Family & Childcare
The Kansas City metro's family-support landscape includes several institutions with real federal and national distinctions, on both the Missouri and Kansas sides of the state line -- from a family agency dating to 1880 to a federally designated developmental-disabilities center at UMKC.
The Family Conservancy
Based in Kansas City, Kansas, The Family Conservancy traces its roots to 1880, when Father William J. Dalton and 19 civic leaders founded the Provident Association -- making it one of the bi-state metro's longest continuously operating family-service agencies, still providing counseling, early-childhood, and crisis services today.
Operation Breakthrough
Founded in 1971 in Kansas City's urban core, Operation Breakthrough is one of the largest single-site early-education and social-services facilities in Missouri, serving about 400 children daily alongside wraparound family support services.
Ronald McDonald House of Kansas City
In June 2023, three Ronald McDonald Houses in Kansas City, Missouri earned the UL Verified Healthy Building Mark for Indoor Air, a national certification that required on-site assessment of HVAC, ventilation, filtration, and hygiene protocols at the family lodging facilities that serve families of hospitalized children.
UMKC Institute for Human Development
Housed at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, the Institute for Human Development is Missouri's sole federally designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act -- one of only 67 such centers nationwide, one per state and territory.