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RFF Joins Investing in America Child Care Partnership

Economic Justice for Women|October 01, 2024

Evan Vucci/AP
Evan Vucci/AP

A new coordinated funder collaborative aims to strengthen local child care systems and increase access to high-quality, affordable child care. 

The Rockefeller Family Fund, through the Economic Justice for Women (EJW) program, has signed on to a new philanthropic partnership that aims to leverage federal infrastructure funding to strengthen local child care ecosystems in communities that house the nation’s growing infrastructure workforce. Other members of the collaborative include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Buffett Early Childhood Development Fund, David and Lucille Packard Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. 

For working parents and caregivers, access to high-quality childcare is critical. And we know that this burden often falls on the shoulders of women, particularly women of color. Across the country, child care providers with thin margins and limited capacity are struggling to meet the need of families. Our work through EJW builds on a multi-layered approach to the child care crisis; we know that in order to reach sustainable solutions, we must address issues at the local, state, and federal levels and bring together stakeholders from across the socioeconomic and political spectrum. The Investing in America Child Care Partnership is reimagining how we implement infrastructure projects, centering equity and the needs of a diverse workforce. 

The Biden administration’s Investing in America agenda, which includes the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and the CHIPS and Science for America Act (CHIPS) have allowed for historic investments in clean energy, semiconductors, and biotech jobs to parts of the country that have historically been overlooked. This could potentially exacerbate an already precarious situation for workers needing child care as these communities are currently struggling to meet the child care needs of local families. Before the pandemic, the Bipartisan Policy Center found that in 35 states, there were only 8 million child care slots available for every 11 million children in need. 

This collaboration will bring together a coalition of government, employers, child care providers, families, and other local partners in communities in Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, and New Hampshire. In these pilot communities, three complimentary areas of work will build the supply of high-quality, affordable child care: 

  1. Business and employer engagement: working with construction and manufacturing industries to develop comprehensive plans for child care, provide implementation support, and support the expansion of child care capacity. 
  1. Supply-building and financing technical assistance: engaging local government leaders and community development financial institutions to blend sources of federal funding, including CHIPS, BIL, and IRA funds alongside public child care subsidies. 
  1. Advocacy and organizing: Expanding research and advocacy campaigns to advocate for federal, state, and local policies that strengthen the case for child care as a key part of economic and workforce development. 

While we are excited by the work as a whole, we are particularly glad to see the inclusion of two of our grantees – the Child Care for Every Family Network and The Century Foundation – as part of the advocacy workstream. We look forward to sharing more on the progress of this critical work as it begins!