That鈥檚 the finding of a from the Hoover Institution, based on its 鈥溾�� project. Hoover researchers held nine in-person focus groups across seven states 鈥� Colorado, West Virginia, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Mexico and New York 鈥� and talked with 82 participants, from parents and teachers to leaders of nonprofit organizations and elected officials. The format combined short surveys with open-ended discussions, which allowed the researchers to gather a wide variety of information and hear the nuance behind it.

Of course, 82 participants across nine sites is a small sample, so the findings should be seen as qualitative and exploratory rather than nationally representative. Still, the responses identify some consistent patterns and offer some potential solutions. 

People don鈥檛 know how bad things are

The authors deliberately focused on communities where academic proficiency scores were low, in the bottom fifth of all schools statewide. Yet more than half of the participants weren鈥檛 familiar with how their local schools actually performed.

Focus group participants reported that they rarely heard news about student reading and math scores. Instead, they described district communications  as occasionally misleading. For example, one expressed concern that the local district was celebrating growth metrics that obscured persistently low performance. As another participant put it: 鈥淧arents can鈥檛 be involved if they aren鈥檛 informed. They can鈥檛 be informed if they aren鈥檛 invited.鈥�

Those who do know the ratings think their schools are failing

Among respondents familiar with the performance data, more than half rated their local district schools as needing improvement, or worse. When asked about the quality of different types of schools in their communities, participants gave district schools the lowest average rating, below charter and private schools and vocational programs. They described teachers ill-prepared for diverse classrooms, inadequate special education services and a striking absence of practical preparation for students in things like financial literacy or vocational and technical skills.

Communities want to help but feel shut out

A majority of participants said they want to be real partners in improving their schools, but fewer than a quarter said they think their districts actually want that. School boards, in particular, were rated as particularly unreceptive to community input.

The anecdotes reveal a repeating pattern: People show up to meetings, join committees, raise concerns 鈥� and are ignored, dismissed or labeled as troublemakers. In some communities, language barriers and unreliable translation services make things harder. In others, parents hold back out of fear that speaking up could affect how their children are treated in school. Overall, only about a quarter said they felt they could personally drive change. 

And yet, people are still willing to get involved. Nearly 90% of participants said they would join a community task force to improve their local schools. More than half said they鈥檇 take on an active or leadership role, and nearly two-thirds were optimistic about what a coordinated community group could accomplish. People may not think they can drive change on their own, but they still hold out hope for collective improvement efforts.

So what would actually help?

Participants had concrete suggestions like flexible meeting times, reliable translation services, transportation, modest stipends to recognize parents鈥� time commitments and protections against retaliation. Procedurally, they wanted to feel like they are being included early, not handed decisions after they have already been made.

None of this will be especially surprising to people who鈥檝e followed education debates over the years. This is not the first report to find that families are often excluded from decision-making.

Still, the Hoover research adds nuance and urgency. It offers a portrait of communities that are ready and willing to be involved, but are often blocked from doing so 鈥� and provides a set of suggestions for what changing that would take.

This story was originally published by . for their newsletters.

For college students seeking a job that fits around their academic schedules, and the opportunity to do meaningful work in their communities, a popular state program offers both.

Since it launched in 2022, the state program known as has been paying college students for community service work. And it has become so popular that only 30% of students who apply get a position.

The program helps college students, including those who are immigrants lacking permanent legal status, pay for college while serving in community-based organizations.

Students are dispersed across California tackling diverse needs. Fellows were key, for instance, in helping food banks meet a surge in demand during last year鈥檚 government shutdown, said Josh Fryday, director of California Service Corps. And during the wildfires in Los Angeles last January, fellows were there to support, he said.

鈥淲hen the government shut down and there was a huge shortage or huge demand at the food bank and they needed support, it was our College Corps members that got deployed. Same thing after the fires,鈥� said Fryday.

The program has recruited more than 3,000 students each academic year since it started, some serving multiple years. Students serve 15 hours a week for 30 weeks and receive monthly stipends totaling $7,000 for the academic school year. At that time those who complete 450 service hours receive an additional $3,000 educational award.

College Corps is just one program within , a statewide service initiative that consists of three other paid service programs sending members into communities around the state.

The state gave College Corps $83.6 million for 2026-27 in addition to a one-time $5 million allotment this academic year to help expand the program to additional campuses. The program currently has 45 participating campuses, 41 of them across California鈥檚 public community college and university systems. For the next cohort, they鈥檙e planning to expand to 52 campuses and recruit about 4,000 students. Some of the new partner sites include Cal State Northridge, Monterey Peninsula College and UC Santa Barbara.

The Legislative Analyst鈥檚 Office had rejecting the request for more funding, and it was cut from the budget proposal in June. However, it was in the final Budget Act.

The program started as a pilot, intended to run through 2023-24 while receiving one-time funding each year. Now, according to the for 2025-26, the intent is to continue with the $84 million in annual funding permanently starting in 2026-27. Of the $84 million, $45 million would go towards program support and administrative costs for the program while the rest would go toward aid for students.

The College Corps program is open to students at participating campuses, including those who qualify for , a state law that allows eligible students without legal status to qualify for California in-state tuition and aid. The state has about who don鈥檛 qualify for federal work-study programs and many lack the necessary permits to work other jobs, according to the Higher Education Immigration Portal.

鈥淚 wanted to make sure that we gave an opportunity to our Dreamers to be part of [College Corps],鈥� said Fryday. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had unbelievable success stories of AB 540 students鈥� [by] having this program change their lives and giving them opportunities that they, quite frankly, have been excluded from for far too long.鈥�

Officials with California Service Corps did not provide numbers on how many are filled by immigrant students eligible for in-state tuition and aid under AB 540.

Rafael, an immigrant student and College Corps fellow, came from Mexico to the United States at the age of 14. He requested that his full name not be used due to concerns about his legal status.

Job opportunities do not come easy for Rafael due to his lack of a Social Security number.

鈥淔or undocumented students, there are not a lot of things that you can apply to be part of,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o that was also kind of like my only opportunity.鈥�

Within the program, fellows can choose to serve in K-12 education, climate action or food insecurity. Students often help with tutoring at school sites, work with food banks, and serve at their campus gardens and food pantries.

Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates and of eight participating University of California campuses, 17 California State Universities, 23 community colleges, and four private colleges.

鈥淲e have students from all different backgrounds and our students are also getting different perspectives of diversity and empathy and learning how to see how other people live in their community,鈥� said Katrina Gilmore, director of College Corps at Cal State Bakersfield.

Rafael, an English major, currently volunteers at a history museum in his community, a role he holds close to his heart. When he visited a museum for the first time in Mexico, he was amazed by the exhibits and the curiosity they sparked. He is now helping the museum develop an audio tour guide of the exhibits in English and Spanish to help more people feel included.

鈥淚t was really touching because my first language is Spanish and I remember having a hard time learning a lot of things,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 have been in that position. I know how it feels.鈥�

Fellows are chosen based on their interest in service and availability to juggle the service hours with their academics. Eligible students must be full-time undergraduates, have good academic standing and demonstrate financial need.

Currently, UC Berkeley has 98 College Corps student workers. More than 200 students applied, said Ashley Kelly, a supervisor for the program at UC Berkeley.

鈥淭hat just demonstrated to us that there’s a huge desire and demand to do this program, that the program is working, it’s impactful, and we just need to keep working to create more opportunities for students to be part of programs like this,鈥� said Fryday.

For Lori Dominguez, a College Corps fellow at Cal State Bakersfield, the program has helped her pay for school. She said that if it wasn鈥檛 for the program, she would probably have to drop out of college.

鈥淚 have loans for my education, and, like, I鈥檓 broke, and I barely have job experience,鈥� said Dominguez.

Dominguez struggled with school last year after leaving her job at her local library to take care of her mom who had surgery. She sought out College Corps as a way to pay for school with a program that understands that her education is her priority.

She currently serves with Habitat for Humanity ReStore, a secondhand store whose profits go towards building affordable homes in the community. Dominguez processes donated items such as clothing, toys and furniture.

The program is flexible with students’ schedules, allowing Dominguez to make up missed hours at different work sites and giving her the opportunity to earn money while still being able to pursue a biology degree. She hopes to become a clinical lab scientist.

Djuane 鈥淒J鈥� Nunley, a senior at UC Berkeley, has been a College Corps fellow since its pilot year. He joined the program at College of the Desert in Coachella Valley, before transferring to UC Berkeley.

He served in both campus鈥� food pantries and also worked at a food warehouse in Coachella Valley where he sorted food before it spoiled to see what could be preserved.

鈥淚 would see how families would just be so excited to get the food that they were getting,鈥� said Nunley. 鈥淚t was a humbling experience.鈥�

He currently serves with UC Berkeley鈥檚 Incarceration to College program, tutoring incarcerated youth 鈥� and youth whose parents have been incarcerated 鈥� at Alameda County Juvenile Hall and with Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, a community-based organization.

Nunley鈥檚 wife Lynn attended College of the Desert and joined College Corps at the same time with a desire to help the community. They were both accepted and transferred to UC Berkeley, where they moved with their eight kids ranging in age from three to 16.

鈥淸College Corps] helped us out a big deal鈥� We have a lot of children and raising kids is not easy. And financially, it’s a lot on us,鈥� said Nunley.

For Nunley, the hardest thing about being a College Corps fellow is juggling his service hours, school and family. But he manages with the support of his wife and his older kids.

Nunley was in the entertainment business for 12 years, making music and working as a freelance writer. He started college as an English major hoping to brush up on his writing skills. Joining College Corps shifted his career aspirations away from his original plan and towards helping children.

He is now double majoring in psychology and social welfare with plans of going to graduate school and becoming a psychologist that specializes in talk therapy for youth with traumatic experiences. He wants to open a nonprofit organization in Coachella Valley with his wife to assist kids from underrepresented communities.

鈥淥nce I became a part of College Corps, my perspective in life changed, like I had a great epiphany鈥� I realized how my words could actually uplift,鈥� said Nunley.

This article was and was republished under the license.

When Cara Romero鈥檚 daughter was 11, she became interested in dolls. Romero, who is an enrolled member of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe in Southern California, began to think about doll culture more deeply and what it can convey to the next generation. 

Romero鈥檚 husband grew up collecting G.I. Joes, and her mother-in-law had her own Victorian-style porcelain doll collection. For Romero, though, her daughter鈥檚 doll phase reminded her of the Native American dolls she grew up seeing at truck stops along I-40.

The dolls were often dressed in plastic pony beads and fake buckskin that parroted the Native American Halloween costumes she knew all too well as dehumanizing stereotypes. So Romero, who is a photographer and artist, set out to create a series of photos that broke down these tropes.

Each photograph in the 鈥淔irst American Doll鈥� series features a life-sized doll box that she designed and crafted, where she poses the women with objects that represent their families, traditions and unique stories. 

She wanted her daughter to be proud of her heritage. 鈥淚 come from a community where women are allowed to have a voice, allowed to be really strong,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o [I was] wanting to pass down good self esteem and a strong sense of self and identity,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat’s what we aim to do as moms.鈥�

She started the series with artist and powwow dancer Wakeah Jhane, who is of Kiowa, Comanche and Blackfeet descent. While the Plains Tribes that she is from are the models for stereotypical dolls and costumes, Romero鈥檚 photograph captures her intricate buckskin regalia, which was made by her family. Also on display are her moccasins and a fan.

鈥淵ou can see the stark contrast between what she’s wearing and the Halloween costumes that people portray Plains people as,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 really wanted to kind of own it and be like, 鈥淵ou guys even have this wrong.鈥欌�� 

She has since published nine photographs for the series, the most recent featuring Fawn Douglas, an artist, activist and enrolled member of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, who is posed with handcrafted baskets and a gourd rattle made by her family. The box is bordered by a Las Vegas playing card motif. 

The current day symbolism and high fashion lighting communicates that these women are also contemporary, Romero said. 鈥淲hen artwork, and specifically photography, is devoid of modern context, it does something psychologically, it perpetuates [this idea] that we’re gone and only living in history.鈥�  

Naming each of the pieces after the models was also meant to humanize Indigenous women in a way that they weren鈥檛 in historical photos. 鈥淎 lot of times in the ethnographic photographs, they didn’t even say their name,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don’t know who they were.鈥�

Some of the photographs from the series are currently traveling the country as part of Romero鈥檚 first solo museum exhibition, titled: 鈥淧an没p眉n眉w眉gai (Living Light).鈥� They will be on display next at the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona starting in February.

was originally reported by Jessica Kutz of ..

When Vevian Nguyen heard the strike of a gong echo for the 10th time, signaling that 10,000 meals had been made, her school cafeteria erupted in applause, and she knew her gloves and hairnet were staying on.

鈥淓very time we hit the gong, it felt like a little pat on the back, like, 鈥極h, you did something good,鈥欌�� Vevian said. 鈥淣ow you can keep doing it.鈥� 

Within an hour, Vevian and more than 200 students at Laguna Creek High School, a school in the Elk Grove Unified School District in Sacramento County, packed more than 10,000 meals to be donated during the holidays, exceeding their goal for the night. But Vevian, who is a junior and president of Laguna Creek High鈥檚 service-oriented Interact Club, said she wasn鈥檛 there to simply check off her service hour requirements. 

鈥淲e want to be involved in our community, which is having to be able to know that you鈥檝e helped a family or at least just one person out there,鈥� the 16-year-old said. 鈥淎nd, I feel like that helps your character, it builds who you are and where you stand within your school and your community.鈥�

The October food-preparing night was part of an international initiative called Rise Against Hunger, which is run by a coalition of student groups such as the National Honor Society and the Rotary International Club. This was Laguna Creek鈥檚 second Rise Against Hunger. During the holidays, their 20,000 meals will reach families in Vietnam that were affected by major floods and landslides this year. 

Sandi Peterson, a positive behavior intervention support administrator and adviser for the National Honor Society, had helped Vevian prepare for the event throughout the school year. At weekly club meetings, students created infographics and posters, spread the word on social media, and promoted their goal of packing 10,000 meals to every classroom on campus. It was a student-led collaboration and a clear, ambitious objective, Peterson said, that drove hundreds of students to sign up, show up, and lock in. 

鈥淣ot one student was on their phone; they were all talking to each other, chatting, laughing. Once we heard the 10,000 gong, it was this huge celebration, and then it started moving so fast,鈥� Peterson said. 鈥淲e were having to hit the gong for 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 (more) all at the same time. These kids, in less than two hours, assembled 20,000 meals.鈥� 

Like most schools in California, Laguna Creek has struggled to recover from high rates of  after the pandemic鈥檚 school closures. Many of those students across the state also feeling of loneliness and detachment from their school communities. For Cynthia Dettner, an instructor and supervising teacher for the Interact Club at Laguna Creek High, the night of meal-packing also showcased a rare school connectedness among students. 

