1972 – 1973

• Action for Children was founded as Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) in 1972 as the result of two national events.  First, in the early 1960’s, groups of parents, frustrated at not being able to find reliable care for their children while they worked, voluntarily started informal referral card files on child care providers in their communities. This community-based model was the basis of today’s child care resource and referral.  Second, the interagency Federal Panel on Early Childhood was formed by a mandate in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1967 for coordination of child care programs. In 1968, this Panel developed the concept and guidelines for a Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) program and set up a permanent Standing Committee on 4-C, which coordinated early childhood programs that were being administered by nine federal departments.  They also encouraged formation of similar 4-C organizations at state and local levels. 
• In 1968, the United Community in Columbus was addressing the coordination of local human services through its Metropolitan Social Services Committee and formed the Day Care Task Force.  As a United Community Council Board member, social worker Cecilia “Cee” Cullman served on the task force.  She conducted a survey, coordinated by Battelle Memorial Institute and the Volunteer Action Center, to determine the level of interest for a 4-C program locally. Positive results from more than 100 child care organizations surveyed resulted in a fundraising campaign, led by Cee and fellow task force member Rosa Hightower, then executive director of the newly-opened Central Community House Day Care Center. One of their early fundraising letters cited reasons as relevant today as they were then – “growing concern for the health, welfare and safety of children who must be cared for outside their homes while their parents work or retrain for job experiences.”
• By February 1972, they had raised funds totaling almost $28,000 from sources that included the Clarence T. Reinberger Fund at the Columbus Foundation, Junior League of Columbus, The Borden Company Foundation, Nationwide Insurance, The Rosenthal Foundation, F&R Lazarus Company, Battelle Memorial Institute, The Leo Yassenoff Foundation, Church Women United, and Mrs. Sheldon Ackerman.  In September, the City of Columbus, which has supported the agency’s work on behalf of children and families for over thirty years, provided primary funding from General Revenue Sharing to help launch the agency.
• 4-C was initially organized into five task forces that were charged with coordinating services for young children in the areas of staff training, research, purchasing, health, and parent involvement.  Ray McFarland was hired as the agency’s first executive director.  Cee Cullman served as the first Board president and has maintained her commitment to the agency as an active voice and presence throughout its history.   
• In late 1973, Dorothy Reynolds followed McFarland as executive director. One of the first services provided by the new agency was training programs for child care professionals.  “We started with the idea to bring child care centers together to lower their food costs and take a look at training,” said Rosa Hightower. “We knew day care couldn’t improve without training.”  Three decades later, training remains a high priority because of its direct impact on quality.  The agency has provided professional development for more than 60,000 participants in total, averaging 4,000 participants annually in recent years.

1973 - 1976

• A Learning Resource Center was developed at the agency and a librarian hired to provide guidance and expertise in the use of the materials, which included books and toys for use in working with young children and children with special needs. The materials were available on loan to centers, teachers and early childhood students. 
• The agency also began recruiting and training child care home providers to help meet growing demand, for infants and school age children in particular, and to build quality. The Home Child Care Network remains part of Action for Children’s services today, including administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Child and Adult Care Food Program to provide reimbursement to providers for meals and snacks served to children in their care.  Short-term child care for families coping with serious illness or death, unexpected employment-related situations, sudden loss of child care, or other emergencies was also determined to be a community need during the early years.  Centers and providers were actively recruited to begin providing this service in 1974.      
• By year-end 1976, Hannah Dillard was hired to serve as 4-C’s third executive director. Under her leadership, the agency published a 1977 child care resource directory for the community that included a list of preschools, day care centers, half-day programs, and special needs programs in Franklin County.  Although the directory couldn’t recommend one facility over another, information was provided about child care licensing and how to choose child care. 

