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What Does Recognition and Respect for Family Child Care Providers Really Mean?
Family Child Care (FCC), State Resources
Family child care providers value licensing systems because of how these systems provide accountability and incentivize quaity care, while recognizing them as child care professionals. What providers want is simple — inclusion and representation in the decision-making bodies that regulate their work. In this blog, FCC providers share why they value and respect licensing systems and how that respect can be reciprocated through better representation of providers in those systems. Read the blog post here.
Promising Practices for High-Quality Home-Based Child Care Networks: Family, Friend, and Neighbor Providers’ Recommendations
Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Networks, Publication, Research & Evaluation
Responding to Crisis: Cash Aid in Times of Disaster
Emergency Response, Family Child Care (FCC), Provider Well-Being
Emergency funding is deeply ingrained in the work of Home Grown. Home Grown has developed a national team of organizations and partners to design and set up of the Home Grown Home-Based Child Care Emergency Fund for Severe Weather & National Disaster Response.
Expanding Access to the Federal Child and Adult Care Food Program for Immigrant Family, Friend and Neighbor Care Providers in Colorado
CACFP & Hunger, Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Federal Resources
This report explores the unique role and challenges faced by immigrant Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) caregivers in Colorado, who provide essential child care for over half of the state’s children under age five. Despite their importance, these caregivers face significant obstacles in accessing federal support through the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), which reimburses child care providers for nutritious meals served to children. Many immigrant FFN caregivers, who are often license-exempt and care for children informally, face barriers to CACFP access, including fears of deportation, bureaucratic complexity, and language barriers.
Family Child Care Workforce Fact Sheet
The Family Child Care Workforce Fact Sheet highlights the importance of family child care (FCC) as a vital part of the early childhood care system.
Student Loan Debt is a Critical Factor in the Early Educator Compensation Crisis
Family Child Care (FCC), Finances, Sustainability & Compensation, Pre-K
Home-based providers earn the lowest wages in the child care system, with many making just $10,000 per year, while continuing to serve underserved families. Despite their essential role, they are often left out of policy discussions and loan forgiveness programs, contributing to ongoing financial strain. This new fact sheet sheds light on the earning challenges for family child care providers.
Home-based Child Care Providers Share Reflections on Their Hispanic Heritage
Equity (language, culture, race), Family Child Care (FCC), Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN)
In the United States, immigrant stories can start differently but eventually resemble each other. Leticia Barcenas and Claudia Valentín live in diagonally opposite corners of the country—Portland, Oregon, and New Orleans, Louisiana, respectively—they come from different countries—Mexico and Honduras—and began their American Dream with different plans—Leticia wanted to work to make money and support her family; Claudia looked for ways to educate young people in the diaspora—but they eventually discovered that their destiny was inevitably tied to the success of child care in their communities.
Home Grown’s Statement on the Council of Economic Advisers Brief : Child Care Is Infrastructure —Evidence from Universal Pre-K
Family Child Care (FCC), Federal Resources, Pre-K
Home Grown celebrates the new Council of Economic Advisers brief, Child Care Is Infrastructure: Evidence from Universal Pre-K. For over 3 years we have invested in co-funding research that highlights the importance of including Family Child Care (FCC) in public pre-K systems and are excited to be working with NIEER this fall to support a cohort of public pre-K systems with targeted TA and evidence-based tools to modify their pre-K systems to include FCC.
Introducing the 2024 Leading from Home Provider Leaders
Family Child Care (FCC), Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Leadership
Home Grown introduces the third cohort of provider leaders in our Leading from Home initiative. The members of this cohort represent providers and caregivers from diverse experiences, languages and identities.
Promising Practices for High-Quality HBCC Networks: Supporting Family, Friend, and Neighbor Providers
Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Networks, Research & Evaluation
A Love Letter to FFN Caregivers
Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Provider Well-Being
From presidential candidate Kamala Harris to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, many leaders credit home-based child care providers with raising them up and saving their careers. In celebration of FFN Appreciation Week, we spoke with three distinguished leaders in the child care sector to hear how their experiences with FFN care shaped who they are today.
Caring for Kids and Empowering Communities: Grandmothers Make the World a Better Place
Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN), Provider Well-Being
Deborah Young, a grandmother from Boulder, Colorado, has spent decades caring for children and empowering communities. Through her experience as a single mother and educator, she has supported immigrant and refugee women, helping them turn caregiving into sustainable businesses. Her community-driven approach focuses on connection, trust, and collective wisdom to nurture both children and communities. Young’s lifelong mission exemplifies the power of home-based child care in transforming lives.