鈥淎fter the Covid years, where students were often isolated, watching all of these students laugh and smile and build their own character by reaching out to help others, it鈥檚 a gift,鈥� Dettner said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a joy to see them come together and befriend each other.鈥� 

On each side of a cafeteria table, students sporting red hairnets and plastic gloves measured and assembled nutritionally balanced portions of dried rice, vegetable protein, vitamin packets, dried tofu and protein additives into pre-labeled bags. They then rotated each bag to teams of students who stapled, heat-sealed, and counted each package to be ready for distribution worldwide.听

鈥淚t looks almost like a Hallmark movie where you see the cookie factory in progress,鈥� Dettner said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all kinds of hands and smiles working together, they鈥檙e all engaged and involved, and that lifts the community.鈥�

Although Peterson had spent the year raising sponsorship funds for the event, she said the students who packed the meals soon took ownership of the initiative. 

鈥淲ithin two weeks, I had students come up to me and say, 鈥楳s. Peterson, maybe if we go around and start collecting money on our own, we could do another one in a couple months,鈥欌�� Peterson said. 鈥淪o, now they鈥檙e trying to tag-team and do 40,000 meals in our next school year. The ticket to longevity is I know that the kids will always show up.鈥�

Vevian grew up in a low-income family, and after watching friends and family members struggle financially in recent months, she said she鈥檚 felt more compelled to help others. Laguna Creek鈥檚 new holiday ritual has further motivated her year-round commitment to community service. 

鈥淭o contain the attributes of a leader, I learned that you have to actually step up and use your voice and really hold yourself accountable,鈥� Vevian said. 鈥淚f you just make one impact, it can slowly build that momentum for the rest of everyone else to stand behind you.鈥�

New research has found that rural LGBTQ+ teens experience significant challenges in their communities and turn to the internet for support.

The from Hopelab and the looked at what more than 1,200 LGBTQ+ teens faced and compared the experiences of those in rural communities with those of teens in suburban and urban communities. The research found that rural teens are more likely to give and receive support through their online communities and friends than via their in-person relationships.

鈥淭he rural young people we’re seeing were reporting having a lot less support in their homes, in their communities, and their schools,鈥� Mike Parent, a principal researcher at Hopelab, said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. 鈥淭hey weren’t doing too well in terms of feeling supported in the places they were living, though they were feeling supported online.鈥�

However, the research found that rural LGBTQ+ teens had the same sense of pride in who they were as suburban and urban teens.

鈥淭he parallel, interesting finding was that we didn’t see differences in their internal sense of pride, which you might kind of expect if they feel all less supported,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat was surprising, in a very good way, was that indication of resilience or being able to feel a strong sense of their internal selves despite this kind of harsh environment they might be in.鈥�

Researchers recruited young people between the ages of 15 and 24 who identified as LGBTQ+ through targeted ads on social media. After surveying the respondents during August and September of last year, the researchers also followed up some of the surveys with interviews, Parent said.

According to the study, rural teens were more likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to find support online. Of the rural respondents, 56% of rural young people reported receiving support from others online several times a month compared to 51% of urban and suburban respondents, and 76% reported giving support online, compared to 70% of urban and suburban respondents.

Conversely, only 28% of rural respondents reported feeling supported by their schools, compared to 49% of urban and suburban respondents, the study found, and 13% of rural respondents felt supported by their communities, compared to 35% of urban and suburban respondents.

Rural LGBTQ+ young people are significantly more likely to suffer mental health issues because of the lack of support where they live, researchers said. Rural LGBTQ+ young people were more likely to meet the threshold for depression (57% compared to 45%), and more likely to report less flourishing than their suburban/urban counterparts (43% to 52%).

The study found that those LGBTQ+ young people who received support from those they lived with, regardless of where they live, are more likely to report flourishing (50% compared to 35%) and less likely to meet the threshold for depression (52% compared to 63%).

One respondent said the impact of lack of support impacted every aspect of their lives.

鈥淣ot being able to be who you truly are around the people that you love most or the communities that you鈥檙e in is going to make somebody depressed or give them mental issues,鈥� they said in survey interviews, according to Hopelab. 鈥淏ecause if you can鈥檛 be who you are around the people that you love most and people who surround you, you鈥檙e not gonna be able to feel the best about your well-being.鈥�

Respondents said connecting with those online communities saved their lives.

“Throughout my entire life, I have been bullied relentlessly. However, when I鈥檓 online, I find that it is easier to make friends鈥� I met my best friend through role play [games],鈥� one teen told researchers. 鈥淲ithout it, I wouldn鈥檛 be here today. So, in the long run, it鈥檚 the friendships I鈥檝e made online that have kept me alive all these years.”

Having support in rural areas, especially, can provide rural LGBTQ+ teens with a feeling of belonging, researchers said.

鈥淥ur findings highlight the urgent need for safe, affirming in-person spaces and the importance of including young people in shaping the solutions,鈥� Claudia-Santi F. Fernandes, vice president of research and evaluation at Born This Way Foundation, said in a statement. 鈥淚f we want to improve outcomes, especially for LGBTQ+ young people in rural communities, their voices鈥揳nd scientific evidence鈥搈ust guide the work.鈥�

Parent said the survey respondents stressed the importance of having safe spaces for LGBTQ+ young people to gather in their own communities.

鈥淚 think most of the participants recognize that you can’t do a lot to change your family if they’re not supportive,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat they were saying was that finding ways for schools to be supportive and for communities to be supportive in terms of physical spaces (that allowed them) to express themselves safely (and) having places where they can gather and feel safe, uh, were really important to them.鈥�

Hopelab seeks to address mental health in young people through evidence-based innovation, according to its organizers. The Born This Way Foundation was co-founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, West Virginia native Cynthia Bisset Germanotta.

The organization is focused on ending bullying and building up communities, while using research, programming, grants, and partnerships to engage young people and connect them to mental health resources, according to the foundation鈥檚 website.

This first appeared on and is republished here under a .

Cultural connections make children and their families feel like they fully belong to a community, which is why SAELI aims to empower families and increase access to resources. Parent centers and advocacy efforts are among the strategies that enable the collaborative to involve families in the community.

Sandwiched between San Diego and Los Angeles, Santa Ana is the in the U.S., among cities with more than 300,000 residents. , according to data from the 2020 Orange County Census Atlas. Rigo Rodriguez, founder of SAELI, these statistics stem from global immigration trends, as well as the heavy reliance on low-wage immigrant labor in the service and construction sectors in Orange County.

鈥淏ecause of this density and reliance on immigrant labor as essential workers, Santa Ana became the epicenter of the COVID pandemic here in Orange County,鈥� says Rodriguez, who also serves as Chair of the Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

SAELI takes a comprehensive approach to working with first-generation immigrant families and low-income families with young children. Rodriguez, who is on the board of Santa Ana Unified School District, helps to maintain close ties between the district, the organization and the community.听

In 2016, when SAELI was launched through a grant from , a public agency dedicated to the healthy development of young children, the school district only had 313 preschool slots in 8 of its 33 elementary schools, and most of the parent centers were located in the secondary schools. Today, the district has 1,560 preschool slots across 31 schools, covering nearly 70% of incoming kindergartners. Moreover, every elementary school has a wellness center open to the entire community with a full-time family and community engagement liaison connecting parents to resources and opportunities. SAELI also uses the (EDI), a tool developed in Canada in the 1990s and administered by UCLA, to track progress in kindergarten readiness across five domains: language and cognitive development; communication skills and general knowledge; emotional maturity; social competence; and physical health.

鈥淭his comprehensive approach,鈥� Rodriguez explains, 鈥渞equires an active alliance between city government, over 20 nonprofit agencies, the school district and over 250 active parents hailing from 24 elementary schools.鈥澨�

As a grassroots coalition, the collaborative has exceptionally strong community ties, says Andres Bustamante, an associate professor at University of California, Irvine School of Education, who collaborated with SAELI on the design and implementation of , a project that brings together science of learning and urban design, through a grant from the National Science Foundation. The project has implemented a number of solutions to promote everyday opportunities for learning and development among young children and their caregivers. For example, they鈥檝e installed signs inside local supermarkets to spark conversation while food shopping. And a giant abacus at a local bus stop was co-designed by SAELI caregivers to inspire caregivers and children to count together while they wait for the bus.听

鈥淚鈥檝e seen groups beg for participation without getting much of a response,鈥� he explains, 鈥渨hereas our biggest problem with SAELI is, when we say we want 10 families, they get back to us and say, 鈥極kay, we have 40 families.鈥欌�澨�

These families aren鈥檛 afraid to express their opinions. Bustamante describes unveiling the mockup of a mural depicting people walking around Santa Ana. One of the moms raised her hand and said, 鈥淪omething doesn鈥檛 feel right here. All these people are all facing different directions, but that鈥檚 not how we walk. We don鈥檛 walk alone. We walk together as a family.鈥� Bustamante and his team set about revising the mural.听

Wendy G. Gomez, the director of SAELI, embodies the collaborative鈥檚 commitment to parent leadership. She started as a parent volunteer with the initiative when the younger of her two sons was in first grade. Although she studied education in college, her career had gone in another direction, and she was working in the finance department of an insurance company. By her second SAELI meeting, she was hooked, and took advantage of the various ways families could get involved, from conducting job interviews to serving on committees. Soon she applied to be a promotora 鈥� a community health worker who helps SAELI with outreach in Spanish-speaking areas 鈥� a position she held for a year before becoming project coordinator.听

In addition to trusting her own instincts as a leader, Gomez has gained confidence in valuing the voices of Santa Ana residents. 鈥淚 had assumed that when a funder said, 鈥榡ump,鈥� my response would be, 鈥榟ow high?鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not how we do things. We go back to the families and say, 鈥楬ey, this is an opportunity that we have. What do you think?鈥欌��

Gomez says that community members organize resource fairs, neighborhood workshops and often raise issues that, while not directly connected to academics, relate to children鈥檚 ability to thrive. Housing stability, accessible park space, food security and freedom from immigration harassment, for example, are priorities among Santa Ana families. In 2021, for example, SAELI joined forces with to pass an ordinance for rent control requiring 鈥渏ust cause鈥� for evictions. Families have also led the charge to turn vacant lots into green spaces, through a partnership with and . Many parents remain involved even after their children enter high school and beyond.

鈥淔amilies are now training [other] families in order to pass the baton,鈥� Gomez says. 鈥淏y building these strong networks, new parents and new arrivals have something to plug into, and their children benefit from the resources we have lined up for them.鈥�

One of her big lessons has been learning how to give up power. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 hard,鈥� she admits, 鈥渂ecause we are all kind of in one way or another part of a system.鈥澨�

Reflecting on her own parenting style, she now realizes she 鈥渄idn鈥檛 always look at the whole child, and how that includes the extended family.鈥� When parents work, grandmothers and other relatives might be providing care during the day. Big siblings might be picking younger ones up from child care. A survey conducted in partnership with , a nonprofit devoted to parent organizing, found that half of Santa Ana鈥檚 young children are in the care of someone other than parents.

While Rodriguez recognizes the ongoing challenges resulting from decades of rapid expansion of Santa Ana鈥檚 population of children as well as underinvestment in education, he sees progress toward SAELI鈥檚 ambitious goals. 鈥淲e believe,鈥� he says, 鈥渢hat if children are doing well in math and reading and are socially [and] emotionally resilient by the third grade, it’s hard to stop them afterwards.鈥�

Mark Swartz: There鈥檚 so much to say about climate change and children. Moms Clean Air Force is about more than just air quality, right?

Karin Stein: As an organization, we fight for clean air, because air is water and nature writ large; it means fighting for healthy ecosystems and healthy people.听We focus on air because it touches all the rest. When people talk about mercury in water, it’s coming from air pollution emitted from coal plants that settles into our creeks and lakes. It then gets deposited in the fatty tissue of fish, which then gets eaten, and if a pregnant person eats the fish, that mercury keeps concentrating further in their fatty tissue. The next thing you know, it鈥檚 in the fatty brain tissue of an unborn child at much higher concentrations than when it first left the smokestack of the coal plant. Mercury in children鈥檚 brains can lead to serious developmental issues, including impaired motor function, learning impairments and behavioral problems.

Swartz: What is the relationship between Moms Clean Air Force and ?

Stein: EcoMadres is Moms Clean Air Force. It鈥檚 a branch that connects culturally and linguistically with a diversity of Latino communities.

Swartz: Have you always lived in Iowa?

Stein: I think of myself as a South American child, a Central American teenager and a North American adult. I was born in Colombia. I grew up in the remote eastern savannas听of Colombia with no electricity and lots of听wild animals. I had a pet anteater and monkey. As a teenager I听lived in Costa Rica and continue to be involved with a rainforest conservation foundation there.

In 1980, I got a scholarship to come to Grinnell College and thought, 鈥淥kay, I鈥檒l jump on a plane, get a four-year degree and go back.鈥� But then life happens, and before you know it, 40 years have gone by. I live on the edge of a state park, Rock Creek State Park, and everything else around us is farmland. I have spent most of my life in rural areas around the Americas. This gives me a very strong sense of how various environments have changed as a result of the climate crisis.

Swartz: What did you study?

Stein: I have an undergraduate degree in biology and a master鈥檚 degree in horticulture.

Swartz: And you鈥檙e also a professional musician. How does that fit into the picture?

Stein: After grad school I was a researcher, but once my first child was born, I turned my musical hobby into my profession.听Moms Clean Air Force recognizes that humans are multifaceted and that there are various ways in which we connect. They鈥檝e encouraged听me to use music in my community engagement work for Moms, because, as a Latin American, I understand how centrally important music is to our cultural identity. Music is a trust-building language, especially among Latinos. So it鈥檚 a tool. It鈥檚 not the main tool I use in my work for Moms, but it鈥檚 a tool, and we need to use all the tools we can.

Swartz: So, you come to rural Iowa with a different perspective on the natural world from your neighbors, but you鈥檝e probably learned a lot from Iowans about how they view the soil and the planet and the natural world. What kind of conversations do you have?

Stein: Iowa has听a really interesting mix of people. My husband and I talk a lot to the family farmers who are still there, but they are an endangered lifestyle, encroached upon by big corporate farming operations. Family farmers tend to be interested in doing what鈥檚 right for the soil, the water, even the climate.听 You don鈥檛 hear those concerns expressed by farming corporations.

Swartz: Some people might be surprised that Iowa has air quality issues.