1978 - 1984

• In 1979, 4-C’s name was changed to Action for Children in order to convey a clearer message about the agency’s active advocacy role on behalf of young children.  The next year, Margaret Hamilton followed Hannah Dillard as executive director. The agency’s services to the community included child care resource and referral, community needs assessment, training and support for child care centers and home providers, the Home Child Care Network, emergency child care, and Reading Is Fundamental, the first preschool reading program in the nation. 
• In 1983, Diane Bennett, Action for Children’s present executive director, was hired.  One of her first tasks at Action for Children was to conduct a county-wide child care center survey to build a more formal data system for resource and referral.  Since the agency was not yet computerized, teams of volunteers from Junior League of Columbus visited on-site with questionnaires to interview child care center directors. The questionnaire results were assembled by Barry Mastrine and his staff at Metropolitan Human Services Commission so that the data could be used for referral and planning purposes.   
• In 1984, an employer program was added to help area employers plan and implement child care benefits.  The Employer Consulting program continues today, with employers offering child care resource and referral and employee seminars through Action for Children.  The agency’s collaborative community projects and initiatives during that time included Work/Family Directions, the White House Private Sector Initiative and the Partnership Group. 

1985 - 1991

• In 1985, Action for Children became a United Way agency.  That year, the agency started holding directors’ seminars and provider appreciation activities to continue to enhance quality and added a program to help build after-school child care, offering resources to help schools and community groups in central Ohio provide care for school-age children.  In 1986, the agency published Summer Care in area newspapers to help parents find care and camps for their children during the summer months and added PhoneFriend, a telephone support line answered by trained volunteers who provided comforting support for children home alone.
• In order to continue to assess the availability and quality of child care in the community, Action for Children conducted the Child Care in Greater Columbus survey and the Child Care Centers in 1987, followed by the  Pre-Schools: Salaries and Benefits survey in 1988.  Data from these two surveys were compiled with state and national data in Child Care in Columbus: An Economic and Child Care Policy Paper, prepared by Action for Children in 1989 for the Columbus City Council Child Care Task Force. 
• During the late 1980’s, the agency began hosting national speakers to address issues around child care and early education, co-sponsoring its initial effort with the Columbus Metropolitan Club. This activity continues today, with Action for Children often collaborating with other community organizations to bring speakers of national note to the local community.  The agency’s projects and initiatives through 1990 included participation on the City Council Child Care Task Force, the Sullivant Gardens & Windsor Terrace Child Care Project, Public School Involvement in Child Care, and Right From the Start. 

1990 - 1997

• By 1990, two issues were emerging locally and nationally – children in homeless situations and the staffing crisis in the child care workforce.  To provide data to help address these issues at the local level, Action for Children conducted the Community Shelter Board/Homeless Child Care Study and the Child Care Center Salary Survey, which provided data for central Ohio. 
• In 1991, with funds from a six-month capital campaign, Action for Children moved to its present facility at 78 Jefferson – The Cee Cullman Center for Children, named in honor of the agency’s founding mother.  Action for Children’s services and collaborations continued at the local level and, in order to better serve local needs, and the agency was also increasingly involved with advocacy at a state level. In 1993 the Ohio legislature created a statewide child care resource and referral network, the Ohio Child Care Resource and Referral Association (OCCRRA), with Action for Children serving as its home. 
• At the same time, the agency continued to provide data for local planning purposes, beginning in 1991 with the comprehensive Franklin County Child Care Needs Assessment, conducted in partnership with Metropolitan Human Services Commission.  Data from this assessment was used by the Franklin County Child Care Task Force, led by Franklin County Department of Human Services and Action for Children, in preparing a plan for a high quality early care and education system that would be accessible to everyone in the County.  Their recommendations were published in the 1994 Child Care Action Plan for Franklin County.  In addition, the agency published a series of Right From the Start Briefing Papers from 1992 through 1994 and, in conjunction with the Governor’s Commission on Socially Disadvantaged Males, conducted the African American Child Care Needs/Concerns in Greater Columbus survey in 1992.
• Through 1995, the agency’s services grew to include broader resource development activities, workforce recruitment efforts, a Family-to-Family program to support family caregivers, and professional development classes that included leadership, fiscal and management resources.  Community collaborations included the United Services for Effective Parenting (USEP) /Connections and Resource Project, the OSU Infant/Toddler Project, Learning Begins Right From the Start Community Education, the Work/Family Collaboration, the Columbus Housing Partnership, the AT&T Provider Recruitment Project, and AT&T Home Provider Training.  Its special event activities were expanded to raise funds and capture opportunities to keep issues of early childhood in the public awareness.  These activities included national speakers, the Great Ohio Duck Race, kickoffs for Family-to-Family and Child Care Aware, legislative activities, child care rallies, and an employer symposium.
• While maintaining its core services to the community, the agency was working collaboratively on the Open Space Initiative, the Next Generation Policies Work Group Initiative, the Sick Child Task Force Initiative, the Infant/Toddler Project, the Hilltop Youth Partnership Group, the National Center for Social Entrepreneurship Pilot Project, the Home Provider Mentoring Project, AT&T Center Accreditation, Help Me Grow, Mind Mine Seminars, Central Ohio Vocational Alternatives, Health Start Plus, Step Up to Quality, and the Somalian Project – all reflective of the growing complexity of the community surrounding and supporting the well-being of children in central Ohio.  The agency was also continuing to conduct surveys to take the pulse of existing services and availability – the Home Provider Salary Survey, the Neighborhood House Assessment, and the Child Care Center Health and Benefits Survey.

