Visions for the Future of Childcare
What does it take to build a pipeline for promising men of color to make contributions to early childhood? We intend to find out.
Over the course of this year, we will revitalize child care through the development of a racial equity roadmap that can be adapted for any community that is seeking guidance around how to pave the way for Black boys to succeed and for Black men to find a place for themselves in early childhood.
The interconnected roadmap will address early childhood expulsion, the absence of men from the early childhood workforce, and most ambitiously, build community-wide supports for men who have recently had a their criminal record expunged as a result of the legalization of marijuana. Specifically, to help these individuals secure the training and schooling required to become early childhood educators, and to serve as role models for young boys.
This innovative work builds off of the policy research John, Collaboration for Early Childhood Executive Director, did as a 2019-20 Barbara Bowman Fellow at Erikson Institute. (You can see his “policy pitch” video below.)
About the Care Constellation Cohort
What Will Child Care Look Like in the Year 2030?
That is the question we, along with seven other organizations and individuals across the nation, are working toward as part of the IDEO’s Care Constellation Cohort. As IDEO states, the formal child care system in the U.S. is optimized for a very narrow set of family lifestyles, structures, and incomes. But there are plenty of families, care providers, and mobilizers who are engineering adaptive ways to care for children and each other by challenging the logic of the current system and building equitable, inclusive, and joyful child care ecosystems.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with IDEO.org to start the Care Constellation—an initiative that funds and supports families, care providers, and mobilizers who are leading a quiet revolution in child care. To see other members of the cohort, please visit IDEO’s webpage.
Support a strong start and a bright future.
We champion high-quality early childhood care and learning experiences and support for families so all children develop their full potential.