Stein: All it takes is one source of pollution and you have a problem. In northwest Iowa, we have some of the highest asthma and cancer rates in the country. Iowa also has听six of the most polluting coal plants in the whole country. I鈥檓 involved in a coalition that鈥檚 asking MidAmerican Energy, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, to close its remaining coal plants by 2030, because their plants are hurting Iowans, especially people of color. Another thing I鈥檇 like to mention is that in rural areas, proper air quality monitoring is often overlooked.

Swartz: I鈥檇 love to hear about a family that you鈥檝e worked with.

Stein: I鈥檒l tell you about two on diagonally opposite ends of Iowa. There is a woman in southeast Iowa, in the region near Muscatine. She has two boys. One of them, and this is where I start really choking up, the younger one, who is now eight, was born asthmatic. Because of bad air quality in his neighborhood and his school, he鈥檚 never played outdoors in the winter. Ever. There are a lot of children who cannot play outside during a good portion of the year because of poor air quality.

And then let鈥檚 travel to northwest Iowa, where I just recently met Indigenous leaders. There鈥檚 a big Winnebago settlement near one of the two coal plants owned by MidAmerican Energy. And it was simply heart wrenching to hear their testimony about the extremely high cancer and asthma rates in that community. And it boils down to insufficient safeguards on emissions and insisting on continuing to use technologies that we don鈥檛 have to use anymore, because we have better options now.

Swartz: It must be gratifying to help them tell their stories to policymakers.听

Stein: Some of my proudest moments have been getting very shy immigrants to understand that legislators are not the police, and that the stories of their children are important, because legislators cannot know everything.

Swartz: When you鈥檙e talking about small lungs and brains, they鈥檙e resilient, but they鈥檙e very vulnerable.

厂迟别颈苍:听Children are developing organisms with fast metabolisms, breathing faster than adults and inhaling dirty air closer to the ground, at the level of exhaust pipes. We know that particulate matter inhaled by mothers enters the bloodstream, enters the child鈥檚, the fetus鈥檚 organism, and can create heart, brain and lung damage before the child is born.

Extreme heat can do that too: it can lead to premature births and many other complications. And those most affected are听always the people who can least afford it, the people who least contribute to our climate crisis, who can least afford to protect themselves from the climate crisis.

Anything we can do for our children while they鈥檙e developing 鈥� in terms of keeping them healthy now and in terms of slowing down the climate crisis 鈥� I can鈥檛 think of a more important job, frankly, as a mom and as a world citizen.

Chris Riback: Kerron, thanks for coming to the studio.

Kerron Kalloo: Chris, it’s great to be here.

Chris Riback: And thank you for inviting us to this conference. It’s been fantastic.

Kerron Kalloo: Excellent.

Chris Riback: What is the National Village Network? How does it work?

Kerron Kalloo: The National Village Network is NBCDI’s local on the ground organizations, advancing our mission and ensuring that our partners and the communities are aware and are utilizing NBCDI’s Eight Essential Outcomes for Black child development.

Chris Riback: And who are you engaging with?

Kerron Kalloo: Absolutely. So when we think about what it means to be in a community, it really is everybody. And for Black children, whether you’re a librarian, a doctor, a banker, you are a person that makes an impact on a Black child’s life. So our villages, our organizations in the network, work with anyone, everyone that has a connection to or some kind of relationship with a Black child. And it’s that kind of desire that allows them to participate, volunteer, and engage. Typically, we see a lot of educators and parents. In the last couple of years, we’ve seen many researchers and policy leaders come on board.

Chris Riback: That’s got to be a good thing.

Kerron Kalloo: It’s a great thing. But I don’t think we should ever diminish all the other professions and types of people that are supporting our mission and working on behalf of our Black children.

Chris Riback: And what do you hear from them? What do you hear most significantly to me from the parents, from the educators, and to the extent you talk with them, the children themselves? But really the parents and the educators, what do you hear from them?

Kerron Kalloo: First and foremost, we hear that they find comfort in their local Black Child Development Institute and a place that they can trust. This is important because as we’re amplifying Black voices, we want those voices to be authentic. So they tell us about the challenges that they may face with their school administration, with the resources that are available in their community. And we make sure that not only do we survey and capture quantitative data telling their story, but take clips. Making sure that-

Chris Riback: Really capture it.

Kerron Kalloo: … Really, yes. Absolutely. And that way as we do our promotion statewide, nationally, people understand what our parents are really saying.

Chris Riback: You have the local people who are living it every day telling their stories.

Kerron Kalloo: Exactly.

Chris Riback: When they mention the concerns, are there any ones that come top of mind? What are you hearing maybe most often?

Kerron Kalloo: Safety is a major one. So safe communities is an area that many of our parents are concerned about. And we know the topic around diverse books is all over national news. So many of our families are just concerned about what kind of education they’re getting in their schools and what they can do to actually make a difference.

Chris Riback: I’m hearing a lot of commentary around mental health, mental wellness. Has that become more of a concern in the last couple of years? Are you seeing that or am I just hearing it more often today?

Kerron Kalloo: It is a major concern. When we think about the racial disparities that Black children and families face, it creates trauma, regardless. And that weighs heavily on the children, even the parents. And that type of mental wellness is our top priority. And so we really look closely at what it means to have support systems in our schools, what parents can do to access services outside of schools, and who they can trust in their community as local partners.

Chris Riback: And you mentioned previously the Eight Essential Outcomes for Black child development. I think we’ve been talking about a couple of them. Because they include health and education and nutrition, digital safety, representation, climate, narratives. You mentioned narratives a moment ago, the ability to tell those stories, and safe communities. Are these really the areas where you’re looking to make the most impact?

Kerron Kalloo: Absolutely. And we know that when we allow these areas to be our reality, that this is commonplace across our country, know our Black children are going to thrive. So we’re absolutely excited to work with our partners locally, nationally, to ensure that everyone’s aware of what is required for the United States of America to really empower our Black children.

Chris Riback: There’s a lot of work to be done.

Kerron Kalloo: 100%.

Chris Riback: Thank you for the work you’re doing. Thank you for coming by the studio.

Kerron Kalloo: Excellent. Thank you, Chris. I appreciate it.

Chris Riback: Schellee, Valeria, thank you both so much for coming by the studio.

Schellee Rocher: You’re welcome.

Valeria Norwood: Thanks for having us.

Chris Riback: So let’s start with BCDI Los Angeles. Tell me what’s going on with it. What’s the community like? What are some of the areas that you’re really focusing on there?

Schellee Rocher: So, I’m Schellee Rocher. I am the village President for the greater BCDI Greater Los Angeles.

Chris Riback: Greater Los Angeles.

Schellee Rocher: Right. We did change the name from just Los Angeles to make sure that we could include The Los Angeles County, which is the size of the state of Delaware, so can I let Valeria introduce herself a little bit too?

Chris Riback: Of course. Valeria, tell me about you.

Valeria Norwood: Well, I’m Valeria Norwood. I’ve been a BCDI member for a few years, and I enjoy this work. I know that I am probably, so I’m told, aging. I am a member of the Council of Elders that we now have, and that Council of Elders comes from our African tradition, where there was a group of elders that always could oversee or could make recommendations, and they were supposed to have wisdom. Now, I won’t go that far, but it’s a great group. We support our national office and the board, and so we’re just here to help. Most of us have been in this field of education, some with early education, some with middle school, and even to high school because we have had some of those programs too.

Chris Riback: And you used to run, if I’m not mistaken, BCDI Los Angeles.

Valeria Norwood: Well, I wasn’t president for a while. I don’t know if I-

Chris Riback: You’re very vague on the actual numbers, I noticed.

Valeria Norwood: I don’t know if I would say I run, but every child that’s Black belongs to me. And it is my privilege to do something to help that child become the best that he or she may. And that while they’re doing that, you support their parents, but you want them to have health, education, a safe place to live, to go to the park to play. So, that’s what you strive for. And sometimes now that is not so easy, but just because it isn’t easy doesn’t mean that it cannot be done. And so, that’s why I still do this.

Chris Riback: What a beautiful and powerful statement that every child is yours.

Valeria Norwood: Yes.

Chris Riback: Schellee, as I’m listening to Valeria and listening to her role on the Council of Elders, you’re working every day with parents and children, with the next generations. What’s the role of elders in the work that you do?

Schellee Rocher: So well, currently there’s not a large role, but that’s something that we want to change moving forward. With BCDI Greater Los Angeles, our goal is to, right now, the vision that I have is to develop a network of schools and childcare programs that already exist to become part of the BCDI Greater Los Angeles network. And so, the privilege that they’ll get from being a part of our network is to be exposed to elders, have the national programs implemented, and any programs that we decide to develop at the local level but the elders would be a part of that.

Chris Riback: And why is that important? Why does it matter for kids today to have access to elders like that?

Schellee Rocher: Well, as she said, it’s an African tradition for us and for children to… The elders bring so much, the children learn from them, a lot of lessons, a lot of wisdom, a lot of respect, and it carries on through the community. Community is a big part of having elders engaged and involved, and a lot of children unfortunately, don’t have that. So, having extra elders and extra aunts and uncles and grandparents can really, I think help us get back on track with our communities and our children.

Chris Riback: Schellee, Valeria, thank you both for everything that you do. Thank you for coming by the studio.

Schellee Rocher: Thank you for having us.

Seven babies play, coo, crawl, and attempt to walk on the floor of PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center in North Wilkesboro.

They have no idea just how lucky they are to do so on this specific floor.

Three teachers hold the infants as they need comfort or food, redirect their walking attempts, and transfer one baby at a time to the changing station in the corner.

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This is the only five-star infant classroom in Wilkes County. It serves eight babies, seven of whom were present during this visit.

“There’s a huge, huge need for infant care,” said Katy Hinson, who runs PlayWorks with her mother, Sharon Phillips. “The majority of our calls are for infant and toddler ages,” she said.

Child care options have dwindled in Wilkes County and in communities across North Carolina in recent years. From 2007 to 2022, the number of programs in Wilkes has dropped from 83 to 29, according to this summer funded by the Leonard G. Herring Family Foundation.

As the federal funds that have helped stabilize programs during the pandemic run out at the end of the year, affordable high-quality child care is about to become even harder to find in North Wilkesboro and across the state.

Along with increased tuition rates and potential wage cuts for teachers, the end of stabilization grants will mean one less teacher in the room of the eight babies at PlayWorks.

“We won’t be able to pay three people in each room, which is going to lessen the quality, which we don’t want to do,” Hinson said.

Across the state, a report from The Century Foundation 155,539 children will lose child care access as the federal funds expire. That represents 1,778 closed programs, 5,983 lost child care jobs, $416 million in lost earnings for parents, and $19 million less in state income taxes.

Advocates and certain policymakers this legislative session have pushed to help programs avoid that funding cliff for another two years. Those funds were not proposed in either the House or Senate budget proposals.

Diagnosing the need

As state budget negotiations continue in Raleigh, Wilkes County leaders are getting to work. , assembled about a year ago, held an event earlier this month to announce the release of a child care study, raise awareness about the problem posed for families and businesses, and discuss what can be done to help.

“When we had our very first focus group, there was a gentleman that stood up and said, ‘I don’t have children in child care. Why does this matter to me?’ And that was the voice of the community,” said Michelle Shepherd, executive director of the Wilkes Community Partnership for Children. “And now, look, a year later, this is a community problem 鈥� because of businesses, and bringing in industry, and the aging out of our current residents while we’re going to have an increase of children 鈥� it’s a community problem.”

The child care study, which was released by the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation (EDC), found that the county needs 836 more child care seats for children younger than five years old, almost double its current capacity of 909 seats.

The study estimated that based on the number of parents who are not currently working and the percentage of those who desire to be, offering adequate child care access in the county would add 1,000 individuals to the labor force. Wilkes EDC is communicating that figure to local businesses. The county’s labor force participation has declined from 61% in 2007 to 52% in 2021.

“It’s definitely an employer problem,” said LeeAnn Nixon, president of Wilkes EDC.

That’s why one of the study’s main recommendations is to engage the business community, both as a source of funding and as a source of training and support for new and existing providers.

“We wanted to understand the business model of the child care provider,” Nixon said. “The more we can understand that, the more we find ways to help them with resources and training.”

‘They deserve so much more’

Perhaps the most important thing to know about is that 60% to 80% of its expenses go to teachers’ wages. It is a labor-intensive industry with high turnover, especially since the pandemic. And the smaller the teacher-to-child ratios, the better the quality, and the more expensive the labor.

Rachel Brionez, one of the three teachers in the PlayWorks infant classroom, has been in that very classroom for 10 years, since the center opened. At a previous center, Brionez said she took care of five infants by herself. She has been delighted with the work environment at PlayWorks, she said.

Brionez has an associate degree in early childhood education and cares deeply about her work.

“There’s a lot more that goes into it than just sitting and being with them,” Brionez said. She and her colleagues write lesson plans, aligned to state standards, just as K-12 teachers do. They keep documentation of each child’s progress. They maintain individualized plans for how to move each child toward milestones. They understand what is developmentally appropriate and when a child needs extra supports.

“We’re not babysitters,” said Jennifer Lumley, another teacher in the room.

The center has used the expiring federal relief funds for $3 per hour raises across the board, Hinson said. For a teacher with just an early childhood credential, that meant a raise of $10 to $12 or $13 an hour, depending on the person’s experience. For a teacher with an associate degree, that has meant a raise of $12 to $14 or $15 an hour.

“Which is still too little,” Hinson said. “They deserve so much more.”

Across North Carolina, wages for lead teachers have increased by 21% after the federal grants, from a median hourly wage of $11.50 to $13.92, released in April from the North Carolina Child Care Resource & Referral Council.

Hinson said she is aware of the post-pandemic staffing challenges of other providers, but that her staff has been relatively stable.

“We try to take care of our teachers,” she said. “We treat them like humans 鈥� and professionals.”

When EdNC asked if the program will be able to sustain those wage increases, Hinson said she was still unsure.

That’s because sustained wages will mean increased fees for parents. This is the catch-22 of the child care business for directors like Hinson and Phillips who want to take care of both teachers and families.

They charge $895 per month for infant care, which is below the market rate for five-star care, because they know many parents can not afford more. They know that taking care of one group — by increasing wages for teachers — inevitably means adding stress to the other — by increasing tuition fees for families.

Ten minutes away at Wilkes Developmental Day School, Patsy Reavis, executive director of the center, is stuck grappling with the same financial equation as Hinson and Phillips.

The majority of children at the center have special needs, making them eligible for from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Reavis estimates that the true cost of care for a child with special needs is about $1600 per month. The DPI funds cover $996 per child. For the typically developing child, she estimates high-quality care costs $1200 per month. Finding the funds for those costs means blending multiple funding streams: private tuition, child care subsidy, NC Pre-K, local contributions, and small grants here and there.

