蜜桃影视

Top Takeaways is a series of recaps from important conversations, town halls, webinars and virtual events about early learning.

, a new project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), elevates the experiences of families and caregivers and children. Part of this work involved partnering with IDEO.org to launch the Care Constellation – an initiative that 鈥渇unds and supports families, care providers and mobilizers who are leading a quiet revolution in child care.鈥�

On July 15, three child care mobilizers who responded to the shared their visions in a Zoom conversation. Here are some takeaways.

Chi Offomah, Care Constellation program lead at IDEO.org, led off, describing the work of 鈥渃entering kids, families and communities in tough circumstances.鈥� She said the conversation would highlight 鈥渃ultural beliefs and rituals that get in the way of the world we want to live in.鈥�

In her remarks, Krista Scott, senior program officer at RWJF, said reimagining child care entails working to ensure care systems support the wide variety of shapes families take; changing our current systems 鈥� and creating new ones鈥攖o incorporate family and kid voices and to聽 respond to care worker needs; and using community organizing and coalition building to shift power and build capacity.

1. 鈥淐aregivers are selfless people who give give give,鈥� said Julia Arroyo of , who recalled her own experience in the foster system and the juvenile detention system. 鈥淲hen I think of the word caregiver,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 think it has to include the first person who holds you in their belly.鈥� Mothers without a secure social network, she said, often fear the idea of letting someone care for their children. The question, she said, is 鈥�How can I trust so that I can rest?鈥� In response, her organization focuses on building agency and self-determination through:

• Holding celebrations called 鈥淚 Got You Days鈥� to mark transitions
• Hiring young women from the population they serve, 鈥渟o people can see reflections of themselves鈥�
• Advocacy on issues such as the and the so-called .
• Storytelling, not as confessions but to 鈥渟hift the narrative鈥�; for example, participants share their birthing stories
• Participatory research (discover the )

2. 鈥淏e more vulnerable with the community you have,鈥� advised zahra alabanza of Atlanta鈥檚 GoldenSeed Collective. She described being 鈥渢hrown into caregiving at an unexpected time,鈥� having 鈥渋nherited鈥� two children. In her case, kinship care developed out of pure necessity. The collective model, which demands accountability, allows everyone to feels seen and appreciated.

Kinship groups like GoldenSeed, which go beyond the heteronormative, patriarchal model of the nuclear family, ensure that parents can thrive, too. Recalling that when she was growing up in the 1980s, 鈥淪trangers were part of the care constellation.鈥� She described this practice as 鈥渁 remembering of what family and tribe have always been,鈥� even going back to ancestral practices. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like a holiday gathering every time we get together,鈥� she smiled.

3. 鈥淥ur work is foundational to society,鈥� asserted Courtney Helstein of . Long before the pandemic, she said, caregivers felt isolated. This isolation is intentionally built into a harmful system, she explained. There is a myth that we鈥檙e all on our own, and this myth underpins such policies as means-tested, temporary support for women. It privileges center-based care and a cultural framework formed by and favoring the dominant white culture. And it points society to the question: 鈥淒oes this family deserve support?鈥� Of course they do, insisted Helstein. The question wouldn鈥檛 exist if the myth were dismantled.

Part of FFO鈥檚 work involves creating a space where mothers and caregivers show up as their whole selves. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not transactional,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not using moms. We listen, we ask, 鈥榃hat do you need?鈥欌��

By sharing their visions for the future of child care, Arroyo, alabanza and Helstein are helping to create a system or systems that work better and for more people.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.