Connections for Children Celebrates nearly 50 Years of Service!
From our grassroots beginnings, Connections for Children has recognized the vital importance of supporting families through increased access to nurturing early care and education environments. Today, we serve more than 3,500 families across West Los Angeles and the South Bay each year.
1975: Connections for Children (CFC) starts as a grassroots, volunteer effort to coordinate quality child care as more women enter the workforce.
A small group of visionaries – including Ida Bucher, Betsy Hiteshew, Laurie Rozet and June Solnit Sale – founded “Child Care Information Services” (later named Connections for Children), as a project of Family Services of Santa Monica. Under the leadership of Rozet as the group’s first Executive Director, the team worked out of a tiny backroom at Family Services with a staff of just two volunteers.
“Most centers at that time did not enroll infants and toddlers,” Sale said. “Laurie took the leadership in contacting various agencies and grant-givers.” Soon, Sale said, Connections for Children became an important resource in developing innovative programs that supported quality child care.
The program started with a significant donation by real estate developer Doug Pardee. Soon after, the City of Santa Monica granted seed money to develop child care resource and referral services for areas within the city and state legislation created a permanent funding stream.
1977: Connections for Children expands our service area to communities from Pacific Palisades to Redondo Beach.
The new program grew quickly, with the introduction of Preschool in the Park (now Family Time), training workshops for centers and home-based child care providers, lunchtime chats about quality child care, and a toy library in a van that visited child care sites.
1980s: Connections for Children becomes an independent non-profit organization.
Former Executive Director and Board Member Terry Ogawa reflected, “It was a time when employers began to recognize the importance of quality child care, which led to enhanced referral services, parent education and other family-friendly programs.”
2001: Connections for Children becomes one of the first organizations funded by First 5 LA, a leading early childhood advocate funded by the allocation of California’s Proposition 10 Tobacco Tax.
2014: Connections for Children expands direct services for families with funding from overwhelming bipartisan support for early care and education.
2019 – CFC relocates office headquarters from Santa Monica to Westchester and begins co-location at Santa Monica Public Library.
2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: CFC shifts to a virtual service delivery model and administers various emergency response efforts (e.g., essential worker subsidy, Personal Protective Equipment distributions, and provider stipends).
2024 – CFC continues hybrid service delivery, expands co-location in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and Torrance, and launches additional Family Time in Torrance.
The reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the expansion of Early Head Start led to CFC’s increased involvement in direct services with the Metro-West Early Head Start Child Care Partnership.
“Today, the importance of high-quality early learning is a national priority, uniting leaders across the political spectrum. These measures make strong commitments to safe, high-quality early care and education,” Oblath said.
As CFC co-founder Hiteshew said: “The future of early childhood education is in the development of universal preschool and a curriculum that addresses the needs of the whole child.”
