Southwest Key's first program efforts centered around treatment services for delinquent and troubled youth and much of our work today involves that population of children and families in need. However, our work with troubled youth over the years has stimulated an interest and a desire to expand our focus to include more preventative work with young children, so that we may work at the other end of the continuum and ameliorate the conditions that contribute to delinquency.

The CCM project is of great interest to Southwest Key for many reasons. The links between the quality of early child care and future success for children is well documented. Southwest Key is very eager to direct our efforts at improving the quality of child care towards these ends, and we are especially committed to the Cameron County area. In the Native American culture it is said that when you impact the life of a child, you impact the lives of seven generations forward. Southwest Key's goal is to improve the lives of as many children and families as possible, and we believe that in doing so we will change the world in a positive way.

We are an organization of doers and dreamers, and we believe we must use all of our creative talents to overcome the barriers and the conditions that create poverty, hopelessness and crime. For these and many other reasons, Southwest Key will dedicate our energies to manage the CCM in a cost-effective and efficient manner, improve the system wherever possible, and bring additional resources to the project to enhance the availability and quality of child care services for those in need of such services.

Our Vision

• We envision a program that is able to locate appropriate and high-quality child care for every eligible child.
• We envision a seamless partnership between child care providers, social service agencies, local government and private business that produces creative and innovative child care services that meet the needs of local communities.
• We envision a high level of visibility surrounding issues related to child care and the needs of our children, and a corresponding emphasis on public education and parental involvement.
• We envision an increased value placed on the importance of child care as a career, and corresponding wage and benefit increases that are linked to higher levels of training and education.
  

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