Contact Information
600 Lincoln Avenue
Charleston, IL - 61920
600 Lincoln Avenue
Charleston, IL - 61920
Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) strives to enhance individual and family lives, enrich communities and promote economic development through its services to a six county area in east-central Illinois: Clark, Coles, Cumberland Edgar, Moultrie and Shelby. More specifically, CCR&R provides the following services: - child care referrals and consumer education to families - determines eligibility to access child care assistance - facilitates recruitment and retention of child care providers - provides outreach educational opportunities for child care providers - promotes and supports child care provider professional development - provides families with referrals to other family service agencies - assists business and industry with family friendly programs - maintains a comprehensive database on the six county service delivery area - disseminates information through media, reports and research Local Child Care Resource & Referral agency if you would like to find quality child care or receive an application to apply for the Child Care Assistance Program. The DHS' Child Care Assistance Program provides low-income, working families with access to quality, affordable child care that allows them to continue working and contributes to the healthy, emotional and social development of the child. Families are required to cost-share on a sliding scale based on family size, income and number of children in care. The State of Illinois helps income eligible families pay for their child care services while they work, go to school, training and other workrelated activities. The 16 Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies also perform the following services for parents and/or providers: - Provide parents with consumer education and referrals to child care in their communities; - Deliver training and assistance to providers in order to improve the quality of care offered; - Help develop new child care resources in communities where they are needed; - Assemble and maintain an accurate child care database to provide up-to-date information to parents; and - Record and analyze data on child care supply and demand to support community capacity building. - Great START - provides wage supplements to eligible practitioners working in licensed centers and homes. - Gateways to Opportunity Scholarship Program - is an individual-based scholarship opportunity for practitioners working in Early Care and Education (ECE) or school-age care. The Gateways Scholarship Program is administered by the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (INCCRRA) and funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) Bureau of Child Care and Development and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). For questions about the Gateways Scholarship Program, please call a scholarship counselor toll-free at: (866) 697-8278 or email gatewaysscholarship@inccrra.org.