“There’s a shortage everywhere,” she said. “So we’ve got to get very, very creative.”

Reavis has also used federal stabilization funds to increase teacher wages. She raised hourly pay for a teacher with an associate degree from $12 to $15.50 鈥� with similar boosts across the board, plus three rounds of bonuses.

“I refuse to take money away from the staff,” she said. “It’ll be interesting … There’s been so much attention on early education, now I’m hoping that it will generate the money.”

In the meantime, Reavis is worried about tackling hunger in her community and addressing the increased mental health needs of children and families, as well as of teachers.

She has a rule called “code break” to support teachers in particularly stressful moments, or moments where they are “confronting a situation that is causing their blood pressure to go up way too much,” she said.

During a code break, three or four adults will show up at the classroom immediately and give the teacher space to take a breath.

“I do things like that for (teacher) retention,” Reavis said. When considering how to best support her staff, she said, “I try to find everything I can.”

Despite the chaos of running a child care business, Reavis is hopeful about the direction of the county and the state.

“This is this the most transitional time I have ever experienced,” she said. “I think the good thing is we’re making businesses and politicians aware that it if we’re not here, no one else is going to be at work either,” she said. “So I’m thinking that information will trigger the funding that’s needed.”

This fight is not new to her. Reavis has been in the field since 1990, and she’s been advocating for change the entire time.

“I used to encourage every child care provider in this county to close down one day without notice, and then go to Tyson and say, ‘Did you have a lot of absences yesterday?'” she said with a chuckle. “I couldn’t talk them into doing that.”

What can be done?

is recommending attacking the problem from all angles: retaining teachers in the field and building an incoming pipeline, helping existing programs with their business models and making it easier for new providers to open, helping families navigate the current child care system and expanding parents’ options.

“I think we need to, quite frankly, not put all our eggs in one basket,” said Johanna Anderson, a consultant with the Leonard G. Herring Family Foundation who has worked with the task force throughout the study. “We have to chip away and make some movement in a variety of ways and be open to a variety of solutions.”

Anderson said the foundation will decide on further investments as the task force and its subcommittees get to work on the study’s recommendations ().

But she also said the systemic nature of these problems will require partnerships with other communities doing similar work, as well as advocacy for statewide, sustainable, and long-term funding.

“Child care is not a privately funded solution solely,” Anderson said. “We can spark ideas, we can do some research, we can do some seed funding. But to really move the needle on child care, it’s going to have to include public resources, both existing and new.”

This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Sanjit Sethi, president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, calls Ogbu 鈥渙ne of the most powerful voices in the terrain of culture, equity and the built environment. She articulates the urgent need for not merely creating more equitable communities but for this to occur by addressing both intergenerational and immediate trauma and for decolonizing the methodologies that drive this work. Liz is at once storyteller, planner, poet and designer and leads with empathy and joy in equal measure.鈥�

Ogbu spoke to Early Learning Nation magazine from her office in Oakland, California. Here are some pieces of wisdom gathered from the conversation:

Spatial justice is racial justice. 鈥淛ustice has a geography,鈥� Ogbu says. Some neighborhoods have far more access to resources and opportunities than others. In any given city, she explains, there鈥檚 an area with gleaming office towers, a transit station, and pricey apartments and shops. And there are other areas where the homes are run down, the bus routes are insufficient and vacant lots are accumulating trash. 鈥淲hen you overlay demographics onto those maps, guess where Black, Indigenous, brown and the poor traditionally wind up.鈥� She has devoted her career to erasing these artificial borders and eradicating these real differences in the name of a unified society where everyone has an opportunity to thrive.

Racist systems were set up intentionally. We must be just as intentional about dismantling them. From East New York, Brooklyn; to East St. Louis, Illinois; to East Palo Alto, California, the history of racism, segregation, poverty and devastation has played out in much the same way. How did American cities come to follow this pattern? It wasn鈥檛 an inevitable or natural process. Ogbu points to , and other racist real estate practices that enabled landlords to profit from slums and people of color to remain mired in them.

Her work on the Woodland Park Project in East Palo Alto demonstrates how to start undoing the damage. She calls the community 鈥渁n oasis of poverty in the Silicon Valley. If you’re a cleaner at Facebook, East Palo Alto is probably the only nearby city you can afford to live in.鈥�

When the 1800 units of Woodland Park came under new ownership in 2017, she was brought on to try to figure out what community building and community improvement would look like. The first and most important step was listening. 鈥淚 serve two clients,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he people who pay me, and the people who have to live with what I’ve created.鈥�

Architecture is more than just designing buildings. Ogbu often has to explain that her job transcends what is normally thought of as design and architecture. As she says in a popular TED Talk, 鈥淚 design opportunities for impact.鈥� Seen this way, the profession is less about standing at her desk and sketching the 鈥渂est鈥� house and more about engaging with residents 鈥� the real experts on the neighborhood.

鈥淚 try to learn what people鈥檚 lives are like,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 listen to find out what they need to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.鈥� Organizing house parties with groups of 10 to 12 residents, she discovered a lot of anger. 鈥淭here was a lot of yelling,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd some people shy away from that or dismiss it as the outpouring of agitators, but I think of the poet Nayyirah Waheed, who called anger 鈥榞rief that has been silent for too long.鈥欌�� Having no control over their environment, she realized, would make anyone angry.

Building trust started with finding small things that showed she was listening. In Woodland Park, she and her collaborators worked with the property manager to address a backlist of repairs, and they also built a park and initiated a partnership with the YMCA to bring classes and activities. The thing is, nobody had requested a park. 鈥淭his is where the design part comes in,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 listen to what you say is hard or what is challenging, and then I think about what is a physical response that I can create.鈥�

Children will tell you what they need 鈥� if you listen. 鈥淲hatever we build affects kids,鈥� Ogbu says. 鈥淏ut we often don’t treat them as stakeholders who have a perspective.鈥� Over the course of 10 years of programming on the site of a former power plant in Hunters Point, which has been described as she and her collaborators on that project made sure to do focus groups with young people and include them at the engagement stations set up at the annual circus and other events. 鈥淭hese kids had a tremendous amount of ideas,鈥� she says. 鈥淪ome were better than what the adults came up with. They just needed a platform to share it and for us to actually take it as real data.鈥�

Among the feedback she received was the message: 鈥淲e want a dinosaur park,鈥� and while this request wasn鈥檛 literally fulfilled, Ogbu and her collaborators (the design firms Envelope A+D and RHAA) seized on the idea of 鈥渂eing interactive with nature鈥� as a design principle, which came into existence as a shoreline park.

Children think like architects. Ogbu鈥檚 4-year-old niece has become a big influence on her work. 鈥淚鈥檓 practicing being in her land of make believe and creativity,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t’s a joy to watch her try to shape the spaces that she’s in.鈥� Ogbu believes the more people are informed about the places that they live in鈥攁nd their ability to have an impact on it 鈥� the better our spaces can be overall.

Seeing and understanding space, she argues, shouldn鈥檛 be an activity limited to trained architects. 鈥淓veryone can do that, but we just have sort of squashed it out of people. So part of my work is teasing out, like, 鈥極h, you actually know a lot. I’m just helping you understand what that is.鈥欌��

Mark Swartz: How do geographic and cultural differences manifest themselves in different First 10 Partnerships?

David Jacobson: As different as our rural and urban communities are from each other, we find that they have success with many of the same practices as long as they are tailored to meet their specific needs. In fact, in many cases, our rural and urban communities learn from each other. I can tell you about three First 10 Partnerships that are showing impact and promise 鈥� York, Pennsylvania, Russellville, Alabama and East Providence, Rhode Island.

Swartz: Let鈥檚 start with York.

Jacobson: In York, we have a champion in Andrea J. Berry, Superintendent of Schools, who talks about Bearcats from Birth. Bearcats are the district mascot, and she鈥檚 saying that as superintendent, she includes babies and toddlers in her vision. The district plays the role of backbone in that particular community, helping to convene these different partnerships. The United Way, the Community Foundation and a coalition of local county funders all support the countywide commitment to the work. The has played a critical role in bringing these funders to the table. The library system is involved, along with Head Start and community-based early childhood centers, the city Bureau of Health, and other health care providers.

Swartz: Russellville must have a very different culture, even if the concerns are similar.

Jacobson: This is a small, rural community in northwest Alabama that is working hard to serve a growing immigrant community. About half of the student body are relatively recent Spanish-speaking immigrants.

Similar to what we discussed in York, Dr. Heath Grimes, the superintendent in Russellville, talks about Golden Tigers from birth. This commitment inspires principals in First 10 communities to tell community-based preschool and Head Start directors, 鈥淭hese children are all of ours from the time they are born.鈥�

Last April, we had our first joint professional learning for pre-K, Head Start and kindergarten teachers, as part of our transition to kindergarten plan. The room was abuzz with animated conversation.

Swartz: Can you describe the meeting?

Jacobson: We met in a large boardroom, and all the teachers were at mixed tables, with at least two kindergarten teachers and several district pre-K, Head Start or community-based teachers at every table. We compared pre-K and kindergarten standards. We looked at similarities and differences. What’s hard to teach about these strategies? What teaching strategies work well? How can we better align?

At the end, the teachers said, 鈥淭his is so valuable. We can’t believe we haven’t always done this. Why haven’t we always been doing this?鈥� The principal of that school said, 鈥淲e always made sure that our second grade teachers met with the third grade teachers in the next building, but it never occurred to us to have our pre-K and kindergarten teachers meet.鈥�

This is a community that is not only bridging early childhood and K-12, but it is also broadening its partnership to include health care, social services and churches.

Swartz: This local enthusiasm can reach state administrators.

Jacobson: Yes, and Alabama has the vision of creating a pilot school-community partnership in every county in the state, starting with 19 new First 10 partnerships this fall. It is also combining a strong statewide push on early literacy with a focus on the transition to kindergarten.

We recently worked with the State of Alabama on a that the Department of Early Childhood Education is now, very thoughtfully, rolling out statewide.

Swartz: How about East Providence?

Jacobson: This is an urban community 鈥� about 47,000 residents 鈥� that’s part of a larger metropolitan area. This partnership began with a focus on the transition to kindergarten between the school district, the Head Start and a few community-based programs.

They developed a comprehensive plan and did outreach to community-based preschools. They created new opportunities for children and families, and they brought their pre-K and K teachers together for joint professional learning.

Swartz: How do they find families?

Jacobson: The district teamed up with the (EBCAP), which also runs Head Start, and the home visiting program. EBCAP places family navigators in the elementary schools that serve the highest proportion of families and households with low incomes.

They started implementing school-connected play-and-learns to reach younger children well before they get into school. Libraries and elementary schools host the groups. Each has a caregiver learning component, and each deliberately connects families to health care and other services in the community. The East Providence Public Schools, the library and EBCAP are pooling talent and learning from each other, something we love to see in all our communities.

Swartz: What part does the state play?

Jacobson: The Rhode Island Department of Education rolled out this work and has been deliberate about recruiting communities that have the highest concentrations of families and households with low incomes.

Rhode Island is a small state, but we’ve now reached the one-third of communities that have the highest proportion of households with low incomes.

Swartz: It鈥檚 all coming together, then.

Jacobson: When school districts and elementary schools come together with early childhood programs and other community agencies, and when they have success implementing concrete strategies, that’s when the partnerships deepen and grow.

BCC鈥檚 Chief People Officer Amy Clark says the policies arose partly in response to the pandemic. 鈥淲e saw women leaving the workforce,鈥� she recalls, 鈥渁nd we started asking ourselves how to help them come back. Paid parental leave, which I didn’t have when I had my children, is one important way we are addressing the problem. We also have a very flexible work environment that allows people to take time away from work to be with their families.鈥�

Jon Williams began W&A Engineering in 1999 and has grown the operation to a collaborative of companies providing comprehensive development services across the country. He mentions a surveyor taking advantage of BCC鈥檚 family leave policy 鈥� 30 days paid 鈥� because of a medical issue with his child. 鈥淚t’s an easy request to accommodate,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd it’s just the right thing to do. How do you expect somebody to come to work to be productive if they’ve got a loved one that they’re having to take care of?鈥�

The impact of this commitment goes beyond BCC鈥檚 150 employees and well beyond Athens. 鈥淥ur employees are talking about this stuff with their friends,鈥� says Williams. 鈥淲e have an employee in Birmingham, Alabama, whose father owns a manufacturing facility. When she told him about our parental leave policy, our adoption and foster assistance policies, he requested a copy and changed their work environment.鈥�

Williams also mentions a high-end restaurant group in Colorado that was struggling to find and retain staff until they adopted some of the policies they learned about through BCC. 鈥淲hen I hear one of those stories,鈥� he says, 鈥渢hat is when I know that what we’re doing is working.鈥�

To celebrate workplaces that work for everybody, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation highlights BCC in its . The roadmap also features an energy company, an education company in Denver, a car manufacturer in Huntsville, Alabama and a burger joint in Seattle.

Building on the positive impacts of the paid leave policy, the Chamber Foundation highlighted BCC鈥檚 鈥渇lexible hours鈥� approach and positive company culture.

Clark鈥檚 philosophy is simple: 鈥淛ust start with something. Maybe we can鈥檛 do the thing that the big companies do, but we can do something small like flexibility that means a whole lot to our employees.鈥�

鈥淔lexible hours and targeted shift scheduling are great tangible tactics to ensure that parents can address their children’s needs while remaining active members of the workforce,鈥� commented Aaron Merchen, who leads the Chamber Foundation鈥檚 early childhood portfolio.  鈥淭his simple but powerful step can work across large corporations and small, family-run operations.鈥�

Originally from a 鈥渄eep South鈥� rural part of Georgia, Williams, 50, started working in his father’s grocery store when he was in seventh grade. His mother and uncle were teachers, and his grandfather was a high school principal. 鈥淐oming from a from a long line of educators,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 never forget the role that education plays in achieving career goals.鈥�

When he started BCC, he reflected on questions like, 鈥漌hat do I really want this company to be about? What do I really want it to stand for?鈥� BCC embraces the mission of building better communities through philanthropy, green building practices, the way we consult with our clients and educating area students about career possibilities. During the pandemic, BCC set up a testing facility in the parking lot to assist the county and the community. Beyond these examples of corporate citizenship, however, Williams maintains that business itself has to change. As examples of the ethos he admires, he cites Patagonia, the clothing company whose founder Yvon Chouinard by transferring ownership to a mission-driven trust, and , which has become known for sustainability and ethical sourcing. He strives to learn from successful entrepreneurs large and small. Accenture鈥檚 research into what it takes for employees to be has confirmed his instinct about supporting talent.

