Early Childhood Resource Center

Tell us about your organization:
The child is the center of everything we do at the Early Childhood Resource Center.

The mission of the Early Childhood Resource Center is to promote the healthy development of young children by strengthening families, improving the quality of early learning experiences, increasing school and community readiness, and informing public policy.

Every day, the Early Childhood Resource Center serves hundreds of families and early childhood educators in numerous ways. Whether we’re guiding parents, helping them find child care, partnering with them to get their children ready for school, or training and coaching teachers and child care providers, we keep the child at the center of all our efforts.

Our nonprofit organization has grown quite a bit since we were first established in 2000. Today, we are proud to offer a wide range of services and support throughout Northeast Ohio. The specific services we provide include:
• parenting classes, resources, mentoring, coaching, and case management services to increase parent engagement and strengthen families.
• helping parents find high-quality early childhood care programs that meet their needs.
• operating and managing the SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids) kindergarten readiness program, which serves families of 3- and 4-year olds and helps these children develop critical skills needed for success in school and beyond.
• training, mentoring, coaching, and offering Child Development Associate credential classes for early childhood professionals and providing additional technical assistance to child care centers and family child care providers.

Additional subsets of the above-mentioned services include providing fatherhood programming, distributing early childhood safety materials to families in need, serving as a site for court-appointed visitation, providing families with free indoor and outdoor play spaces, and housing an early education library that is part of the Stark Library system, among other services.

Furthermore, the Early Childhood Resource Center serves as the state-appointed Child Care Resource and Referral agency for Ohio’s service district area four, which covers Stark, Summit, Medina, Portage, Mahoning, and Trumbull counties. Throughout these six counties, and beyond, we partner with many local organizations to bring the abovementioned services into local neighborhoods and family homes.

The Early Childhood Resource Center has staff/offices in three locations across the Northeast Ohio region, including our main administrative office in Canton and satellite offices in Akron and Boardman. The organization also supports SPARK program replication sites in Ashland, Butler, Clark, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Mahoning, Stark, and Summit counties

How can someone access your services/resources? Are there any eligibility requirements?
Nearly all of the services provided by the Early Childhood Resource Center are offered free of charge. (Exceptions include background check services, which are offered to the public at a reasonable cost. Additionally, there is a small fee for the use of Production Lab materials to help cover the cost of supplies.) Some services do require participants to meet eligibility requirements (for example, some services are only available to TANF-eligible families and require completion of a self-attestation); though, these requirements vary, based on grant stipulations.

Services remain widely accessible to the communities we serve. For more information about various services/resources and how to access them, call the Early Childhood Resource Center at 330-491-3272 or visit www.ecresourcecenter.org

How do we access more information about your organization and any special events/initiatives?
For more information about the Early Childhood Resource Center, including upcoming events and special projects, visit www.ecresourcecenter.org, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, or call us at 330-491-3272.

What is a successful outcome for your organization? How can the OhioMeansJobs centers help meet your goals?
In FY2023, the Early Childhood Resource Center achieved the following successful outcomes:

>SPARK kindergarten readiness program metrics:
-served 2,219 children
-completed 15,448 home visits
-distributed 19,886 free books to families
-served 22 Ohio school districts across the state

>Outreach & Parent Education department metrics:
-delivered 297 evidence-based parenting classes, including 24/7 Dad, Active Parenting Now, Doctor Dad, First Five Years, and On My Shoulders
-delivered Parent Cafés to 254 (unduplicated) participants
-provided fatherhood services to 539 fathers
-provided car seats to 176 families
-recorded 4,875 children* visiting the Center’s Inspiration Station (indoor playspace).
^ *Note, this figure includes repeat visitors over the year.

>Professional Development department metrics:
-provided 7,183 coaching and technical assistance sessions to 723 childcare programs
-provided 689 hours of training to 11,170 early childhood educators
-helped 379 parents find high-quality childcare