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BOSTON
- Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh, the Mayor's Offices
of Women's Advancement, Economic Development, and the City of Boston's
Economic Mobility Lab announced the third funding round of the Childcare
Entrepreneur Fund to support home-based family childcare businesses with
grant funding, coaching, and technical assistance, to support early
educators in sharpening their entrepreneurial skills. Businesses may apply for $3,500 of flexible
grant funding to stabilize and maintain family childcare businesses until
December 4, 2020.
"The
COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our economy and society in innumerable ways.
Now more than ever, we depend on childcare to function as a society,"
said Mayor Walsh. "Supporting our families has been our number one
priority, and we continue to work hard to support access to high quality,
affordable childcare for all working families, as well as living wages and
good work conditions for our early education workforce."
Yesterday,
65 previous grantees were recognized in the 2020 Childcare Entrepreneur
Fund Graduation. The Childcare Entrepreneur Fund is part of the City's
approach to making high-quality affordable childcare an accessible
component of working families' lives. As part of the selection process,
priority will be given to businesses owned by women (WBEs) and people of
color (MBEs) and businesses operating in Boston Housing Authority (BHA)
units to serve families using childcare vouchers. Interested participants
can watch informational workshops on the application process here.
A
new study commissioned
by the Mayor's Office of Women's Advancement, "Too Much and Not
Enough: Family Stresses and childcare Preferences in Boston During
COVID-19," examines the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on working families
with childcare needs. The study drew three important conclusions: Boston's
families are balancing competing fears (COVID-19, job loss, and lack of
positive growth and development for their children); flexibility in the
workplace is not enough to alleviate increased stress at home; and the
childcare options available to families do not yet reflect their
preferences.
"These
findings clearly demonstrate how families have reached their 'breaking
points'--they are stressed, exhausted, and scared," said study authors
Dr. Kimberly D. Lucas and Dr. Wendy Wagner Robeson. "At the same time,
the findings point to very clear and concrete actions that the City of
Boston and its partners can continue--as well as adopt--to better support
Boston's families in the near- and long-terms."
The
City's scope of childcare initiatives includes empowering parents,
childcare industry workers, and community organizations to improve
childcare accessibility for working families. The City of Boston collected
data on childcare arrangements and preferences of working parents
through its Census
Childcare Survey in 2019. Most recently, the City contributed $25,000
to Community Labor United's Care That Works
program to expand childcare access during nonstandard hours to support
families who work outside of conventional working hours.
This
is coupled with funding opportunities through the Boston Resiliency Fund,
which has directly provided $950,000 in funding to Boston emergency
childcare programs to ensure that families of essential workers had
childcare options. Boston Public Schools works with community organizations
to explore the creative use of spaces and places outside of school to
provide students and families with enriching learning experiences. Mayor
Walsh has advocated in support of the Childcare is Essential Act, to
fund childcare businesses that weren't included in other federal relief
efforts during COVID-19.
Since
its launch in 2019, the Childcare Entrepreneur Fund has already supported
more than 65 childcare businesses with a total of $227,500 in funding. To
learn more about the program, including information session workshop dates
and times, visit boston.gov/childcare-fund.
To learn more about the Mayor's Office of Women's Advancement's childcare
initiatives, visit here. |
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