We Support Early Child Care and Youth Programs Serving Children Up to Age 13

Positive experiences with parents and caregivers give children a sense of security and contentment, facilitate positive social interactions, and enable the steady development of critical competencies and skills for life. Our United 4 Children services are committed to partnering to provide this sense of security and contentment through:

Coaching for Child Care and Youth Program Educators: United 4 Children provides individualized support for the completion of Quality Action Plan goals based on the Program Administration Scale, Business Administration Scale, Conscious Discipline rubrics, Environmental Rating Scales, and/or our observation of classroom activities.

Education for Child Care and Youth Program Educators: United 4 Children creates and offers customized professional development opportunities that are MO workshop-approved trainings. We also host an annual conference.

Child Care Program Quality Enhancement: We also offer resource development, referrals, and additional supportive services outside of United 4 Children’s specific programming. Progress monitoring of the environment, business practices and teacher assessments.  

Investing in Children’s Well-Being: We provide a variety of classroom supports, funding, and educational tools. We partner with educators to provide nutritious meals.

Engaging Community Leaders Across the State: United 4 Children partners with a variety of Community Leaders throughout the state, providers, and resources to ensure all families served obtain the support they need. 

Child Care Inclusion Services: Our United 4 Children team provides resource and referral, technical assistance, coaching, education, and evaluation services to help families locate and select child care meeting their unique needs. Specialists are dedicated to giving the best care to ALL children, including children with social emotional and developmental concerns, challenging behaviors, or disabilities. This is available to any child, child care provider, or family seeking assistance to address behaviors or unique needs in child care settings in the State of Missouri.  

Partnering with Early Educators for Success 

For Jessica Black Gant, director and owner of Jessie B’s Academy, knowing the long-term impact of her role in each child’s life brings her joy. 

“To see what I teach them and for them to implement it makes my heart smile. I’m raising the next doctors and lawyers of St. Louis,” Jessica said. “The first five years of a child’s life is most critical. We have to have teachers and people who want to give back to the kids and give back to the next generation.” 

Jessie B’s received accreditation for her program in 2023. Accreditation is not required for child care programs to legally operate, however, some programs make accreditation part of their goals because it signals to families that a program goes above and beyond to provide high-quality care.  

Our team worked closely with Jessica and her team while they were preparing their program for the accreditation process. Accreditation was just one of Jessie B’s Academy’s goals. United 4 Children has partnered with Jessie B’s for a few years to provide additional resources and wrap-around support. 

“They (United 4 Children) gave us coaching along the way, supplies to help us grow, and they were always a phone call away if we felt like we needed help with something,” Jessica said.