The Child Care Action Council of Thurston County

The Child Care Action Council (CCAC) was founded in 1987 by a group of parents, child care professionals, employers, school and government representatives, and community members concerned about the inadequacies in our community's child care system. Our mission is to nurture and promote early learning communities where children and families thrive with a vision of communities where children are the focus, quality child care is accessible for all, professional development for providers result in high quality child care, communities are engaged in supporting child care and early learning, and parent education and support is provided.

CCAC serves the Olympic Peninsula and the South Sound through three types of effective, equitable, evidence-based programming aimed to support child care providers and families of young children. These include Early Achievers (EA) work, Family Services, and our Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) preschools. We are the designated agency to administer the Child Care Aware of Washington EA program in six counties - Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Kitsap, Mason, and Thurston. Services focus on licensed child care providers to deliver high-quality care by supporting continuous improvement efforts and providing on-site consultation and coaching, continuing Professional Development, and Infant-Toddler Mental Health Consultation.

CCAC’s eight Family Services programs support parents, relatives, and other caregivers to ensure that all children obtain the skills needed to enter kindergarten and thrive in Thurston, Mason, and Grays Harbor counties. These programs include Raising a Reader, BLOCK Fest, Kaleidoscope Play and Learn groups, Parents as Teachers, Safe Kids Thurston County, Caring Kids, Margie’s Crisis Nursery, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. We target outreach to under-served populations including low-income, non-English speakers, and rural communities. 

CCAC also operates two ECEAP preschool centers in Thurston and Mason counties. These centers serve over 160 children and their parents. ECEAP is a free early learning program that supports child development and learning for families furthest from opportunity. Eligible children are from families with income at or below 36% of the State Median Income; qualify for school district special services; are experiencing homelessness; are in foster care, kinship care, or adopted after foster or kinship care.