1997 - 2002

• In 1997, Action for Children formed the Seven Generations Circle of Women in 1997, bringing together a group of women philanthropists committed to sharing knowledge and financial resources to support quality child care and early learning. This philanthropic group of women gives both financial resources and expertise in support of Action for Children’s programs and services.  Their initiatives include work/life balance and recruitment, retention and recognition of early childhood professionals.
• In 1997, with early brain research emphasizing the critical importance of a child’s earliest years on success in school and beyond, Action for Children began work with United Way of Central Ohio’s Vision Council on a plan to address the learning needs of children from birth to three.  In 2001, with funding from the Franklin County Department of Job and Family Services, the United Way Start Smart Initiative was formed.  Start Smart sets the stage for children’s growth and development from birth to three through training activities for early childhood professionals and parents and through assistance with national accreditation for child care centers and home providers.  Action for Children is the major provider of these services.
• In 1998, the agency began a series of annual events to raise funds and build cultural bridges through music.  The first was the Boys Choir of Harlem concert in 1998, followed immediately by plans to build a local music event.  Through the efforts of Board members Adam Troy and Ann Pizzuti, Gospel Meets Symphony (GMS) was launched in 2000.  A partnership between The House of Troy Foundation, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Action for Children, GMS brings together amateur vocalists from over fifty churches and community choirs in central Ohio to perform annually at the Ohio Theatre with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.  
• In 2000, Action for Children formed the Circle of Business, a membership group of local companies that are committed to positively influencing work/life balance within their own businesses and the community at large.  In 2002, member companies took part in a nationwide work/life survey of small businesses and large corporations conducted by Boston College. The results are being used locally to encourage participation by area companies in work/life initiatives that will enhance the workforce and bring new business to central Ohio.
• Recognizing that child care centers are challenged to hire and retain qualified employees, Action for Children received funding from United Way of Central Ohio in 2002 to launch Centers that Care.  This innovative program provides a centralized system for finding, identifying and linking qualified early childhood professionals with child care industry employers by recruiting and screening potential child care directors, lead teachers and assistant teachers. 
• In 2002, Action for Children celebrated its 30^th anniversary by moving forward with a strategic plan for the next five years.  In addition, the agency brought The Art of Positive Parenting (TAPP) into its program of education services.  Founded by Columbus resident Mickey Tobin in 1978, the TAPP program is widely recognized as a high quality education program for parents and has been enhanced with a related course, The Art of Positive Teaching, and the addition of a specialized parent education class for parents of children with ADHD.