A group of Denver child care providers came together in 1970 to create the Metropolitan Denver Child Care Association with the support of Mile High United Way (MHUW) and the City and County of Denver. In 1972, this consortium was incorporated as Mile High Child Care to provide affordable, accessible quality early childhood care and education for children of low income, working parents. Now named Mile High Montessori Early Learning Centers’ (MHM), our programs and scope of services have evolved to meet the changing needs of the community and incorporate the most recent knowledge in the field. In 1998, the agency adopted the Montessori Method of education. For close to 20 years, MHM has also been delivering critically needed health and social services to complement its high quality early education program as part of Head Start and Early Head Start. MHM’s program, although comparable to many highly successful elite programs, is distinctive because it operates in low income neighborhoods, serves a diverse ethnic and racial mix of children and families, and uses a Montessori inspired instructional approach. Today, MHM is Denver’s oldest and largest provider of subsidized early childhood education and care, offering year-round programs in five centers serving Denver’s poorest neighborhoods and reaching informal care providers through unique programming.
