City of Des Moines issued the following announcement on Nov. 17.
Child care businesses, major philanthropic organizaons and local companies have come together to launch the All In WA Child Care Iniave , with the goal of raising $10 million to expand access to affordable, quality child care for the state’s most impacted working families. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, half a million children in Washington state lacked access to licensed care; now, demand for consistent child care has spiked, parcularly as school closures connue. The Iniave will priorize support for families and child care business owners who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), as well as those located in rural and remote areas, given people of color and rural residents make up a higher percentage of the essenal workforce and have been disproporonately impacted by COVID-19.
“The pandemic has intensified long-exisng inequies that threaten the health, livelihoods, and security of countless families,” said Jan Dosh, an Early Achievers Implementaon Coordinator, CCACW. “The impacts of COVID-19 have also increased the risk of closures and layoffs - an alarming fact given over half of licensed family child care owners in Central and Eastern WA are women of color. These courageous and caring professionals are the backbone of a most essenal business serving the most vulnerable and valuable members of our state: our children. If we wish to combat this crisis efficiently and equitably, we must priorize helping a disproporonately impacted workforce and the families they support.”
COVID-19 social distancing restricons has led to a statewide 47% drop in enrollment in licensed care, resulng in significant revenue reducons for child care businesses. Simultaneously, businesses are also taking on new expenses in order to comply with COVID-19 health and safety standards. Already, 16% of providers have closed and 48% report that they are at risk of closure, while 44% of early educators in the child care workforce have been laid off or furloughed.
“Our staff are working diligently and relessly with child care providers across the state to support families under significant stress in the face of the COVID-19 crisis – but the fact is, as unprecedented need increases, our providers will need more support,” said Deeann Burtch Puffert, CEO of Child Care Aware Washington. “The Child Care Iniave will help rebuild our child care industry – with an eye to helping BIPOC families and child care providers who have been systemically impacted by support gaps. The boom line is that we need to urgently direct resources to address this crisis so no parent should have to struggle between their ability to secure care for their children and financially provide their family’s needs.”
The Iniave has garnered support from major philanthropic organizaons and investment companies including Ballmer Group (co-founded by Connie and Steve Ballmer), Pivotal Ventures (founded by Melinda Gates), Perigee Fund (founded by Lisa Mennet), and the Why Not You Foundaon (founded by Ciara and Russell Wilson), as well as Puget Sound Energy who has contributed $300,000 to the Iniave. Contribuons to the Child Care Iniave currently total $5.1 million. Funds will help to close revenue gaps for child care businesses, help providers purchase supplies and equipment to meet new COVID-19 guidelines, and provide financial aid to impacted families - parcularly essenal workers - who are not eligible for public subsidy.
“This pandemic has exacerbated exisng inequies in the caregiving system,” said Melinda Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures. “Washington’s families, and especially our essenal workers, are struggling to manage work and care for their children, especially with school closures. Making sure families have access to child care is essenal for an equitable recovery, and All In WA’s Child Care Iniave will help by geng much-needed resources to the women and BIPOC-led child care businesses that need them most.”
"The future of our state is our children. How we provide and care for them says everything about who we are,” said Connie Ballmer, Co-Founder of the Ballmer Group. “That's why we are supporng the Child Care Iniave – because the stability of enre generaons of families depends on the acon we take now. Now is the me for leaders across our public, private, and philanthropic sectors to step up and urgently direct resources to our child care industry so that families are not le to weather this crisis alone.” “
Quality child care is crical to early childhood development - so the pandemic’s devastang impacts on our child care industry should concern us all,” said the founder of Perigee Fund, Lisa Mennet, PhD. “That is why the Child Care Iniave is so important - so we can ensure crucial care for every child at the most formave stages of their lives. The longer we delay a response, the more that young children and their working parents - especially women and people or color - will connue to disproporonately feel the impacts of this crisis."
“Our Foundaon’s mission has always been to ensure that all youth receive opportunies and tools necessary to live up to their full potenal, inside and outside the home,” said Ciara, Co-Founder of the Why Not You Foundaon. “The pandemic has made it even more apparent that we need to work together to provide for those in need in our community. The Childcare Iniave will help provide relief to families and mostly female business owners who have been facing what seems like insurmountable odds.”
“Comming to expanding child care access means comming to the well-being of employees and their families,” said Mary Kipp, CEO of Puget Sound Energy. “Quality child care is crical to making sure working parents, especially our essenal workers, have what they need to care for their families during unprecedented mes. We’re proud to contribute to the Child Care Iniave effort and the ways it will expand assistance for both families and the incredible child care businesses who support them every day.”
The Child Care Iniave is hosted by Seale Foundaon and All In WA - a coordinated, statewide relief effort of nonprofits, community leaders, businesses and philanthropies that support workers and families who have been acutely affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Donaons are sll eligible for an All In WA match thanks to Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos - who has pledged to match individual donaons up to $1 million per unique donor. Applicaons will open on December 7 for licensed child care centers serving high concentraons of children of color in Washington State, with a focus on rural and remote communies.
The applicaon window for organizaons serving licensed home-based child care businesses closed on November 13, and grant recipients will be announced in mid-December.
To contribute directly to the Child Care Iniave or to apply for a grant, visit hps://allinwa.org/child-care-iniave/ .
Original source can be found here.
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