About Educare Chicago

As the first school in the Educare Network, Educare Chicago, a directly operated program of Start Early, has been a pioneer and innovator in early childhood education from the very beginning. Since 2000, Educare Chicago has partnered with parents to build strong bonds with their children, better understand their children’s developmental needs and connect them to resources so that their children grow up healthy and ready to learn.

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The Founding of Educare Chicago

On Chicago’s South Side, the Robert Taylor Homes housed nearly 30,000 families in only 8 square blocks. Families in the Robert Taylor Homes needed access to a number of social services – healthcare, family support, and early learning to name a few. To address this lack of access, Start Early founded the Beethoven Project in 1986.

In the late 1990’s, the city of Chicago began tearing down the Robert Taylor Homes. As an answer to the loss of community-based services spaces, Start Early took their learnings from the Beethoven Project and began focusing on developing their own permanent center-based early childhood education facility.

The doors of Educare Chicago opened to the families of Grand Boulevard in January of 2000.

The Educare Network

Three years after Educare Chicago opened, Start Early joined forces with the Buffett Early Childhood Fund to expand Educare to more communities and help narrow the opportunity gap for children across the country, successfully launching the Educare Network.

Educare Network is now comprised of dozens of schools, located in communities across the country. The network helps guide strategy, amplifies innovation, shares best practices and advances policy to expand access to quality early education for children, families and communities nationwide.

Educare Chicago Now

Educare Chicago’s commitment to being a community-connector and quality early education and family services provider has grown and expanded since our founding. With a continued focus on providing best-in-class programming – inclusive of children with diverse learning needs – Educare works daily on ways to better serve the children and families in the areas we operate.