According to Clark, 鈥淏CC is always trying to learn from other companies and do more. A great benefit of being part of the Chamber of Commerce Foundation video series was seeing all the different ways we could help our working families.鈥�

BCC鈥檚 vision of work-life balance acknowledges that mental health is just as important as physical health. In , Williams says, 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about [mental health] more today than we ever have in the past.鈥� People are under constant stresses, whether it鈥檚 a mass shooting, a global pandemic or other societal tensions. Now is the time to discuss this and to not turn away from it.鈥�

Currently, BCC鈥檚 health insurance is administered through a professional employer organization (a group that negotiates terms through collective buying), but as the company grows, Clark says they hope to expand family-friendly policies to include fertility treatments and other interventions that aren鈥檛 normally covered. 鈥淲hen we make these type of changes, people working at other companies hear about it, and they push their human resources departments to follow suit,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a ripple effect.鈥�

鈥淎m I going to solve all this in the course of my career?鈥� asks Williams, who appears in a (GEEARS) video advocating for paid leave legislation, stressing the business advantages of being able to attract and retain talent. 鈥滻 don’t know. But I mean, we’re going to give it a shot. We’re going to keep working on it and keep talking about it.鈥�

Barton realizes that understanding a 4-year-old鈥檚 outburst demands another, deeper level of reflection. 鈥淭here’s a lot going on behind what happened before that desk got thrown,鈥� she says. When she reached out to (LFC) in 2020, she was seeking a partner who could help the early learning system of Marin County develop its equity fluency so that every adult would feel equipped with the internal skills and strong partnerships vital to support children.

LFC鈥檚 mutual learning programs are delivered through a series of convenings that bring together adults from diverse roles, known as Learning Networks. 鈥淲e have had a lot of trainings about equity and diversity,鈥� Barton recalls, 鈥渂ut what I really wanted was for everyone to work together in a way that’s equitable.鈥�

Nichole Parks, LFC鈥檚 director of programs, says the Marin County Learning Network members find self-empowerment through equitable conversations. 鈥淥ne member said she was able to have an open dialogue with her father and say, 鈥業 believe that I am smart. I believe that as a woman, I can go to college and have a career.鈥� And that鈥檚 exactly what she鈥檚 doing,鈥� Parks says.

LFC has partnered with organizations to establish Learning Networks in 11 states and Washington, D.C., that are striving to create cultures of equity, shared learning and collaborative decision-making. These Learning Networks convene all the stakeholders 鈥� not just teachers and parents, but also bus drivers, administrative staff and social workers 鈥� to work together on dialogue and shared solutions.

Executive Director Judy Jablon says that LFC focuses on adults in the early learning ecosystem because 鈥渃hildren learn respect, dignity and empathy from the adults in their lives.鈥�

Parks adds, 鈥淐hildren learn what they live.鈥� For this reason, LFC has focused their work on supporting communities to create and model equitable relationships. Members who have engaged in mutual learning experiences report increased self-confidence, sense of agency in their interactions and respect for diverse perspectives.

Marin County鈥檚 equity issues are all its own, but they also speak to economic and racial divides across the nation. , it is one of the most segregated in the region. 鈥淭his is a county of privilege and wealth as well as hard-working communities in poverty,鈥� Barton says.

Barton engaged LFC to supplement statewide efforts such as the (DRDP), an assessment tool that helps educators see children through a developmental lens, though she notes that it is mandated for use only in state-funded, low-income settings. 鈥淲hat does it say that we鈥檙e assessing these children and not the ones from privileged families?鈥� she asks. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a built-in distortion.鈥�

To address such structural issues, Barton instituted a project for incoming kindergarteners, where their preschool teachers meet with the new teachers to share the DRDP as well as a strengths-based list of 鈥渢hings you should know about this child.鈥�

J is a dual language learner. He has excellent English language skills (expressive, receptive, reciprocal). He has worked extremely hard to express how he is feeling.

J loves art and drawing. He can sit for a long time and focus on what he is drawing.

J is a master rhymer. He loves rhyming games and is very good at it.

鈥淪itting with preschool teachers, and kindergarten teachers in our initial Zoom meetings,鈥� Barton recalls. 鈥淚 could feel the bias of the elementary school teachers break and drop away from them.鈥�

鈥淲hat they鈥檙e doing is breaking down power structures,鈥� says Parks. 鈥淲e know that power is at the core of inequity, and we know it is cruel to assess children without really seeing them.鈥�

Returning once again to the desk-throwing child, Barton acknowledges that the early learning classroom is 鈥渁n incredibly hard world to be your best person in and to show up that way or to have empathy and compassion for every other being in your space.鈥� Nevertheless, she urges those stressed, underpaid educators to ask, 鈥淲hat is he experiencing in this moment? And how can I connect with him so that he can self-regulate in this moment? But first, as the adult, I have to be self-aware, and I have to be able to self-regulate.鈥�

The same self-awareness matters when dealing with adult-adult relationships in the child care setting. Jablon says, 鈥淥ur adult relationships are fraught with distrust and uneven power dynamics, creating toxicity that undermines the success of young children.鈥�

Barton tells a story of a dad who, in his anger, was using aggressive language with an educator. 鈥淭he educator explained that previously, his aggressive tone and words had caused her to withdraw. Although she didn鈥檛 find his style appropriate, she has learned to ask herself, 鈥榃hat is he trying to tell me? What is he trying to say that he needs?鈥� So she stopped and said, 鈥業 hear you. Your feelings are valid. How can I help you?鈥� Her self-awareness and sense of empowerment allowed her to work with him towards a solution that benefited his son.鈥�

鈥淭he systems we have are not set up to support empathy and compassion,鈥� says Barton. 鈥淭hey’re not set up to help us cultivate our own self-awareness. In fact, I think we are in systems that actively drive all that out of us.鈥�

Engaging with LFC is a step toward reimagining systems that have functioned so long with their built-in inequities that those inside the systems often don鈥檛 even notice them. Breaking them down starts with creating safe and respectful spaces where open, honest and courageous conversations can happen.

Valley Settlement, an independent nonprofit that works to address the needs of immigrant families in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valleys, began in 2011 as a project of MANAUS, a social justice organization based in Carbondale, Colorado. Supported by a planning grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Valley Settlement sent bilingual, bicultural community organizers on a deep-listening tour of the valley鈥檚 low-income families to hear first-hand their experiences of living in this region that is home to the bustling resort community of Aspen and some of the highest levels of economic disparity in the nation.

鈥淭he community organizers went door to door and spoke with folks over coffee at their kitchen tables, or went into churches and just had conversations about their lives and tried to deeply understand what their experience was in this community and what they wanted,鈥� says Sally Boughton, director of Development and Communications. 鈥淎t the same time, other staff went out and spoke to local service agencies to find out how they were reaching 鈥� or failing to reach 鈥� the Latino population.鈥�

The organizers discovered that only 1 percent of age-eligible children were enrolled in a preschool program, with families citing transportation as a major barrier to their children attending school. Because the cost of housing in Aspen is completely out of reach for these working families (average cost of a single-family home in October 2022: $4.53 million), many end up moving to communities such as Rifle, nearly 70 miles from Aspen, a trip that can take at least an hour and a half each way鈥攚ithout snow or traffic. Responding to that concern, Valley Settlement developed its El Busesito (鈥渓ittle bus鈥�) program, which now comprises four buses with two bilingual, bicultural lead teachers each traveling to take this free preschool to five different neighborhoods 鈥� making school within walking distance of most families. And yes, the teachers learn to drive the bus.

The mobile preschool program was only the beginning for Valley Settlement. In conversations with the immigrant families, organizers found that many with younger children didn鈥檛 know where preschools were or how to access them. Those who had children in the local school system didn鈥檛 feel that they could communicate with teachers and administrators at their children鈥檚 elementary and middle schools, and those who tried encountered a language and culture barrier. More than half the children in the valley are Latino, Boughton says, but most of the teachers and center staff in the community are monolingual English speakers鈥攁 situation that is beginning to shift but is still an issue. Parents felt uncomfortable going into their children鈥檚 school, felt uncomfortable trying to talk to their teachers, didn鈥檛 feel that they knew what was going on and didn鈥檛 have an administrator they could talk to about any of it.

In response to these concerns, Valley Settlement established the Parent Mentor program, a volunteer program that trains parents and community members to serve as a bridge between Latino families and local schools, supporting students one-on-one as well as supporting teachers in the classroom.

As these two programs grew, staff continued to ask and listen for what the community needed. What has evolved is not so much a network as un abrazo, an embrace that envelopes the community鈥檚 children with as much support as possible. It is two-generation programming that extends that definition beyond simply 鈥渃hildren and their parents鈥� to include the other lives that touch and support them.

Much of the children鈥檚 care is by relatives, neighbors or other community members who have the children during the long hours when their parents are working. Valley Settlement established the Family, Friends and Neighbors program to offer this cohort of women, some of whom have been providing child care in their neighborhoods for years, an opportunity for professional development. A two-year curriculum offers training in child development, educational enrichment and practices to make the child care environment safer, such as baby gates and childproof plugs on electrical outlets.

These providers have much more than full-time job, says director of Programs and Innovation Kenia Pinela, so the program had to be tailored to meet their needs.

鈥淲e were trying to add coaching and mentoring on top of what they were already doing,鈥� Pinela says. 鈥淪ometimes kids arrive at your home at 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. and don鈥檛 leave until 7 p.m.,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 realized early on that if we wanted to create a program that鈥檚 going to work for providers, we have to be there in that controlled chaos when the kids are in their homes.鈥�

The providers themselves created the curriculum out of questions they wanted answered, such as child development, social-emotional topics for the kids and mental health topics for themselves. The program also discusses business topics, so the women begin thinking of what they鈥檙e doing in terms of running a business. The curriculum also provides much of what will be required if the providers decide they want to go through the process of becoming licensed.

Listening is at the core of all of Valley Settlement鈥檚 programs, all which centers around what it takes to have children鈥檚 lives flourish. The reality is that children can鈥檛 have great lives in isolation, so serving their families and the larger community becomes the mission, too.

• Learning with Love grew out of El Busesito teachers鈥� observation that many of the parents dropping off their preschoolers either had infants in arms or were pregnant. The parents said they鈥檇 like to know more about what鈥檚 going on with their babies鈥� development. Now, 48 caregivers and their children aged zero to 3 receive home visits and attend classes to provide the babies with a solid start.
• Lifelong Learning provides parents free courses in English, Spanish, computer skills, math, and GED prep.
• Family Support Team offers holistic services to everyone who participates in Valley Settlement programs, providing navigators who can steer families to the services they need from legal support to resources when a parent has been sick and unable to work, and anything else they need to thrive.
• Alma, Spanish for 鈥渟oul,鈥� began as a research project co-created with the University of Colorado, Boulder, and was so successful it is now a program providing 肠辞尘辫补帽别谤补蝉, women trained in peer mentoring to support mothers experiencing perinatal depression.

A large component of Valley Settlement鈥檚 success 鈥� and its , wait lists and robust growth鈥攃omes from its deep knowledge of the community, possible because the organization is not only for the community, it is from the community. While many organizations give lip service to the idea of promoting from within the ranks, recruiting from the community and promoting from within are core values for Valley Settlement.

Karla Reyes started as an assistant teacher in 2015, managed Learning with Love and is now manager of the Busesito program.

鈥淚 love working with this Latino community that I鈥檓 from and being able to provide such a special experience for our kiddos,鈥� Reyes says. 鈥淲hat other preschool program will have two bilingual teachers greeting the children鈥檚 parents in the language they speak freely and making them feel so welcome?鈥�

She adds, 鈥淲e definitely have challenges with having such a unique classroom setup (Can you say starting four buses in sub-zero weather?), but we鈥檙e breaking down barriers,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd if that鈥檚 what it takes to get our children into preschool and learning before they walk into their kindergarten classroom, it鈥檚 definitely worth whatever it takes.鈥�

Pinela, director of Programs and Innovation, started as a babysitter when one of the community organizers mentioned 鈥渢his awesome program called Parent Mentor鈥� that needed people to watch their smaller children while they were volunteering at the elementary school. That quickly evolved into becoming a community organizer (鈥淭hey said they would train me to go out and talk to people. I said, 鈥楳y God, I鈥檓 a Latina, I鈥檓 great at that!鈥欌��) and ultimately being responsible for leading Family, Friends and Neighbors, Family Support Team and the Alma program.

鈥淥ne of the unique values of Valley Settlement is seeing people鈥檚 abilities and potential,鈥� Pinela says. 鈥淲hen you apply for a job, (prospective employers) often want to know where you went to school and what your credentials are. Here, they always see something in you that you don鈥檛 even see in yourself.鈥�

In looking at what鈥檚 next for the organization, the process is by now familiar. The staff鈥攁ll the staff, from directors to teachers to anyone on the program staff鈥攚ill get together and start knocking on doors.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 recruit for any specific program,鈥� Reyes says, 鈥渂ecause sometimes you might knock on the door and the family doesn鈥檛 have a kiddo from 3 to 5, but they might be interested in adult education or another program.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been neat to see each of our programs evolving from this beginning to the stage they鈥檙e in now,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ur process is to always do our best for our community and if something isn鈥檛 working, let鈥檚 figure out a solution.鈥�

The Valley Settlement way.

St. Andrew distributed 46 million pounds of food in 2021, about half of which is gleaned, or recovered after the first harvest. With operations in 22 states, the four-decades-old organization specializes in doing good locally. According to Johnson, more than half of the recovered food makes it someone’s table the same night that it’s gleaned, often within just a few miles of the field where it was grown. 鈥淚t’s really a neighbor-helping-neighbor model of addressing hunger,鈥� she says.

Here are 5 lessons from Johnson about cultivating literally and figuratively.

1. The Good Book is a good place to start. 鈥淭he staff and I,鈥� Johnson says, 鈥渃ome to this work because we feel called to it.鈥� The nonprofit is named for the apostle Andrew, who spoke to the boy who offered to share his five loaves and two fish with Jesus 鈥� who then fed thousands by multiplying this offering. Johnson explains that the Bible commands followers 鈥渢o care for the people who did not have land on which to grow food. The poor are allowed to harvest the corners of every field.鈥�

Similarly, farmers can harvest a field once, but the poor are granted the second harvest. She explains, 鈥淲e’ve adapted that principle for use today. We send volunteers in the fields to pick, dig or gather whatever’s left over after commercial harvest.鈥� That food 鈥� the gleanings 鈥� are distributed to agencies nearby that feed hungry people.

