The last few years have clarified and highlighted the challenges our society faces around the provision of affordable quality child care, particularly home-based child care. While these inequities existed long before the pandemic they were deepened due to missed opportunities for catalytic federal policy change such as passing a permanent Child Tax Credit.

As we look to solutions which support child care providers, parents and the children who need care we must understand that what is needed is a combination of resources & supports that involve reforming current subsidies or creating new ones to support affordable child care alongside direct cash supports to provider in the form of ongoing substantive income supports (e.g. guaranteed income).

Organizations around the country have supported a variety of direct cash payments to diverse populations around the country, including pilots and programs involving child care providers. This approach can be a powerful tool to address provider compensation but getting to the policy solution will take active, ongoing policy advocacy fueled by the outcomes of these numerous programs.

Watch the AFN webinar held on June 14, 2023 to gain a deeper understanding of:

  • The need for and opportunities for connecting/integrating income supports + asset building opportunities for child care providers
  • How ongoing unrestricted cash supports are changing the financial health of home based child care providers
  • Longer-term policy solutions which advance both income + asset building supports
  • Philanthropy’s role in supporting these long-term policy solutions
SPEAKERS

Jessica Cafferty, King County
Alexandra Patterson, Home Grown
Natalie Renew, Home Grown
Krista Scott, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Speaker Bios

RESOURCES