Success Stories

Confidence to Achieve More With the onset of YoungStar for school-age programs and brand new to the process, CAP CARE decided to focus on ensuring that they received a 3 star rating in their first year of participation. What came as a pleasant surprise was the encouragement and confidence of their technical consultant to go through the formal rating process to earn 4 stars. “Although the initial thought of becoming a 4 star program seemed overwhelming, the YoungStar progra...

Getting Started Ivelisse Crespo came to the United States from Puerto Rico with a college degree and a passion for working with young children. After struggling to find work as a non-English speaker, Ivelisse eventually decided to start her own child care program. Her program was licensed in April of 2001 and she built her clientele by word of mouth. Ivelisse worked with YoungStar through the process of setting up and refining her program environment and took advantage of th...

A Great Start Ana Rojas began her journey towards YoungStar when she joined forces with her mother in 2005 to open a family child care. By 2007, they had such a long waiting list for enrollment that they decided to open a group child care program named, DeColores. DeColores now has a 28 child capacity with infant, toddler, and preschool rooms. Right away, Ana encouraged her staff to continue their education by getting their Associate’s Degrees. “The staff was kind of afr...

On the Rise Sahera Abukhamireh has come a long way since her center program, Kids N’ Care, was first featured as a “Rising Star.” Sahera launched Kids N’ Care in January of 2000, with her two boys and three other children. She chose a building that was once a house because she wanted going to school to, “feel like a second home” for children and their families. Gaining recognition as a child care program and as a provider was an uphill battle. Sahera started by i...

Beginnings When Kari Sanders and her husband Travis could not find child care in the area to meet their needs, they decided to make a change. Both were working full-time at odd hours and Kari’s mother sometimes had to come over at 4:30 in the morning to watch their children. “We fought our way through it,” says Kari. “I thought, there has to be something better than this.” So together, they ensured that there was. Kari and her husband opened a certified family chil...