2. No farms, no food. Most of us don’t know or think about where our food comes from. Food systems are designed to keep consumers happily oblivious. As an example, Johnson notes that junk food is often very heavily subsidized. 鈥淪omeone who’s hungry can go buy a Twinkie for $0.79 or an apple for $0.79, and while the apple is better for them, it has only 70 calories and isn’t going to fill them up, and the Twinkie will have 300 calories and they can go to bed and sleep tonight.鈥�

St. Andrew fights hunger in part by reacquainting volunteers with the farmers who grow our potatoes, broccoli and green beans.  Many of its farmer partnerships go back decades, enduring good times and bad. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about that feeling deep down inside, doing what you know is right,鈥� says Brent Barbee of Barbee Farms in North Carolina.

farms account for 21% of all food waste in the United States. You know who hates that statistic the most? 鈥淔armers don’t want the food to rot in the field,鈥� Johnson says. That’s their worst nightmare, because they’ve used the land, they’ve used their resources, their time and everything else to grow that food.鈥�

St. Andrew provides a service by collecting food that that the farmer would not be able to sell otherwise. Farmers can get a federal tax credit for the food that they give the organization.

3. Volunteers make it work. In an average, non-COVID year, 30,000 volunteers give about 90,000 volunteer hours through St. Andrew. (After a sudden steep decline at the start of the pandemic, numbers are climbing back up.) a day or two ahead of time.

鈥淕leaning with St. Andrew,鈥� Johnson says, 鈥渋s one of the few things that I know of in current society that the whole family can do together in a meaningful way. We have kids as young as, well as infants, strapped to their parents’ backs gleaning with us, and certainly at 1 or 2 actively taking part in the gleaning.鈥�

Johnson says that volunteers report eating differently and seeing food differently after their experience. 鈥淔armers are getting just 4% or 8% of what they pay at the grocery store for food,鈥� she explains, 鈥渨hereas if they’re buying it directly from the farmer, the farmer’s getting 100%.鈥�

Volunteers might start shopping at farmer’s markets and farm stands more often. 鈥淎fter they鈥檝e gleaned with us, they actually talk to farmers like they’re real people,鈥� she laughs. Moreover, volunteers who unload food might discover a food pantry or soup kitchen, becoming activists in the campaign against hunger. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 truly appreciate the weight, the importance, or the accessibility of gleaning, until you do it,鈥� says Jim, a volunteer in Ohio.

4. Go for you dream job, but be patient. Johnson has been with St. Andrew a little over 12 years, with nearly half of that time in the executive director role, but the organization was on her radar long before that. In 1986, while working as a church educator in South Carolina, she read a magazine article about St. Andrew鈥檚 retreat, which educates participants about hunger, introduces them to gleaning and encourages them to commit to serving others. The story stayed with her. And wouldn鈥檛 let go.

鈥淔or 30 years, whenever I got really tired of my job, I’d go to the website and see if there was a  job I could afford to take. My children got so tired of me talking about how much I wanted to work there. Then one day the opportunity came up, and here I am.鈥�

5. Look out for curve balls. Shortly after starting at St. Andrew, Johnson learned that her son, a second-year law student, had a brain tumor. 鈥淓verybody鈥檚 struggling with something,鈥� she observes, saying she spent most of this period worrying from afar.

Today, Jake Patterson, 29, is a practicing attorney. Johnson鈥檚 daughter, 26, is a wildland firefighter in Northern Calif., and her youngest is 21. He鈥檚 in the army stationed in Tacoma, Wash. The pandemic, of course, was another kind of nasty surprise. You can’t glean by Zoom, but Johnson and her team quickly adapted. Because of their participation in the program (now discontinued), they distributed more pounds of food than ever in 2020 and 2021.

For the farmers, the volunteers and, especially, the 18.6 million people who eat the food their efforts makes available, Lynette Johnson and the Society of St. Andrew are truly making a difference.

Chris Riback:听Vice Mayor Abbot. Thank you so much for joining us.

Katie Abbott:听Thanks for having me.

Chris Riback:听Looking Forward to chatting.

Katie Abbott:听Yes.

Chris Riback: Describe Pinecrest, Florida, for me please. What is the community like? What are your biggest challenges?

Katie Abbott:听So, Pinecrest, Florida is a municipality of Miami-Dade County. So, Miami-Dade county is this big. It has 34 municipalities, and we are one of them. We’re a suburb of Miami. It has about 18,000 residents. We’re 26 years old. We just celebrated our 26 anniversary last week, so we’re very proud of that. We are, some still consider us a semi-rural community. We are very family-focused. We’re school-focused. It’s a wonderful place to be. I grew up there. It’s just night and day from when I was there.

Chris Riback: I understand that one of your governing philosophies is cradle to grave.

Katie Abbott:听Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Chris Riback:听Tell me about the cradle part. What’s the role of government in early childhood learning?

Katie Abbott:听So, it’s interesting in Pinecrest, because our school system, our public school system is actually Miami-Dade. So, it’s a bigger picture, but we work so closely with our schools. We have five public schools in Pinecrest. We have an education committee that we meet monthly with our principals, with our school board, with the whole district. We have parents who are interested. We give yearly grants to our five schools of $10,000 each. So, there’s a real tight connection between our local government and Miami-Dade County public schools.

Chris Riback:听What’s that coordination like what? What lessons, what guidance might you have for other officials who also have to do that type of coordination, because any effort like this requires working across levels of government, and then also with local community members?

Katie Abbott:听 Absolutely. I think it’s all about reaching out, and making connections, and getting to know your representative. So, for example, our school board member, I know her well. I can email her. We’ve talked. We’re very open, and I think sometimes even elected officials are hesitant to reach out to other elected officials.

Chris Riback:听Yes.

Katie Abbott:听But you really need to keep that line of communication open in order to get things done.

Chris Riback:听What is the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council?

Katie Abbott:听It’s my favorite.

Chris Riback:听Well, tell me about it then please.

Katie Abbott: I am so proud. I co-coordinate our Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council. It’s 24 students who live in Pinecrest. They go to various schools. So, they go to private schools. They go to public schools. They’re eighth grade to 12th grade, and they’re just students who are devoted to learning about government number one, and number two, giving back to the community. So, they volunteer at our events. We hold workshops for youth. Anyone is able to come, and then we talk about to topics that are of interest to them.

Chris Riback:听What’s of interest to them? What are they bringing to you these days?

Katie Abbott:听So, okay. So, right before I came here, we had one on the environment and the changing climate. We had a local executive director of an art facility come and talk about rising sea levels. We talked about elevation of the student’s houses. They got to make a flag that put, they put the elevation on it. They planted a mangrove. We talk about college interviews, 101, college hazing, topics that are of interest to that age group.

Chris Riback:听How do you also navigate, because you’ve talking about a lot of important issues, sometimes personal issues how do you navigate progress when an environment sometimes can become political? We see news from Florida, but Florida’s not the only place.

Katie Abbott:听Right.

Chris Riback:听Every state, every local municipality has its politics. How do you push past politics to make progress?

Katie Abbott:听Absolutely. In Florida, in particular, it’s getting a little bit more challenging, especially with recent proposed legislation that we’re trying to navigate. Here at the conference yesterday, we were talking about efforts that they were proposing that actually, I might not be able to do, going forward. So, it’s very challenging. We can continue to work on it. We continue to do what we think is best for our community and our children. We just, we can’t give up, right? We have to keep doing what we need to do.

Chris Riback:听Got to keep pushing forward.

Katie Abbott:听Yes.

Chris Riback:听Now, you know that I cannot have a conversation with you without asking as well, about Palmetto High School.

Katie Abbott:听Yes.

Chris Riback:听I understand that there’s a debate team that has had a few stars-

Katie Abbott: A few.

Chris Riback:听… of which, you might be among the most famous, but maybe-

Katie Abbott:听Absolutely not.

Chris Riback:听Maybe not the most famous.

Katie Abbott:听Not the most famous. So, our school, our local public school, support public schools, has produced many people who are successful in the world, including Ketanji Brown Jackson, our current Supreme Court nominee. Jeff Bezos went there. He was valedictorian. Our current Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy-

Chris Riback:听Yes.

Katie Abbott:听 … went there. Many more successful people, whether you know them or not out of this public school, outside of Miami, Florida.

Chris Riback:听There’s a lesson there isn’t there?

Katie Abbott:听There’s a lesson there. There is certainly a lesson there. We have to keep supporting our public education.

Chris Riback:听 Got to keep supporting public education, and got to watch out for who comes out of Palmetto, because they might run a big company, or become a new Supreme Court Justice.

Katie Abbott: Yes. Absolutely.

Chris Riback:听Or a Vice-

Katie Abbott:听Or a Surgeon General.

Chris Riback: Or a Surgeon General, or a Vice Mayor.

Katie Abbott:听Or a NASA astronaut. We’ve one of those.

Chris Riback:听You have one of those?

Katie Abbott:听听Yes.

Chris Riback:听听Or a Vice Mayor of Pinecrest.

Katie Abbott:听Or a Vice Mayor of Pinecrest.

Chris Riback:听Thank you so much for joining us today.

Katie Abbott:听Thank you so much. This was great.

Chris Riback: Ron, great to see you. Thank you for joining us at the studio.

Ron Fairchild:听Thanks for having me, Chris.

Chris Riback:听So, what is the Smarter Learning Group? Who do you work with, and what do you do?

Ron Fairchild:听Yes, so the Smarter Learning Group is our consulting practice. We started about 11 years ago. We work with foundations, nonprofits, school districts across the country, all trying to expand educational opportunities for low-income kids and families.

Chris Riback: COVID helped really shine a light on the myriad gaps that exist. I mean, yes, childhood learning, but all also there are issues in access to health care, safe employment, child care, and more. How do you help communities think about prioritizing early childhood learning when there’s so much else going on?

Ron Fairchild:听There is a lot going on. I’ve dedicated my career to educational equity. I’ve been a teacher. I’ve worked in the nonprofit field. Prior to starting a consulting practice, I founded the National Summer Learning Association. So, my whole career has been about really expanding opportunities for kids and families who haven’t had them. What I have learned over the years is that local communities really have the power and the ideas and the innovation that it takes to close opportunity gaps and to really expand learning opportunities for young people.

I think what it takes is some kind of organizing framework. We’ve done a lot of work with The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading over the last 10 years. What we’ve learned from local communities, if you have a milestone that really matters, that’s consequential in the lives of young people, you can really rally and mobilize an entire community around a metric and around data to improve something like grade-level reading proficiency, when it tends to be an issue that really can galvanize a lot of public support that otherwise might not exist.

Chris Riback:听So, give me an example of that. Maybe a community, if you can name it, great, but if you can’t, just give me the example, of how you help them think about really navigate through all of those challenges. It feels to me, as an outsider, that it’s this combination of navigating a bunch of different challenges and then finding a way to connect the opportunities and the outcomes. But give me an example of something that you guys have done.

Ron Fairchild:听Well, I think the starting point is really critical. So, one of the things that we did very early on with The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading-

Chris Riback:听Yes.

Ron Fairchild: … I’m going to say, this really is a strategy about disrupting generational poverty, which is a way to bring people together to say, “If you really want to disrupt generational poverty, one of the earliest and best measures we have is whether or not kids are reading proficiently by the end of third grade.”

And what we know is far too many kids are missing that milestone. Far too many kids are not hitting the mark on that. And what we can do, I think, when we agree on a milestone like that, as a community, you can bring a lot of partners to the table and really say, “Hey, wait a minute. The birthright promise of this country is the notion that where you started should not determine where you end up.”

And what we know is for far too many kids and families, without hitting that milestone, they’re not going to succeed. And, so, that has been a formula that has helped mobilize and energize communities to take action. And I don’t think anything motivates people to take action more than knowing that when they actually do take action, that that adds up to real progress. It can make a real difference in the lives of kids and families.

And we know that if you want to move something like third-grade reading, makes no sense to start in third grade. You’ve got to start prenatal, all the way to third grade. And so many of our challenges, so many of our problems, feel so big and intractable-

Chris Riback:听Yes. Yep.

Ron Fairchild:听… and so fractious, that I think sometimes what we need is a framework, something we can agree on, a set of data that we can all look at and say, “You know, we really have a problem here. We’ve got to do something. Who do we need to bring to the table to really make progress, to do something about that?”

Chris Riback:听 So, what’s your guidance for local officials, maybe it’s school boards, but maybe it’s mayors or city councils, who say to you, “I would love to do that, but have you been to one of my school board meetings lately? I can’t get parents to agree on anything.”

What tips do you have? How do you get them to come together, at a time when it feels like getting communities together on even the simplest issues can be challenging?

Ron Fairchild:听Yes. I think what we need is common sense consensus. And I think the key to that, often, is leading by listening, by really hearing what people have to say, understanding what the underlying concerns are. I have yet to meet a parent or a community leader who thinks helping kids learn to read is a bad idea.

So, I think things like that, hard to get folks to argue with the idea that kids should be engaged in productive, constructive learning activities-

Chris Riback:听Yes.

Ron Fairchild:听 … in every setting or every context, summer or after-school learning. These are all things throughout my career that I’ve really dedicated my life to, really, because I’ve seen, not just the power and the impact of those programs and opportunities, but the ability to really galvanize people around things that really most folks agree with. I mean, I look for an 80-20 kinds of issues, where you get [crosstalk] 80% of people agree that this is a good idea, then surely, starting with the kids and families that need those opportunities the most, makes good sense.

Chris Riback:听Do any of the parents, I don’t know if you end up engaging with the parents, do any of the parents talk to you about, “I was skeptical that I could find something that I agreed with, with this school board, with this city council, but this program really helped me understand what the opportunities can be.”

Do you get any of the feedback from the parents, or is that not where your feedback comes from? Do you hear more from the public officials?

Ron Fairchild:听Well, I think talking to parents is absolutely critical and essential, both parents that are struggling and that are encountering challenges and barriers, but also the parents who’ve succeeded, perhaps even succeeded against the odds. I think we need to take the time to understand their journeys, what it took for them and their kids to succeed. I think that’s absolutely critical and important.

And one of the major problems sometimes, I think, for many public officials and folks who do work like we do, is we get too far away from community and get too far away from the real needs that parents and families have. And I don’t think anything has reinforced that more than the experience we’ve been through over the last two years with COVID.

Chris Riback:听And what’s your outlook? I mean, you get to talk with officials all over the country, see programs all over the country. What’s your outlook for us?

Ron Fairchild:听I’m energized, and I’m excited, and I’m hopeful about what I see as an opportunity to recover in ways that are a lot better than where we were prior to COVID. I don’t think-

Chris Riback:听You see that energy?

Ron Fairchild:听I see that. I see that energy. I mean, it’s hard not to feel that when you’re with more than 2000 elected leaders in an event like this.

Chris Riback:听Yes.

Ron Fairchild:听And to really start to see the creativity and the resources, really, to back that up. I think we’re at an unprecedented opportunity. I know that word is used all the time now, but I really don’t think that is … that’s overstating it.

