On May 18, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education favorably reported out a new bill — An Act to Expand Access to High-Quality, Affordable Early Education and Care (H.4795/S.2883) — aimed at addressing current access, affordability, and workforce challenges in the Massachusetts early education and care sector. We’ve summarized our new fact sheet that breaks down the elements of the legislation.

That’s why we are advocating for the inclusion of $480 million in the state’s FY23 budget to extend the C3 stabilization grant program through FY23. Extension of these grants is critical to keeping child care programs open, ensuring access for children, and supporting socially vulnerable communities.

As we honor women’s contributions in American history this Women’s History Month, we also recognize that our nation’s broken child care system underscores the persistent undervaluing of women and their work in our society, especially for women of color.

As we’ve already seen, getting back to some kind of normalcy for many families hinges on one thing: child care. So how do we avoid where we found ourselves in 2020 (and 2021, for that matter)? We put infrastructure in place to keep child care open. Our ability to do that relies on making free, preventative COVID-19 testing available to child care providers.

We recently surveyed a collection of almost 50 early education and care center-based programs in Massachusetts to get a snapshot of the current state of the sector through the perspective of their directors.

Here in Massachusetts, and across the country, our nation’s broken child care system is one of the greatest drivers of racial inequality. Black children, Black parents, and Black workers have been experiencing the consequences of our failure to invest in it for generations. It is time for that to change.

Ashley Galvan, Student Support Specialist at Neighborhood Villages, tells her story about how COVID impacted her access to child care and how Ellis and Neighborhood Villages helped her family find their footing in a new city.

On November 23rd, the Massachusetts legislature will hold its first Committee hearing on the Common Start legislation (H.605/S.362), a bill that would transform early education and care in Massachusetts. Neighborhood Villages is proud to support this legislation and will be submitting testimony to urge the Massachusetts legislature to favorably report out the Common Start legislation so that it may become law. Let’s talk a bit about why we need this bill, and why we need it now.

One measure tied to President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, known as the reconciliation package, could totally transform child care and early education in this country, ensuring that it is affordable and accessible for all families. Host Gloria Riviera returns for a conversation with Neighborhood Villages’ co-founders, Lauren Birchfield Kennedy and Sarah Muncey, to better understand what’s truly at stake and what you can do to help get this legislation over the finish line.

Neighborhood Villages was thrilled to host Congresswoman Pressley at our Neighborhood partner, Ellis Early Learning Center, to shine a spotlight on the child care crisis and how President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation could bring transformative change to families across the country. Most importantly, it was an opportunity to hear directly from the parents and educators most impacted by the crisis.

We are witnessing a long-in-the-making crisis in early education and child care – for providers and for families – that hinges on workforce. We can’t afford to wait any longer to address it. That’s why Neighborhood Villages partnered with Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and Boston-area community colleges to start Career Pathways for Early Educators, a unique program that supports educators in their attainment of advanced early education and care credentials.

Starting July 15, most families will be eligible to begin receiving monthly payments – known as Child Tax Credits – from the federal government. We at Neighborhood Villages have applauded this child tax credit expansion because it is an immediate tool that families can use to help with the costs of raising a child – especially the exorbitant price of child care.

The early episodes of the series No One is Coming to Save Us laid bare the utter disaster that is America’s early education and child care system. It all paints a pretty dark picture. If no one is coming to save us, how do we save ourselves? The fourth and final episode digs into what’s possible by showcasing how people across the country are fighting for change — and winning — in their own communities. Even better: it lays out simple steps for how you can get involved in the child care revolution.

In “Good Child Care *Can* Work” host Gloria Riviera begins by speaking to Charles and Caitlin Vestal, an American couple who moved from Portland, Oregon to Berlin, Germany – and how they plan to stay there because early education for their son is FREE. If that seems crazy, it gets even better: in Berlin, every neighborhood has at least one child and family center that offers full wraparound services for parents, including therapy, unemployment resources, food support, and more.