Child Care Resource & Referral of Kalamazoo was established as a Not for Profit business in 1973.  CCR&R mission was to provide support and education to the early childhood community, assist parents in their search for local child care options available to them, and to support local businesses who were supporting their employees with work life balance needs.  In 1998 CCR&R shortened their name to Child Care Resources and has been doing business as CCR since that time.  The mission remained the same to support the child care community, parents and businesses.  As of 2018 CCR added Southwest to their name to better describe the area that the agency serves and updated the mission. 

Child Care Resources modified the name to be Southwest Child Care Resources and updated the mission of SWCCR to be:  To promote quality care and education for all children by connecting providers and families with community and resources.

Southwest Child Care Resources has the privilege of serving 9 counties which are: Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren.

In 1980 a formal state-side system was established call the Michigan 4C’s.  The Michigan 4C’s was created to coordinate and support the 14 local Child Care Resource & Referral agencies across Michigan.  The 4C’s stood for Community, Coordinated Child Care.  In 2010 the Michigan 4C’s was disbanded and the Early Childhood Investment Corporation became the state-wide coordinating organization.

In 2009 SWCCR was awarded the funding to run and manage the Great Start to Quality Resource Center.  The Resource Center contract provides training and technical assistance to child care providers across all settings:  Centers, Home based programs and licensed exempt programs.  The contract also provides funding to assist parents in finding quality child care programing for their children while they are at work or school through consultation or a computer-based system.

Today, SWCCR is the primary source of required, basic and advanced training for child care providers.  SWCCR coordinates and offers a wide variety of training from an Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship program to monthly 3-hour workshops on child development to literacy and movement, and many more child care topics.  SWCCR has a staff of 8 Quality Improvement Specialists and Consultants who work one on one with providers in their journey to improve the care they are providing our children.  SWCCR is the hub for information, resources, and strategies to create quality and affordable childcare options for families throughout Southwest Michigan.