I mean, we are in a situation now, where I don’t hear too often from folks that say, “Oh, we don’t have the money to do that anymore.” They do. And it’s just how the resources get deployed and prioritized. And the communities that have really spent the last 10, 15 years building infrastructure around child care, around early learning, they’re so much better poised to take advantage of this opportunity and to meet the moment than places that haven’t.

Chris Riback:听Well, it’s excellent to hear. We will take your energy, and we will try to help spread it. Ron, thank you for joining us in the studio.

Ron Fairchild:听Thank you. It’s great to be with you.

Chris Riback:听Tonja, thank you for coming to the studio. It’s great to see you again.

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Thanks for having me, Chris.

Chris Riback:听How is the conference going?

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Oh, it’s going great. We’re excited. This is the first time in over two years that we’re in-person, we get to see our members and it’s been fabulous.

Chris Riback:听What are you hearing and what have you been seeing as you’ve been preparing for the conference? What’s the state of early childhood learning in many of our cities and local communities?

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Sure. I’m hearing from our member cities that there’s just a need to reconnect and get back together. It’s been a challenging two years, and elected officials have been faced with numerous challenges on the physical infrastructure, as well as human infrastructure. So now with the passage of so much federal legislation and investment in cities, this is a great opportunity for them to get together and kind of compare notes.

Many have submitted plans of recovery plans, and now is the time to really execute and implement. So, this is a conference that’s designed to bring members together to do that kind of peer-to-peer learning and to share ideas, and to share their challenges and strategize as the ways to overcome those challenges.

So I’m hearing optimism, as well as it’s a hard time. I mean, every day families are faced with new challenges, and as elected officials at the local level, you have to be present and you have to be responsive and meet the needs of your residents and your constituents. So it’s much challenging time, but it’s also an opportunity to really meet those needs like never before.

Chris Riback:听What are you hearing from them about the ability to prioritize? So hard. I mean, you know all of the challenges that our cities face, I know some of them. Health, environment, education, jobs, higher learning.

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Yes.

Chris Riback:听The list goes on, infrastructure. How do they think about prioritizing early learning?

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Yes. Well, I think what we’ve been doing, Chris, is we’ve been working with our member cities not to see early childhood as something separate over in the corner, but that those human infrastructure needs, whether it’s roads or bridges or housing, whatever the issue may be, there is a direct connection to early learning. So I think when we are able to make the case using data, using science about the importance of the early years, how that kind of lays the foundation for everything else.

So if the youngest residents are healthy and doing well, then the rest of things kind of fall into place and families get to be able to meet their needs, meet the challenges of the day. It’s important for us to help our elected officials have the resources in place so that families can meet those needs, so that they can maximize their potential and be successful. So, we’re working hard to make sure that there is an integration and alignment with those bigger city issues and early learning, because there is a direct connection.

Chris Riback: Have you heard anything about what was lost and how that translates into opportunities?

Dr. Tonja Rucker: Yes, I think the in-person connection and the loss of feeling connected. I think when folks were asked to isolate and to stay in, we had to redo how we think about showing up every day, and those-

Chris Riback:听Every day and everything, yes.

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Every day at every level. Even the youngest residents, our little ones, not being able to socialize, it’s such an important part of life. Whether you’re five years old, three-year-old or an adult, and those social connections and those human contact points were just such a loss for folks. So now as we safely emerge, our leaders were very much prioritizing safety and the wellbeing of their residents. So as we’re kind of coming out of this, I think the opportunity exists to kind of reconnect and address some of those social-emotional challenges that came from the isolation.

So I do think there’s an opportunity for elected officials to connect across their city landscape with residents to reengage and to listen, because I think life has changed for so many, and so we want to make sure that our members are in a listening mode and that they take that information and go back and design programs and policies that are responsive and that are meeting the lived experiences of their residents. So, I think it’s an opportunity to really do that and restructure how city government works for the benefit of all their residents.

Chris Riback: When you talk about that structure and the connectedness, you mentioned how early learning is connected to safety, is connected to infrastructure. What are you hearing from the business communities? They have a lot of challenges as well. What is their role in this and what are you hearing from them?

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Oh, I think the business community plays a tremendous role in this kind of recovery. If we’re going to have an equitable recovery, I think the role that they can play to join their elected officials and the bully pulpit to really elevate for those folks that may be a little not quite certain and see those direct connections. The business community having that added voice to government could really kind of solidify the messaging, and using that bully pulpit in a way that brings everybody on board.

I think many elected officials want strong economic development and growth for their cities, and so being able to partner with their business leaders, along with parents and along with community-based organizations, anchoring a collective vision for their cities is very important, and business leaders play an important role in that.

Chris Riback:听Tonja, what’s next for The National League of Cities?

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听What’s next? I think for The National League of Cities, I think the next level is to make sure that we help cities think about equitable recovery in an authentic way. We want to make sure that all children in all communities, and that means big cities, medium size, small cities, towns and villages, how do we provide the resources and the tools necessary to meet folks where they are who live in very different spaces and different lived experiences?

So I think if The National League of Cities and the institute where I work, where we are directly responsible to help our members think about the human infrastructure, I think if NLC can help bridge the human and the physical infrastructure across those different geographic regions, I think we can really make a difference in the lives of kids and families. So I think if we can bridge that human and physical infrastructure, we can make a difference for kids and families and for folks who live on the coastal cities, as well as mid- America, south, north, east, and west.

Chris Riback:听All cities.

Dr. Tonja Rucker: Yes.

Chris Riback: Everyone needs a bridge, don’t we?

Dr. Tonja Rucker: Yes. Yes, they do. Yes, they do.

Chris Riback: Tonja, thank you. Thank you for coming to the studio, thank you for putting on such a wonderful event.

Dr. Tonja Rucker:听Thank you. We’re so excited to be back in-person again. It’s going to be a great year for cities, Chris. Thank you.

鈥淲e were in the car,鈥� Yamaguchi recalls. 鈥淢y older daughter was having one of her toddler moments and just wouldn’t calm down and wouldn’t accept my explanation of why we were doing what we were doing. I kept warning her, 鈥榊ou need to stop. We can’t listen to this in the car. You’re screaming.鈥欌��

And yet the 鈥渢oddler moment鈥� continued. That鈥檚 when Mom got tough: 鈥淔inally I said, 鈥業f you’re going to keep screaming, you鈥檙e going to have to get out of the car.鈥� And kids will just test you, right? So I pulled over to the side, and she kind of looked at me, gave that look of, Wait, what? What are you doing? And I said, 鈥業 told you, you need to stop or you have to get out the car.鈥欌��

There was no audience or television cameras to capture this showdown, but according to Yamaguchi, her daughter stopped crying and remained quiet the rest of the trip. 鈥淚 called her bluff,鈥� Yamaguchi says, acknowledging that this victory was bittersweet. 鈥淚t was really hard,鈥� she admits, 鈥渂ecause obviously I was not going to let her get out of the car. Sometimes that tough love is hard for us to do, but it has an effect.鈥�

Now that her daughters are 18 and 16, Yamaguchi is philosophical about the challenges of parenting toddlers. 鈥淵ou think you have it figured out with the first kid,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd the second one comes along who is totally different and needs a totally different approach to however you parented the first one. You’re just constantly adjusting and always feeling like you’re trying to figure things out.鈥�

As the 2022 Winter Olympics get under way, Yamaguchi鈥檚 1992 accomplishment continues to reverberate 鈥� especially, perhaps, for Asian American women. Artist and speaker Philippa Hughes says, 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have many role models back then. [TV journalist] Connie Chung was around, but she was behind a desk. Yamaguchi was so powerful and artistic.鈥�

Five insights emerged from my conversation with Yamaguchi:

1. Family 鈥� and family history 鈥� set the stage. During World War II, the U.S. interned Japanese Americans on the suspicion that they might be working for the enemy. Both of the skater鈥檚 parents were interned with their families 鈥� her mom in in Amache, Colorado, while her father , fighting alongside white soldiers in Germany and France. (Discover the online exhibit .) 鈥淲e would hear snippets here and there,鈥� Yamaguchi recalls, 鈥渂ut it wasn’t something that was often talked about, especially when my grandparents were alive. It was really the later generations that really started to ask more questions about it, learn about it and want to tell that story more.鈥� Reflecting on this episode in American history, she says she鈥檚 in awe of the Japanese Americans who endured it 鈥� and grateful for their sacrifice. 鈥淚t’s hard to fathom how they felt, and how were able to move forward with their lives without some bitterness.鈥�

2. Follow your idols, and you might just become one. When Yamaguchi started skating at 6 years old, she worshipped Dorothy Hamill and used to perch a Dorothy doll at the edge of the rink to watch her twirl on the ice. In 1992, at age 20, she became the first American woman鈥檚 figure skater to win Olympic gold since Hamill in 1976. These days, the former idolizer is the idol (not to mention a 2008 Dancing with the Stars champion). Chief among her fans is Olympian Karen Chen, who, like Yamaguchi, hails from Fremont, Calif. 鈥淲e share the same hometown,鈥� Yamaguchi says, 鈥淎nd so there’s always been a special relationship. I met her when she was 12 and have been just a huge fan of hers since then.鈥�

3. Mentors and coaches guide you in and out of the rink. From the start of her skating career, Bay Area skaters took Yamaguchi under their wing. She describes Brian Boitano, whose Olympic moment came in 1988, as a huge mentor. 鈥淗e was so encouraging and a very positive role model,鈥� she says. Of Christy Ness, her coach from the age of 9 years old, Yamaguchi says, 鈥淪he was probably one of the most influential people in my life, besides my parents. That relationship goes way beyond skating. There were so many lessons she taught me that I鈥檝e carried with me.鈥�

4. Athletics are about the head as much as the body. Yamaguchi will never forget the intensity of training with Ness. 鈥淥bviously,鈥� she says, 鈥渋t is imperative for success to be able to be prepared, put the training in.鈥� Dealing with pressure from fans, competition and the media was just as important.

鈥淐hristy did not cut us any slack in practice and even created pressure-filled situations in practice even so that we could push ourselves and then realize, Okay, if I can get through my program with that amount of nervousness and practice, I could do it in competition.鈥� This degree of preparation also counted after the Olympics, in the face of attention and acclaim far beyond what most 20-year-olds ever experience.听

5. Giving back is an obligation. I鈥檓 so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had,鈥� Yamaguchi says, adding that her mom always used to ask her about giving back. She took up this challenge as soon as her career allowed it, on a tour with Stars on Ice, which benefited the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 鈥淚t was the first time I had worked hands-on with a nonprofit, and it was completely eye-opening for me,鈥� she recalls, 鈥渁nd it gave me feeling of purpose and of doing something beyond just focusing on my own career.鈥�

Yamaguchi launched in 1997. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the organization provides age-appropriate books and reading technology, along with family engagement support to create literacy-rich home environments. She recalls a dad who raised his hand at a recent event, describing how his five-year-old son had never previously gotten into books, but the Always Dream tablet with e-books changed everything. Especially the one about the moon. 鈥淭he dad was just so proud,鈥� Yamaguchi says, 鈥渁nd now his son wants to be an astronaut. Books are the gateway to anything your imagination can dream up.鈥�

Rooted in , this method focuses on how to improve services rather than simply evaluate their effectiveness. Professor Green says it entails more of a partnership than traditional methods of evaluation, working with staff and families to design, carry out and interpret the research. Recently, she teamed up with the Perigee Fund on the Parent Voices Study, which supports efforts to help families with children prenatal-to-3 who have been affected by trauma, racism and poverty.

Elizabeth Krause, director of programs at Perigee Fund, said 鈥淐OVID-19 disrupted the ability of early childhood and infant mental health programs to deliver services as they always have鈥攚ith regular, in-person visits. With the switch to telehealth during the pandemic, families got to experience a different way of accessing services that not only offered many benefits but also changed the way that parents participate in these programs altogether. This research was an opportunity to hear directly from families what worked and what didn’t work as program providers and funders consider what a post-COVID landscape looks like.”

The project complements what the field is learning from the RAPID-EC Project, which relies on surveys (). 鈥淩APID-EC and Parent Voices are both identifying important silver linings of the pandemic,鈥� says University of Michigan鈥檚 Christina Weiland, lead author of . The field is learning new ways of engaging with parents, in ways that hopefully will stick after the crisis is over.

Families with infants and toddlers often participate in programs delivered in the home, rather than in a child care setting. How these services shifted during the pandemic was the focus of the . Professor Green鈥檚 team at Portland State University worked with colleagues at the University of Connecticut and Georgetown University to conduct in-depth interviews with 100 parents and caregivers at seven early childhood organizations across the country. Parents acted as consultants to help create the study鈥檚 methodology and to understand and share findings. Researchers provided a programmatic stipend to the partner organizations as well as gift cards to participants. Professor Green and her colleagues will present their research at in March.

The interviews yielded three noteworthy, even surprising, discoveries that might inspire further research or, better yet, changes in the ways early childhood home visiting services, and infant and early childhood mental health services, are delivered:

1. There are more similarities than differences among sites. 鈥淲e designed the study purposefully,鈥� Professor Green explains, 鈥渢o discover the ways different types of programs have responded to the pandemic.鈥� And yet, in spite of varied service models, geographic locations and family characteristics between, for instance, a program serving Native American families in Michigan and another serving Black children in urban D.C., a great deal of consistency emerged from the interview responses.

The pandemic impacted the health and pocketbooks of families in all different areas of the country, and maintaining a skilled workforce stood out as a challenge in every instance. Not only were the impacts on families similar, but families told similar stories about what did or didn鈥檛 work for them as programs pivoted to remote approaches.

2. Flexibility, flexibility, flexibility. Technology can do more than we expected. Parents, caregivers and professionals alike deeply appreciated the extent that teleconferencing liberated them from travel and other logistical challenges of home visiting. 鈥淏efore the pandemic,鈥� Professor Green says, 鈥渁ll the evidence-based home visiting programs had strict requirements for certain practices, but we discovered that inflexibility was driving away higher-needs families and jeopardizing retention of those families.鈥�

3. Early childhood programs are a lifeline. The challenges experienced by parents and caregiver go beyond issues that directly affect their children. Work schedules fluctuated. Social services became both urgent and harder to access. Families without broadband were especially isolated. Through this period, clinicians and home visiting professionals provided far more support than what their job descriptions listed.

