This year, we are celebrating 150 years of serving children and families through our work to enrich communities, one family at a time. If our organization alone is any indication… A LOT can happen in 150 years. The child welfare and educational landscapes have been rapidly changing in response to the shifting and increasing needs of children and families. As such, we have continued to grow our programming and our footprint throughout the Mid-Atlantic region (and more recently, nationally!) to meet these expanded needs.
As we reflected on our history and contemplated our bright future, one thing become clear: the name “Board of Child Care” no longer represents the vast array of services we offer. So, we are thrilled to unveil this exciting milestone in our organization’s 150-year journey of compassion and support!
While our name may be changing, we remain committed to enriching communities, one family at a time. Our holistic range of residential, mental and behavioral health support, trauma recovery, case management, and educational services will continue to grow and expand.
Effective May 24, 2024 our email addresses and website links will change:
Any messages you send to our existing @boardofchildcare.org email accounts will still get delivered, but any emails we send will come from our everstand.org. Just the second half of our email accounts are changing. The text before the @ remains the same.
Regarding our website, any links you have bookmarked or use for www.boardofchildcare.org will still work. Visitors who click those links will be redirected to that same content on our new website.
The name “Board of Child Care” no longer represents the vast array of services we offer. It is often confused by the public as a daycare center or government agency, we find we spend more time explaining what we are NOT, rather than celebrating what we provide.
To unlock our brand’s potential for its next 150 years of enriching communities, empowering imagery paired with a strong name is needed to reach a new generation of families, referring agents, social work professionals and stakeholders.
A brand is far more than just a name. Its foundation lies in a combination of colors, logo, imagery, tagline, tone, and many other elements. Together, these bring forward a brand’s personality and values to stakeholders and consumers. We are pursuing a fresh brand identity as part of our renaming launch.
"Enriching communities, one family at a time,” is a powerful statement. It captures the way we help families and communities through our vast array of programs and services. It is our north star that guides all our decisions. Our current purpose, core values, commitment to diversity and inclusion, and leadership mindset statements ARE NOT changing as part of this project. Our focus on providing programming for children and families is not changing.
Our new name will go live to the world on Friday, May 24, 2024. Board of Child Care email accounts will begin sending email as the new name on this date, however, any emails sent to current @boardofchildcare.org emails will still get delivered.
We do not anticipate any changes to specific program names as part of this project (e.g. Lotus, Caminos, Strawbridge, SWAN) as part of the new name. Caminos®, for example, is one of our trademarks.
Our 150-year history is deeply rooted in faith. First founded as a series of orphanages operated by the United Methodist Church, “Board of Child Care” would later be established as a separate, stand-alone non-profit organization with an independent Board of Directors and our own Federal tax ID number. That structure remains in place today.
We have grown to where we are today in many respects thanks to the steadfast support of so many United Methodist Churches, faith groups, and individuals. Nothing about our organizational structure will change with this renaming, and we continue to be incredibly grateful for the support of all faith-based communities.
We will also maintain its EAGLE accreditation, provided by the United Methodist Association, which is the only faith-based accreditation available to child welfare agencies nationally.
We are pursuing a “doing business as” strategy, or DBA, for this renaming. Our intention is to maintain our legal name of “Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church, Inc.” to provide easier continuity with our operating licenses, state and federal databases, state and federal registrations, trademark office, our finance and HR teams, and referral sources. This will also drastically lower the cost of the renaming project itself. Adding a legal name change on top of a branded rename would be hugely expensive and disruptive. Our Federal EIN remains unchanged as 52-0591554.