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Neighborhood Villages in the News
Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Program Launched For Early Education and Care Providers Across Massachusetts
In an effort to protect early educators, children, and their families, a new weekly COVID-19 pooled testing program is being offered statewide at no cost to early education and care programs across Massachusetts. This is the first comprehensive pooled testing program for the early education sector to be administered in Massachusetts and is one of the only of its kind in the country. | Press Release
In Crisis? Lemonada Has a Podcast for You
Last winter, Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit that pushes for early education and care policy reform, approached Lemonada Media about collaborating on a show about the child care crisis. | The New York Times
In bid to end COVID-19 unemployment boost, GOP misses the she-cession
[W]orkers can’t return to the job if the high cost or unavailability of child care can’t justify a paltry paycheck. And we still live in a society that places most of the responsibility of child care on women. As restaurants, hotels, and airports — but not most schools — reopen as Americans are getting vaccinated, that helps explain why men are getting back to work and women are not. And for those with very young children, the cost of child care skyrocketed during the pandemic. | The Boston Globe
Women were pushed out of the workforce by the pandemic. Is it time for universal child care?
In a year that bared systemic flaws in the nation's child care infrastructure, many working moms saw their careers go in the opposite direction or stall out as the pandemic pushed them out of the workforce to fill child care gaps. | The Milford Daily News
Massachusetts, other states need to increase spending for preschools, report says
Massachusetts preschool enrollment increased by fewer than 300 children in 2019-2020, as the pandemic shifted those programs to remote learning in the middle of the school year, according to a national report that found most states don’t provide enough funding to support all-day prekindergarten for all children. | Boston Globe
The Great COVID Child Care Awakening
“Children who [participate in early childhood education programs] do better over their lifespans in terms of education, employment, and health,” said Lauren Kennedy, co-founder of the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages, which aims to improve access to affordable child care. “We have evidence of this; it pays off, and it’s doable.” | Romper
Mass. Advocates Launch Ambitious Campaign for Publicly Funded Early Education
“We need an early education system that works, and the only way that we get to a system that works is if we admit that it takes public money to do it,” said proponent Lauren Birchfield Kennedy, cofounder of Neighborhood Villages. | Boston Globe
Surveillance Pool Testing for COVID-19 Offers New Way to Catch Outbreaks Quickly
Several early childhood education centers in the region have taken part in a saliva-based test pilot run by the advocacy organization Neighborhood Villages. - Boston Globe
State Planning COVID Testing Pilot for Child Care Staff, After Continued Pleas By Providers
When state leaders announced that they would be making widespread pooled coronavirus testing available to public schools, many child care providers and after school program directors were frustrated that they were left out. | WBUR Edify
Day-care Workers Feel Forgotten in State’s Testing Program
Early childhood education providers are furious after the state announced a new coronavirus testing program last week for public schools without including day-care centers and after-school programs, which are still struggling to serve more than 100,000 children almost a year into the pandemic. | Boston Globe
State To Roll Out Pooled Coronavirus Testing For K-12 Schools
The Baker administration is planning to make more coronavirus testing available to K-12 schools across the state, as a way to identify more cases in students and staff, regardless of symptoms. | WBUR Edify
The U.S. Child-Care Crisis Is Torturing Parents and the Economy
It didn’t seem possible that the U.S. child-care crisis could get much worse. Then came the pandemic, and parents were thrust into full-time caregiving roles for months on end. Beyond being stressful and exhausting, that reality has forced millions of parents, mostly mothers, to make tough decisions about how much to work, if at all. - Bloomberg Businessweek
Child Care Providers Find Ways to Get More Coronavirus Testing
As community spread increases, child care providers believe they need access to on-site coronavirus testing with rapid results in order to remain open. - WBUR Edify
Boston Public Radio
Lauren Kennedy talks about broad inefficiencies with America's child care system, and what her nonprofit Neighborhood Villages is doing to support working mothers and families through the pandemic. -WGBH Boston Public Radio
How To Keep Women In The Workforce During The Pandemic
We may be losing some of our best leaders to caregiving duties, and the pandemic is sending us backwards when it comes to gender equality. - Forbes
The Motherhood Penalty And The COVID Economy
[T]he COVID economy is causing more women to opt out of the workforce due to a lack of childcare and ongoing school closures. - Forbes
Say Hello to That New Spin Studio and Goodbye to Your Child Care
We’ve long failed to fund the child care sector like the public good that it is. Now it’s on the brink of collapse. - The New York Times
The Pandemic’s Child Care Problem
Parents are expected to get back to work — and they want to — but how can they do it without the child care they rely on? Can an economy fully recover without robust child care? - WBUR
A Human Infrastructure Stimulus Is Needed
IN THE MIDST of the COVID-19 crisis, the United States stands at an inflection point; our policymakers hold in their hands the future of the American narrative. In this time of uncertainty, what will we prioritize when it comes to rebuilding our country’s infrastructure? - Commonwealth Magazine
Extended Closures Could Mean Some Massachusetts Day Cares Never Reopen
Day care providers in Massachusetts, already ordered closed since March 23, could struggle to ever reopen unless they can get more aid, according to early childhood advocates. - WBUR Edify