Model and Strategy
The COVID-19 crisis brought to the forefront the reality that access to quality child care is essential to combatting inequities in our community. As we rebuild, we are faced with an unprecedented opportunity to create a more inclusive and equitable child care system that in turn supports a Bay Area workforce that is diverse and stable. Children’s Council of San Francisco is working to bring back our childcare sector better by:
SUPPORTING HOME-BASED CHILD CARE BUSINESSES to launch and grow sustainably. Children’s Council wants to ensure that our child care small business community not only survives this moment, but is re-established and rebuilt in ways that make the industry more sustainable for the predominantly low-income, immigrant women of color that run these Bay Area businesses. Our Family Child Care Business Incubator enables low-income women of color to earn livable wages and run profitable child care businesses, thus enhancing their financial stability, contributing to the local economy, preserving the racial and cultural identity of our neighborhoods, and enabling parents to work and provide for their families.
In the next 1-2 years we will serve 200+ prospective and existing microentrepreneurs through our Family Child Care Fundamentals series that includes training, technical assistance, coaching and peer support, with the intent of bringing 25% forward to licensure and launch of a child care business. We also will recruit 80 prospective early educators to our Black Early Educator Pipeline pilot program, offering them free and reduced cost early education credentials that allow them to secure jobs in classrooms.
MOBILIZING OUR NETWORK to advocate for equitable, inclusive spending plans of historic government investments. In partnership with Parent Voices San Francisco, Children’s Council is organizing a network of parents, educators, and community organizations to influence appropriations of $120+ million in both San Francisco City & County general fund and “Baby” Proposition C fund dollars via our joint “SF Kids Can’t Wait” Campaign. A specific target is to secure $3 million in local funding to engage in targeted outreach, recruitment and retention of the ECE workforce, with a focus on currently unlicensed BIPOC providers.
We also will engage Parent Voices’ 350 members and the San Francisco ECE Advocacy Coalition (co-founded and -led by Children’s Council) in the critical strategic planning process under way by our government partners to ensure that the city’s most vulnerable families and children are served through a multi-modal, family-choice-driven service delivery model.
Impact
If Children’s Council’s work to build back our child care sector better is successful, funding will be invested in rebuilding and ensuring that child care providers keep their doors open and even launch new businesses during the pandemic and beyond.
We have reason to be optimistic. After years of city underfunding for the ECE sector – and through a concerted 4-year advocacy and organizing effort – Children’s Council and Parent Voices San Francisco, in partnership with the San Francisco ECE Advocacy Coalition, successfully got ‘Baby’ Proposition C on the ballot, advocated for its narrow passage in June 2018, and supported the legal defense of the measure through formal filing of an amicus brief to the California Appeals Court, securing $120+ million annually for early care and education.
And, since its inception in 2019, our Family Child Care Business Incubator has launched 44 new child care businesses in San Francisco. Many of these opened during the pandemic and many reached full enrollment within a few months of opening their doors.
Over the long-term, we will ensure that families of color, particularly low-income working families, have access to child care services that enable them to pursue opportunity. And, we will ensure that more vulnerable children under 5 years of age have access to nurturing care during critical years of brain development, setting them up for success in school and in life.
Leadership
-
Gina M. Fromer
Chief Executive Officer
-
Yvette Renteria
Chief Strategy & Impact Officer