United 4 Children

Child and adult Care food programs: United 4 Children is the largest sponsoring agency, through a contract with the Missouri department of health and senior services, for the Child and adult Care food program of the United states department of agriculture (usda). This program encourages healthy nutrition by educating home childcare providers and reimbursing them for healthy meals served. United 4 Children is reimbursed for its program management and administrative expenses by usda funding, administered by the Missouri department of health and senior services. United 4 Children was a sponsoring agency for home childcare providers through a contract with the Illinois state board of education until september 2022. The agency ended its Illinois contract to strategically focus on expanding reach in Missouri, where the agency operates and holds more relationships.

Inclusion services: United 4 Children receives contract payments to implement inclusion referral and training for early childhood programs. Inclusion specialists work with teachers and parents to address a spectrum of extraordinary needs, develop best practices for inclusive Care, and conduct trainings, improving the quality and availability of inclusive Care throughout the state of Missouri.

Quality services: United 4 Children receives contract payments to implement two programs. The social emotional early childhood competencies program teaches classroom teachers strategies to address challenging behaviors in preschool environments. The non-public afterschool project funded by the mental health board provides training and on-site coaching to promote program quality improvement and staff professional development in early childcare settings. Due to funding changes in the St. Louis city and state changes to public afterschool funding, United 4 Children saw reduced funding for the non-public and public afterschool programming in the city of St. Louis for 2022.united 4 Children receives contract payments to implement programs achieving quality in the normandy area, which provides training and on-site coaching to promote program quality improvement and staff professional development in early childcare settings.