After 30 years, Community Coordinated Child Care, or 4-C, continues to provide nursing and social services to area child care facilities.

In 1971, 4-C was developed to provide services to DeKalb County, as well as Ogle, Lee, Whiteside and Carroll counties.

Under the 4-C umbrella are several child care facilities in DeKalb. One such facility is the Growing Place, 909 S. Fourth St.

Four-C offers a number of services to the families and staff of child care facilities, said Teri Elmer, parent service specialist at 4-C.

“We are dedicated to providing training and information to parents and employees of day cares,” Elmer said. “We help them with whatever they need.”

Susan Petersen, executive director of the Growing Place, is thankful for the assistance 4-C provides.

“They boost the morale of early childhood facility directors and are a huge help to the newcomers,” Petersen said.

Lynne Switzky, executive director of Children’s Learning Center, 905 S. Fourth St., agreed.

“It’s a vibrant agency and provides an invaluable service to our staff and families,” she said.

Four-C also sponsors workshops for both parents and child care employees. Each workshop teaches the participants techniques and also supplies resources for improving child care, Elmer said.

Even though 4-C provides numerous services to all families and child care facilities, the largest issue is providing them for subsidized families, Petersen and Switzky said.

Four-C acts as a contractual agency because it provides and monitors the contracts subsidy-eligible families must fill out in order to receive state-funded child care, Switzky said.

Children’s Learning Center currently reserves 60 percent of its enrollment for subsidized families.

“We work very closely with 4-C because of the large number of subsidized families,” Switzky said.

In addition to providing child care, 4-C is a part of the Illinois Network of Child Care Resources and Referrals Agency.

Through this, 4-C makes referrals to the Department of Child and Family Services, whose goal is to provide children with a safe family environment, Elmer said.

The agency will celebrate its 30th anniversary, but no plans have been made yet.

For more information on 4-C programs and services, call 758-8149.