“In times of incredible uncertainty,” says Home Grown Executive Director Natalie Renew, “it is reassuring to have values that can guide you.” For just that purpose, Home Grown’s new values statement underscores the organization’s commitment to reimagining child care policies and systems through collaboration with home-based providers and the communities they serve. “The hardest thing in a moment like this,” says Renew, “is to have hope. But home-based child care providers open their doors everyday and help children believe that a better future is possible. We can do that too. We have to do that. That’s why affirming providers’ voices, agency, and self-determination is at the heart of our values.”
Five years since Home Grown’s founding, leaders and funders gathered to envision a strategic plan that will guide the organization’s next three to five years of doing values-driven work. “Our values say what we care about,” says Renew. “But more importantly, they say who we want to be going forward as a sustainable, long-term partner to child care providers and communities.”
Values in Action
The new values statement reflects lessons learned during the organization’s first years, when responding to the Covid-19 pandemic’s impacts on the child care workforce pushed Home Grown to pivot from their original plan. “Very quickly we learned that answering the needs of providers and including them in decision-making about their essential work was most important.” That lesson eventually led to the Leading from Home initiative. It also became apparent that public infrastructure was insufficient to get resources to providers. “The agencies were coming to us and saying, ‘Can you help us distribute CARES dollars, ARPA dollars?’ That led to our developing and supporting comprehensive networks for providers.” And finally, Home Grown saw that providers were using funds for basic needs–food, housing, and utilities–which led to the creation of the Thriving Providers Project and work aimed at bolstering providers’ financial stability.
Home Grown’s formula for success is “working intimately in a hyper-local way,” says Renew, “because what’s really happening in providers’ homes as they care for and teach young children needs to inform both state and federal policy and advocacy work. We talk to the providers and caregivers who are doing the work every day and ask, ‘What do you need to make your life better?’ Our job is about facilitating, creating containers, and amplifying providers’ stories and recommendations. We listen, and we try to lift up the brilliance, creativity, and solutions that providers themselves create.”
From Values to Impact
Hayley Village, a California family child care provider who chairs Home Grown’s advisory committee (comprised of eight caregivers from across the country), agrees that because Home Grown honors and amplifies provider perspectives, the organization builds trust and solidarity with the communities it serves. Village launched her business as a single mom with three kids under 10 and mastered the juggling act of keeping her family and her business afloat. Then one day another provider suggested she share her experience and wisdom with Home Grown’s advisory group. Years later, she chairs the group and says, “I’ve never felt more part of a team, that I have a seat at the table, that my experience is valuable and respected. I have a voice that matters.”
Working with Home Grown built Village’s confidence and skills as an advocate, so much so that when an elected representative showed up for a meet and greet in her town, she spoke out publicly for the first time and shared her story as a small business owner paying $4,500 a month in rent to operate her family child care. “He actually listened to me,” she says. “And afterward, I felt my shoulders get a little bit broader. Home Grown gave me my voice. They’ve given me financial support when I needed it because of some serious health issues. They really see providers as whole human beings and as professionals.”
In 2023, Early Edge California partnered with Home Grown to replicate the Leading from Home initiative, with a particular focus on family, friend and neighbor providers. Home Grown provided stipends for the 10 providers involved in the group, as well as guidance in how to organize the group and facilitate a monthly community of practice. “Ultimately,” says Andrew Avila, a policy analyst for Early Edge, “the group really catered to the voices and needs of the FFN caregivers.” The community of practice focused on topics they raised and they created the idea to hold an advocacy day at the state capitol, which was a huge success. “The providers spoke with policymakers and legislative staff who had never even heard of FFN caregivers. They were really effective in telling their stories, and later they also spoke to the Department of Social Services and gave direct feedback on pending regulations, including better access to subsidies and increased wages.”
Bold and Abundant
Village and Avila’s testimonials both exemplify Home Grown’s commitments to community ownership, collective power and action, and operating “from a place of abundance” rather than scarcity. “Our vision for the future of child care is bold and abundant,” says Renew, “because when we are open hearted and in solidarity with all families and providers, then we have the power of numbers. When we include family child care providers and family, friend and neighbor caregivers, we’re talking about 5 million caregivers caring for 11 million kids under the age of 13. That’s a lot of people who can move our vision forward collaboratively and collectively.” That’s good for caregivers, for kids, for the economy, and for all communities.
Home Grown will be sharing more details about our strategic focus and how this will shape our work throughout the year.
