WECAN’s mission is to foster a new cultural impulse for the work with the young child from pre-birth to age seven. Based on an anthroposophical understanding of human development, WECAN is committed to protecting and nurturing childhood as a foundation for renewing human culture.

WECAN provides direct dialogue with early childhood educators and their colleagues about the programs they design in institutions and in homes, and about how they define and develop their roles and their work with parents.   Site visits, regional gatherings, and conferences allow WECAN to research and harvest the current needs of programs in the vast geography of the USA and in Canada.  Its activity is currently limited in Mexico and they look forward to offering more support there in the future.

WECAN is the publisher of resource materials for Waldorf early childhood educators. WECAN seeks out the resources needed by early childhood teachers and publishes both original material and occasional translations from other languages in a wide range of areas, including child development, resources on mentoring and teacher review, practical activities for parent/child, nursery and kindergarten classes, and much more. 

WECAN brings together collaborative research groups to focus on issues of concern in the Waldorf early childhood movement. These have included groups working on birth to three and childcare, meeting the needs of the older child in kindergarten, mentoring, teacher review, the transition from kindergarten to school, and work with medical doctors.