The Families Matter series of papers from the Harvard Family Research Project advances the concept of family-centered child care, advocating an approach to early childhood education that addresses the development of the child and family together. Grounded in family support principles, which build on family strengths and work from a community's culture and resources, family-centered child care incorporates positive attitudes about working with parents and practical activities to serve the family. Asserting that a key place to promote widespread use of family support principles and practices is through the child care training system, the papers that make up the series focus on how the child care field trains providers to include family support. This paper defines the characteristics of family support in the child care context, highlights research showing the need for provider training to raise the quality of programs, and discusses five topics for training child care providers in family support. The paper then outlines the structure of the child care delivery system, which encompasses the purchase-of-service system, Head Start, and public schools--each of which has distinct training requirements and separate funding. The paper also looks at Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) and colleges as training providers and the ideals of state career development planning groups. One theme of the paper is the need to develop one cohesive training system enabling providers to cross from one child care setting to another and to move laterally to other family-supportive disciplines. Contains 51 references. (EV)