Tiffany West
Tiffany West is a childcare owner, educator, and advocate for trauma-informed early childhood education based in Newington, Connecticut. She is the founder and director of Around the Clock 4 Tots LLC, a childcare center created to support working families through flexible, structured, and developmentally focused care for young children. With more than 14 years of experience in childcare and early childhood environments, she has built her career around supporting children’s emotional development, behavior guidance, and foundational learning during their most formative years.
Her professional philosophy is deeply shaped by both lived experience and academic study. After her family personally faced childhood trauma, she returned to higher education to study developmental psychology and crisis counseling at Liberty University. This experience strengthened her commitment to trauma-informed care, where children are viewed as individuals still learning how to understand and regulate their emotions. In her leadership approach, she emphasizes patience, emotional awareness, and supportive guidance, training her staff to respond to children with empathy rather than punishment when they struggle with feelings or behavior.
In addition to operating her childcare center, Tiffany is actively involved in community service and family support initiatives, including organizing holiday outreach programs through Project Legacy Inc. She balances her leadership role with ongoing education and family responsibilities, including parenting. Looking ahead, she aims to expand her impact by developing training and curriculum resources to help other educators implement trauma-informed practices in schools and childcare settings, ensuring children receive emotionally safe and supportive learning environments.
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to God and my faith. The best advice I've received is not to give up, because if God brought you to it, he will bring you through it. Even when things get really hard, like right now when I'm struggling to take care of my family while building my business, I hold onto that. God keeps showing me and telling me and reminding me that what I'm working toward is coming. That faith keeps me going through these long days and nights.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is not to give up, because if God brought you to it, he will bring you through it. I've been told multiple times not to get comfortable because we're just passing through. This advice has carried me through some really difficult times, especially now as I'm building my childcare center and facing challenges. When things get hard, I remember that God keeps showing me, telling me, and reminding me to keep going, and that what I'm working toward is coming.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
God and my faith are at the center of everything I do. My desire to work with children and have a meaningful impact on their lives drives me every day. I love to serve, whether that's through my childcare center, teaching children how to navigate their emotions, or through the non-profit work I do with my community. Family is incredibly important to me - I have seven children, including twins who I homeschool now, and my son's trauma experience is what pushed me to go back to school so I could better help him and other children. I believe in meeting people where they are, teaching with compassion instead of frustration, and making sure children don't feel bad for having emotions. Service, faith, family, and making a real difference in children's lives - those are the values that guide everything I do.
Locations
Around The Clock 4 Tots LLC
Hartford, CT 06120