In the broadest sense community-based child care resource and referral defines its mission as "doing whatever it takes to make child care work for families and communities". 
The specific services that each CCR&R offers as it pursues this mission are determined by community needs and by the structures and activities that local leaders and planners envision and develop. The many different community-based CCR&R activities fall into one of four central categories:

• Supporting families in the most important roles of nurturing their children and balancing the demands of family and work;
  
• Compiling, analyzing and sharing information with parents, child care providers and communities;
  
• Supporting individuals and programs that care for children;
  
• Building connections in communities and states to create appropriate policies on family and children's issues and to generate additional resources for child care.