerged in the early 1970s to help families locate child care as more women began entering the workforce. As young families became more mobile and moved away from home to take jobs in other places, leaving their support systems behind, the demand for child care increased dramatically. North Carolina’s first CCR&R agency was the Durham Day Care Council, established in 1974. Day Care Services Association in Orange County and Durham Day Care Council merged in 1999 to become Child Care Services Association (CCSA).

Today, CCR&R core services include helping parents locate child care, advocating for the needs of families and young children, building the supply of quality child care through training and other resources for programs, bridging child care and education and gathering important data on child care needs/trends. In North Carolina, CCR&R is done by organizations in 14 regions and overseen by three agencies: Child Care Services Association (CCSA) in the Triangle area, Child Care Resources Inc. (CCRI) in the Charlotte area and Southwestern Child Development Commission (SWCDC) in western North Carolina. These agencies are referred to as the Council Management Agencies (CMAs) and each one is responsible for the management of four or five regions, including their own.

Learn more about the NC CCR&R Council that is comprised of the three CMAs including a map breaking down the 14 regions in the next part here.

To read the final part of this series about why the data collected is important, click here.