Building the Field of Care Storytellers through Reporting Grants
During the COVID pandemic, news coverage of child care in the United States surged, spotlighting the issue of our broken care system like never before. To build on this momentum, the Better Life Lab offered a series of grants to reporters to tell the story of child care and its pivotal role in our economy, communities, businesses, and families. By supporting independent writers and content creators, the Better Life Lab played a crucial role in keeping the child care crisis, the narrative that care is vital infrastructure, and the need for solutions at the forefront of the national conversation.
The stories produced by recipients have been published in local and national outlets across mediums—including print, online, magazines, graphic stories, documentary shorts, and radio.
Our stories are solutions oriented.
Rather than focus our narrative change mission on more of the problem—which research shows can make people feel disempowered and hopeless—our reporting grants seek to find and shine a spotlight on state, local, and private efforts to find solutions. Research shows that learning about bright spots, however small, can create a sense of agency and hope. Our grants lean into incremental innovations and solutions that build the energy and will to fuel public demand. They uplift examples that help foster business community support and show policymakers the value of investing public dollars in building the equitable, universal child care infrastructure this country desperately needs.
Past grant recipients include some of the top reporters covering child care and new entrants to the beat in an effort to bolster and amplify new voices. Most of the grantees' work focuses on uncovering how local governments, organizations, movements, and individuals attempt to improve our broken, patchwork child care system to increase families' access to affordable, quality care and improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for the care workforce. This includes nontraditional care systems, family, community, and neighborhood efforts, improvements in day-to-day activities, and local and state government changes in funding, subsidies, and regulations.
As part of our mission, we are constantly seeking new ways to bring narrative change to a broader audience and show federal, state, and local stakeholders—including families, providers, policymakers, and businesses—the value of fighting for new investments in care.
Reports
To Have and Have Not: What it Means to Live in a Country that Does Not Guarantee Paid Family and Medical Leave
Articles
Child Care Is in Chaos. Private Equity and For-Profit Chains Are Swooping In.
As the industry consolidates, it runs the risk of putting profits ahead of kids. If additional public funds will come to child care, it should come with guarantees of public benefit similar to reforms in Ireland and Australia.
By Elliot Haspel for The New Republic
October 28, 2022
How Child Care in Oregon is Saving the Construction Trade
Statewide apprenticeship program with generous child care subsidies also trains and recruits workers
By Rebecca Gale for Early Learning Nation
January 30, 2023
The Power of a Rural Community Collaborative
A new group in Idaho’s Teton Valley is creating collaboratives to help parents and children in the child care desert.
By Natalie Schachar for KHOL Jackson Hole Community Radio
February 6, 2023
Educator Burnout: Another Child Care Struggle
Facing educator burnout and high rates of depression, educators come up with ways to retain staff and focus on mental well-being.
By Rebecca Gale for Early Learning Nation
February 28, 2023
Home-Based Care: Fixing the Child Care Drought in Rural America
Some rural counties are trying an approach to tackle child care shortages. A new program supports home-based child care providers with resources, education, and grants.
By Anne Vilen for The Daily Yonder
March 7, 2023
D.C. Is Giving Preschool Teachers A Pay Bump. Here’s How It’s Making A Difference To Them
This spring marks the one-year anniversary of the D.C. Council’s law to boost pay for the District’s early childhood teachers as an annual bonus payment of up to $14,000 to teachers of children between 0 and 5 years old in preschools and daycares.
By Emily Berman for WAMU
March 14, 2023
The US Finally Started Building A Functional Child Care System During The Pandemic. We’re About To Tear It Down.
Pandemic-era funding led to a host of creative local child care solutions. The looming funding cliff puts the country at risk of backsliding on all the progress made over the last three years — progress that has left a deep impact on Americans’ lives.
By Bryce Covert for Talking Points Memo
April 14, 2023
How to Fix Crumbling Child Care Infrastructure
US cities and states are starting to think about early childhood facilities the same way they plan for schools and public transportation.
By Kendra Hurley for Bloomberg's CityLab
April 25, 2023
Why Saving New York City’s Universal Preschool Matters for the Country
The high demand for New York City’s 3K for All Universal pre-kindergarten program means that not all families who qualify can get a spot.
By Kelly Clancy for New America's The Thread
May 25, 2023
More Hospitals are Offering Child Care. But They Shouldn’t Have To.
On-site child care is a valuable benefit for health care employees, but is depending on a generous employer the best way to fix the child care crisis?
By Rebecca Gale for STAT News
May 30, 2023
A Job That No One Sees
The work of family, friends and neighbors caring for children is critical, but it often goes unseen in an already overlooked child care workforce.
By Ashley Álvarez for EdSurge
June 2, 2023
When Summer Camp Doesn’t Work For Your Kid
The lack of federal infrastructure for child care is particularly challenging for kids who are a poor fit for traditional summer camps and have few other options.
By Rebecca Gale for TIME
June 3, 2023
‘The Truth Is, I Love the Work’
Connections to organizations and resources can make a difference for family, friend and neighbor child care providers.
By Ashley Álvarez for EdSurge
June 7, 2023
Did Covid Break Child Care? Or was it Already Broken?
A graphic explainer on how Covid-19 impacted child care.
By Rebecca Gale and Dianne Kirsch for Early Learning Nation
June 21, 2023
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