The Recovery Act will invest $1.1 billion in Early Head Start programs, which will include up to 10 percent for training and technical assistance and up to3 percent for monitoring. While nearly $354 million will be allocated to improve staff compensation and training under the Child Care and Development Block Grants, a clear message from the Obama Administration is that quality early care and education programs are a priority.
But nothing seems to highlight the importance of quality child care more than Mrs. Obama’s emphasis on quality child care. Her simple act of prioritizing quality child care affirms the Collaborative’s mission of addressing the lack of affordable, quality child care–a challenge that stretches far beyond low-income communities and into the home of every working family. Her recognition validates what we collectively believe: access to high quality child care is critical for long-term sustainable changes within our workforce, and in the future educational attainment of our children.
Last Monday, Mrs. Obama stated at the Brookings Institute that, “High-quality child care slots are limited, or too expensive for many families. For those parents who work weekend or evening hours, there are often no child care options outside of piecing together care from friends and nearby family.”
Low-income single mothers in focus groups we convened confirmed that one of the key problems to keeping their current employment is maintaining consistent, affordable and high-quality child care.
Without child care, women cannot work!
But care must also be high quality. There is resounding research that children’s healthy development is helped by high-quality 0- 5 programs. Equally critical is the support parents receive to become effective parents.
With so much public effort in promoting quality programs to support the very young, The Women’s Foundation’s community is rising to the challenge to leverage and support these activities.
To that end, today, the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative releases a Request for Proposals for Access and Quality Grants. Through these grants, the Collaborative continues to seek ways to invest in organizations committed to implementing effective strategies that can promote, ensure and sustain opportunities to expand access and improve the quality of services for low-income families and their young children by promoting systems reform.
The Collaborative has identified strategies including promoting systems reform, implementing changes in early care and education practices, and investing in public education effort to increase the public will for early care and education as priorities.
The Collaborative’s mission is threefold:
- To increase the capacity and institutional stability of early care and education programs in the region;
- To enable these entities to develop and manage their resources more effectively; and,
- To improve early care and education programs through grantmaking, training and technical assistance.
In keeping with this mission, the Collaborative’s goals are to:
- Encourage and strengthen partnership(s) among key early care and education stakeholders to promote and/or advocate for systemic change;
- Support systemic changes in early care and education programs that will improve early learning and ensure the access to and quality of care among young children (ages 0 to 5).;
- Promote early care and education programs working towards long-term sustainable systemic reforms; and,
- Strengthen the capacity of early care and education professionals by investing in training and technical assistance for Grantee Partners.
In January, the Collaborative funded six programs invested in systemic change.
Background of the Early Care and Education Funders Collaborative
Washington Area Women’s Foundation established the Collaborative to meet the pressing social and economic needs of low-income families by focusing on improved access to quality early care and education for low-income families in the Washington metropolitan area. A multi-year, multi-million dollar collective funding effort, the Collaborative is supported and directed by corporate funders and local and national foundations. Members of the Collaborative believe that strategic efforts can create meaningful systemic change in early care and education by improving the access to quality services and influencing public decisions.
For additional information about the RFP, click here.
HyeSook Chung is The Women’s Foundation’s Early Care and Education Program Officer.