In Michigan, one tribal parent and caregiver reported, 鈥淭o be honest, during the pandemic, I was like, I don’t know if I really even want to do this anymore. It鈥檚 just on the phone and I’m just telling them about him. They’re not really seeing him. So, I was contemplating ending the program. But I noticed, they do help a lot with just making sure he’s on track with his progress, making sure that he’s meeting the milestones… I don’t know how to explain it, they’re always willing to work with the kids.鈥�

Another parent鈥檚 interview response highlighted the power of a brief text exchange: 鈥淲hen we鈥檙e not talking or whatever or I鈥檓 having a bad day, I get a text message from her.鈥� It鈥檚 like, how鈥檇 she know I鈥檓 not doing too great?鈥� I can talk to her like she鈥檚 my friend, but she鈥檚 not my friend. She鈥檚 my support person. It鈥檚 a big support for sure. I don鈥檛 trust a lot of people like I trust her.鈥�

Today, Carter is building life-giving places around the country, with a particular focus on low-status communities 鈥� a term she prefers to poor or low-income. Her new book Reclaiming Your Community describes a journey from South Bronx during the neighborhood鈥檚 most difficult era, through a successful but sometimes controversial nonprofit career, up to and including the formation of the for-profit venture, , with its ambitious mission: low-status community members experiencing a great community that meets their needs as well as their aspirations while they are ever more successful in it. Though laced with personal anecdotes, it鈥檚 less a memoir than a manifesto about unleashing community potential.

She wrote the book because, while the community-wealth-building tools it describes have been in place since the formation of this country, they aren鈥檛 nearly well known enough. She marvels, 鈥淣obody, and I mean nobody, is looking at those neighborhoods from the perspective of local people who need a little bit of extra help in order to be agents of change for themselves.鈥�

Ilana Preuss, founder and CEO of , says, 鈥淥ur low-status communities are filled with people launching and growing businesses, amazing storefronts to be filled and endless opportunities to build wealth. The question is: What is each community or neighborhood going to do about it? Reclaiming Your Community is how we get there.鈥�

The best way to read the book is in the company of neighbors, whether or not you agree on issues like gentrification and economic development. 鈥淚 hope it gives people an excuse to talk more with each other,鈥� she says.

Majora Carter鈥檚 Top Recommendations for Reclaiming Community:

Hold on to what you鈥檝e got, part I: Property. Reclaiming Your Community poignantly recounts how Carter鈥檚 family sold the house she grew up in, only to see it triple in value. 鈥淢y family personally lost about half a million dollars鈥� worth of wealth,鈥� she laments. 鈥淲e all need to identify and seize opportunities for wealth creation through real estate and business development.鈥�

Home ownership and family stability go hand in hand. A , the former CEO of Freddie Mac, states, 鈥淗omeownership is regarded as causing an improvement in the quality of life of a typical family. It is the most common method for such a family to build wealth… Homeownership is validly seen as a source of family stability.鈥� For some, this argument runs counter to the demand for affordable housing, but Carter dismisses such objections: 鈥淲e鈥檙e conditioned to think, 鈥極h, let’s just build affordable housing for more poor people because that’s basically all we鈥檙e ever going to be.鈥� And it鈥檚 true if we make it true, but why does it have to be the only truth?鈥�

Hold on to what you鈥檝e got, part II: People. Carter鈥檚 book asks, 鈥淲hat if we designed low-status communities to encourage the talent born and raised there to remain, similar to the way companies try to retain their talent?鈥� She admits that the phrase 鈥済entrifying in place鈥� hasn鈥檛 always gone over so well, but her experience in South Bronx and beyond confirms her belief that neighborhoods already have the brains and resources needed to nourish residents. 鈥淔or communities, it means we鈥檝e got this, everything we really need. We really do,” Carter explains. Nurturing talent starts early. She reflects on how her first grade teacher spotted her abilities: 鈥淢s. Transport was probably the first person who told me outright that my creativity was something that I should just accept and share, which was really beautiful.鈥�

Dare to think differently. Carter is one of those people who refuse to accept reality the way she鈥檚 been told it exists. 鈥淲hen somebody tells me things have to be one way,鈥� she says, 鈥淚鈥檓 going to think about other ways of doing it, and I鈥檓 going to ask why.鈥� As a loner in her formative years, she says, she spent a lot of time observing. 鈥淚t was just like, 鈥榃ell, why not this?鈥欌�� she recalls. The instinct didn鈥檛 necessarily endear to the philanthropic community. On one hand, after establishing Sustainable South Bronx in 2001, she won numerous awards, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation 鈥済enius鈥� fellowship. On the other, some funders and philanthropists didn鈥檛 appreciate her direct style. In her words, 鈥淚 was just like, 鈥業 am not their girl,鈥� and so there鈥檚 no reason for me not to just speak my truth.鈥�

Learn from business (and not from nonprofits). Carter remains disillusioned with what she calls the nonprofit industrial complex. 鈥淚t has been inflicting unnecessary collateral damage on our communities for decades,鈥� she maintains, 鈥渆ntrenched in a sad cycle of diminishing returns despite ever-increasing spending. The culture addresses symptoms without offering, let alone implementing, a cure.鈥�

Rather than collaborating, nonprofits act like they’re in competition with each other, and the philanthropic sector doesn’t really respect the work being done on the ground, and as a result a 鈥減lantation mentality鈥� predominates. Her prescription: 鈥淧hilanthropy should be the risk capital. Instead of letting predatory speculators buy our property, there needs to be patient capital to allow those communities to flourish.鈥� Her shift from running a nonprofit to running a business reflects a belief that the latter is the lever for real change.

Increase density and diversity. Carter has always been a builder. As a child, she took private creative writing lessons with a friend of the family. The only story she remembers from that era featured a runt whale named Willie. The other whales bully him, but then Willie and his parents build a kind of underwater playground鈥斺�渁 nice place for everybody to hang out and be happy together,鈥� she recalls.

The qualities that support an underwater ecosystem can do the same for an urban neighborhood. Dense, diverse communities foster dynamic relationships full of promise and possibility. The goal, she says, is a 鈥渃ircular economy,鈥� where the same dollar will circulate up to 14 times within the community, rather than being siphoned off by a chain store. The Majora Carter Group pushes for greater housing density allowances for new development, including space for early education.

Carter took an unconventional path to the real estate business, and while she admits her lack of formal training led to mistakes along the way, the fact that she鈥檚 doing it proves it can be done. 鈥淚 hope others see what I鈥檓 doing,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd try their hand at being the developers of their own communities.鈥�

鈥淸Gentrification] starts when people in low-status communities believe that there is no value there,鈥� she writes. 鈥淚t happens when we tell ourselves that there is no value in our own communities and act accordingly.鈥� Meanwhile, 鈥淎n entire industry banks, literally, on the current inhabitants in those communities not recognizing the value.鈥�

How do these insights apply to early learning issues in America? Consider the book鈥檚 subtitle. There are many reasons why families with young children move into or away from a neighborhood, but the availability of affordable, reliable early child care education often comes near the top of the list, along with safe, delightful playgrounds where families can gather. And who takes these items off the wish list and into reality? The solution doesn鈥檛 start with real estate developers. It starts with neighbors.

The long and short of it is this: building wealth within communities is good for babies.

Carter鈥檚 justifiably angry but ultimately hopeful book calls on all of us 鈥� gentrifiers and gentrified alike 鈥� to support policies and projects that support quality of life within low-status communities. The key to quality of life is wealth creation, and the key to wealth creation is real estate.

Her modest proposal: 鈥淲hat if we made investments in the future wealth-generating capacity of low-status community members? This includes projects such as housing and business development that address aspirations for their lives, complete with lifestyle infrastructure such as nice bars, cafes and restaurants, as well as homeownership and local business development support for people who desire them.鈥�

She draws some hope from a clear-eyed recollection of the past, including the history of relatives 鈥渢aken up by chain gangs鈥� in Georgia. They were walking through town, minding their own business, when they were arrested for 鈥渧agrancy鈥� and then forced to 鈥渨ork off their fines鈥� in quarries owned by local white men. Such outright racist and economic violence isn鈥檛 acceptable anymore, but the legal machinations deployed to extract wealth and labor from people of color is not merely an artifact of history.

The housing market is confusing. Mortgage rates. Credit ratings. Points. Taxes. Maybe it鈥檚 intentionally confusing. Carter believes that demystifying the mumbo-jumbo will enable residents to participate in the market rather than allowing themselves to get fleeced by predatory speculators; she remains furious at the fate of the house she grew up in. Local business development also figures into the equation, and her experience launching and operating the Boogie Down Grind is revealing in this regard. While many residents appreciate having an independent caf茅 in the South Bronx, others accuse her of perpetuating鈥� you guessed it, gentrification. To these critics, Carter has a ready retort: coffee is the Blackest beverage on earth.

Beyond real estate savvy, Carter offers encouragement and wisdom for anyone seeking to improve the neighborhood. You don鈥檛 always have to agree with everyone at the community board meeting, but you have to be able to have a conversation. If you happen to come up with ideas, you should expect negativity 鈥� even from your own peers. 鈥淚t is very disturbing at the time it happens,鈥� she writes, 鈥渂ut I promise you, it becomes less and less so as you just keep doing the work.鈥�

As someone who has spent his entire career working at and with nonprofit organizations, I found Carter鈥檚 dismissal of the sector hard to take, mostly because her critiques are undeniable. There is too much bureaucracy. Too much money goes to organizations led by people who look like (or went to college with) foundation program officers. At the same time, while she draws helpful lessons from the corporate world 鈥� especially the idea of talent retention 鈥� she may put too much faith in business, which, after all, is also mired in racism and exploitation.

Whether you interact with your community as a resident or business owner, through a nonprofit mission or a business agenda, Reclaiming Your Community will enlighten you, provoke you and challenge you to do better.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a resource-rich region,鈥� says Charrise Hart, 鈥渂ut access-poor. Not everyone who lives here has access to the opportunities they deserve and need.鈥� As CEO of (Ready Ready), a collaborative effort to build a connected, innovative system of care for the county鈥檚 youngest children and their families, she leads a team that identifies and supports programs that have demonstrated success in the community.

Hart describes Ready Ready as a backbone organization 鈥� which means it plays a lead role in coordinating stakeholders and providing support and resources to multiple community organizations to achieve system-building goals for Guilford County. Sometimes it provides funding, but more often it facilitates foundation investments and community partnerships.

The scope isn鈥檛 limited to the academic factors that prepare children for kindergarten. 鈥淲e also tackle systemic barriers that interfere with potential,鈥� she says. Founded by J. Edward Kitchen of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation and Susan S. Schwartz of the Cemala Foundation, Ready Ready is supported by The Duke Endowment, Blue Meridian Partners and numerous other funders. Schwartz and Kitchen express the hope that its strategies 鈥渃an be emulated by others for the benefit of all children throughout our country.鈥�

Hart knows Guilford County like the back of her hand, having grown up here. One summer, home from college and bored, she let her mother talk her into volunteering with a mentoring program for teen parents. 鈥淚t was the most eye-opening experience I鈥檝e ever had.鈥�

Studying for her Masters in Social Work at UNC Chapel Hill, Hart knew she wanted to help women and families, but she didn鈥檛 necessarily see herself as a clinical social worker or therapist. A professor, Dan Hudgins, helped her see that her interest was more in the vein of systems change, and this guidance led to her pursuing an MBA at Wake Forest University. 鈥淚 think back on those teen moms,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd see the correlation between teen pregnancy rates and multigenerational poverty more clearly. The individual decisions I saw up close 鈥� they fit in with broader patterns and systems.鈥� She says her degrees in social work and business equip her to combat historic inequities with her heart and her head. Schwartz and Kitchen praise her 鈥渂usiness mind, strategic vision, commitment to building a strong staff and passion for giving all children the opportunity to achieve their full potential.鈥�

After trying out life in accounting in a corporate setting, Hart took a pay cut to work for the YWCA in Greensboro. Years later and 200 miles away at the YWCA in Wilmington, North Carolina, she helped lead a charge to increase the wages in the early learning center. 鈥淚 looked at what these workers were making,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd I thought, 鈥楬ow can we call that wage, empowerment?鈥欌��

Hart returned home to Guilford County and took the helm of Ready Ready in 2019, just in time for COVID and the many challenges it has brought for the youngest and most vulnerable in the region. The pandemic has led to, among other shifts, extra attention to the mental health of children and their families, as well as the educators and professionals on the frontlines.

Pandemic or not, health is an evergreen factor in determining the school readiness of the 6,000 children born here every year. The disparities are wide, and solutions take a variety of forms. Hart points to projects with such national organizations as , a ZERO TO THREE program, and . Ready Ready also partners with , a nurse home visiting program organized in conjunction with county government, and it recently launched a pilot with the to embed health navigators in OB-Gyn and pediatric offices. 鈥淭he medical professionals have just 15-20 minutes to do their job,鈥� Hart explains. 鈥淭he trained navigators have the time and expertise to explore more deeply how a family is doing and to make referrals if necessary.鈥�

Navigation Supervisor Mary Connor-Hill says, 鈥淥ne of the greatest moments as a navigator is when we hear from the parents, and we get to celebrate with them in the birth of their child. When they send us newborn pictures, and they let us know how they are doing, and how helpful we were to them during their pregnancy.鈥�

When it comes to early education, Hart is proud of her state鈥檚 record. 鈥淲e are extremely committed to the well-being of our children,鈥� she says, adding that its pre-K program is one of the strongest in the nation. Of course, she refuses to rest content with the status quo and draws strength from a robust regional and state network that includes:

• , a public-private network that provides expertise, guidance and infrastructure to ensure that each child in each of North Carolina鈥檚 hundred counties receives the care and nurturing they need to thrive.
• , which works to ensure that all children have access to high-quality early care and learning experiences. One of its cardinal issues is seeing Leandro vs. North Carolina through to its objective. should have set the state up for expanded funding for the early education of children from underserved and marginalized communities, but it is taking decades to find a way forward. (.)
• , which promotes family safety, financial security and mental health. CEO Alice Lutz has been a mentor and inspiration to Hart.
• . Hart counts Michelle Gethers-Clark, who recently left the United Way to become chief diversity officer at Visa, as another mentor.

Hart credits the Ready Ready staff and board for setting her up for success, but above all for embracing her inclination to listen to parents like Sanaa Sharrieff and the rest of the Guilford Parent Leader Network, which was formed to ensure that family voice is brought into every key decision made by the organization.

鈥淗aving our voices heard as parents, having our voices heard as members of the community, and learning how to navigate the space that we鈥檙e in right now while still being effective parents plus all the resources have been phenomenal,鈥� Sharrieff says. 鈥淲hen I open my mouth for a discussion, I know what I say will be considered and it may even be implemented. And that鈥檚 an awesome feeling.鈥�

Hart concurs, saying that Ready Ready has a vision 鈥斺�渂ut it鈥檚 not my vision, it鈥檚 the vision of the community.鈥