MISSION

1. We believe that all families and children should have equal access to high-quality child care.
2. We value individual and cultural identity.
3. We believe it is important for communities to be aware of child care issues and engaged in finding remedies.
4. We believe that community investment in early care and education is enhanced by partnerships between the public and private sector.
5. We believe that our clients are best served by a culturally competent, diverse, informed, and caring staff.
6. We believe that our mission will be best accomplished by the collective work of board, staff, parents, and childcare providers.
7. We believe in parents' right to make informed child care choices.

Description:
In our 35 years of service to San Francisco's diverse communities, Children's Council has helped over 150,000 families and child care providers. Our services are available in English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese. Most of them are free.

Our Family Services/Resource and Referral department offers free child care referrals and community resource information to more than 5,000 families each year. We operate a Resource Room and Lending Library, where parents and child care workers can find information on a wide range of topics related to child care. Our free "Choosing Child Care" workshops help parents understand their child care options and make informed choices.

CCSF administers most of the government-supported child care subsidies in San Francisco. Every month, Children's Council obtains and administers child care subsidy assistance for over 4,500 low-income parents so that they can work, attend school, or receive needed training. We also provide subsidized child care for teenage parents, homeless parents, and families in crisis or stressful transition.

Our child care provider training and support programs offer workshops and classes designed to prepare them for the state licensing process, increase their skills, market and manage their services, raise their wages, develop positive relationships with children and families, and experience professional pride and success in their chosen field.

Our Food and Nutrition Services department administers food subsidies to child care providers to cover the costs of healthy, high-quality meals and snacks for the children in their care. About 1,800 children are served, helping to ensure that they eat right to grow strong. Staff specialists also work with public agencies to improve health awareness and disease prevention among children in low-income communities.

The CCSF Child Development Consultation department offers professional mental health and child development counseling for children who may be at risk emotionally, physically, and/or economically.

Through our Child Care Inclusion Challenge Project, Children's Council works to find high-quality care for children with special needs and trains child care providers to work effectively with children who have special needs or medical conditions.

Children's Council acts as a strong advocate for increased child care subsidy funding. Through our allied organization, Parent Voices, and our staff advocacy committee, we have helped reverse threatened funding cuts that would have left hundreds of families without needed child care support. We also play a leading role in child care policy making, and provide statistical research to support planning agencies and public officials.



History:
Children's Council of San Francisco (CCSF) was one of the first child care resource and referral agencies in the United States. Originally called the Childcare Switchboard, the organization was incorporated in 1973. Our core service was free referrals for San Francisco parents seeking high-quality, affordable child care. Now just one among many CCSF programs, Resource and Referral still remains the "heart" of our agency.

In the 1980s, Children's Council became a designated "alternative payments" program, and began to administer state-funded child care subsidy payments. The organization formed an alliance with the San Francisco Department of Human Services to provide child care subsidy support to low-income parents who were moving from welfare into the work force. That experience paved the way for later expansion under CalWORKs, the state welfare-to-work program. In 1997, Children's Council was selected to administer the CalWORKs child care subsidy program for San Francisco.

Assumption of the CalWorks contract resulted in exceptional growth for the agency. To meet the needs of our clients, Children's Council has expanded to encompass many additional programs. Over the years, we have added services that support child care workers and promote high-quality child care in the city. These efforts have been enhanced by our child development consultation services, our program for children with special needs, advocacy on behalf of children and families, and many other projects and services.



Contact people:


Phyllis Mason, (phone), (email) Linnea Klee, Executive Director


Main office number: (415) 276-2900
Office fax number: (415) 343-3359

Address:


445 Church Street San Francisco, CA 94114 (See a map)


Web Site: http://www.childrenscouncil.org

Directions:

From the East Bay Merge onto I-80 W.(Bay Bridge)Take the exit towards MISSION ST/FELL STREET.Merge onto US-101 N.Take the DUBOCE AVE/MISSION ST exit.Keep LEFT at the fork in the ramp. Stay straight to go onto DUBOCE AVE.Turn SLIGHT LEFT onto. . . (more)   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: J-Church on the corner of 16th/Church,   Walk distance (in minutes): 1 minute   Nearest Bus Stop: 22-Fillmore on the corner of 16th/Church, 1 minute minute walk

Miscellaneous Information

Besides English, which languages are spoken at your agency?
	Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese
What is the minimum age for volunteers at your agency?
	18
Is your agency wheelchair accessible?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 10?
	Yes
Does your agency have the capacity to host groups of more than 20?
	Yes

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