Neighborhood Villages Announces New Comprehensive Workforce Pathways Initiative for Child Care Sector with $1 Million Grant from City of Boston
BOSTON, MA (November 21, 2022) — Neighborhood Villages — a Boston-based nonprofit that advocates for solutions to the greatest challenges faced by the early education sector — is launching a new initiative to create a comprehensive approach to workforce development within the early education and care sector.
The organization has been awarded a $1 million grant from the City of Boston to help launch its new Comprehensive Workforce Pathways (CWP) initiative, which includes establishing a Registered Apprenticeship Program for the early education and care workforce. The funding was announced at an event today with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Representative Katherine Clark, as well as other state and city elected officials.
“We are facing an unprecedented workforce crisis among early childhood educators right now, with many being forced to move to higher paying jobs at food chains, retail establishments and warehouses,” said Sarah Muncey, co-founder of Neighborhood Villages. “In addition to severe wage inequities, another root cause of this crisis is our collective failure to invest in the professional development of the child care workforce, which is why we’ve created this program to pilot what comprehensive early education workforce infrastructure can and should look like.”
“We are pleased to be awarding these grantees, including Neighborhood Villages, with critical funds to help grow the early childhood workforce at a time when we need it most,” said Kristin McSwain, Senior Advisor to Boston Mayor Wu and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Early Childhood. “This funding will help address the workforce shortage we are experiencing in early childhood settings across the city and make care more accessible for our children and families.”
Neighborhood Villages’ CWP initiative also receives funding from the Wellington Management Foundation, Lynch Foundation, and Highland Street Foundation.
“We are so grateful to the City of Boston and our philanthropic partners at the Wellington Management Foundation, Lynch Foundation and Highland Street Foundation for their support of this initiative and for their dedication to helping early educators, children, and families,” said Muncey.
“We are excited to be working with Neighborhood Villages to pilot solutions that meet the greatest needs of the early education and child care workforce and the children and families that rely on them,” said Karen Pfefferle, Executive Director of the Wellington Management Foundation. “We are confident that through this partnership, we can make a difference for the many people who are struggling under the weight of the child care crisis, and ultimately for thousands of children in their care.”
The grant will help Neighborhood Villages pilot an innovative, scalable approach to building a comprehensive career lattice for the early education and care sector. Through workforce programming, the organization will provide accessible pathways for entrance into and advancement within the field of early childhood education (ECE), along with professional development and wraparound supports for early educators.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a full-blown workforce crisis for the ECE sector in Massachusetts and across the country, increasing workforce churn and propelling an unprecedented exodus of educators from the field. Nationally, we are still missing more than 100,000 of early educators who were previously in the field and in Massachusetts, job levels for the child care sector are still 23.5% below pre-pandemic levels. Without the ability to retain teachers, many providers have been forced to close entire classrooms, exacerbating access challenges for families.
Neighborhood Villages’ CWP program is a three-year initiative that will cumulatively serve more than 500 early educators and administrators (including more than 350 in Boston) and will help bolster the Commonwealth’s capacity to recruit, retain, and invest in high-quality early educators and administrators.
Facilitating both college and non-college pathways to ECE career development in the City of Boston and statewide, the CWP initiative emphasizes robust wraparound support to ensure participant success. It will provide participating educators with mentoring from veteran teachers, multi-year coaching with education partners, peer support cohorts, financial aid guidance, technology support, and virtual and in-person professional learning opportunities.
Additionally, a recently awarded grant from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development will further Neighborhood Villages’ ability to expand and extend its Registered Apprenticeship Program for Early Educators. This program offers non-college pathways to entering or looking to advance in the field of early education and care and enables earlier recruitment of prospective educators. The Registered Apprenticeship Program combines onsite job coaching and mentoring with skills training and incremental wage increases as competency and knowledge progress, working to ensure that each apprentice is supported through their professional development journey. The program requires a stable wage for apprentices with additional wage bumps throughout the program, and will also provide training, support, and stipends for mentors.
CWP and the Registered Apprenticeship Program bolster Neighborhood Villages’ existing programming, including Professional Pathways, which connects early educators to college pathways, and Business Management Training, which supports child care providers access to financial training and technical assistance in successfully running their childcare businesses.