The University of Pennsylvania opened The Parent-Infant Center (PIC) in 1978 to serve infants and toddlers who were too young for its campus preschool program. A year later, when the University decided to close PIC, parents incorporated the center as an independent, nonprofit organization. Housed on the grounds of the former Episcopal Divinity School of Philadelphia, we have been at our present location since 1986.

In 1983 we began serving children in publicly financed care, and in 1986 we established a scholarship fund to assist families whose income is too high for public funding, but who cannot manage the full cost of child care. Responding to the need for school-age child care, we opened the After School Center in 1992 for grades K-6.

Since 1997, we have been accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. In 2002, our After School Center was the first school-age program in the Delaware Valley to achieve accreditation by the National School Age Childcare Alliance.