Early Childhood Impact Fund: Home-Based Child Care Entrepreneurship

Project Description

The Alliance Home-Based Child Care (HBCC) program aims to close the child-care gap in Harris County by providing professional child-care training, business development, and instruction services for entrepreneurs, specifically targeting refugee women as child-care providers. The key priorities for The Alliance are to connect refugee communities, close the child-care gap for low- to moderate-income populations, provide opportunities to increase household incomes and allow parents and/or other caregivers to enter the workforce with safe and consistent child care.

The Alliance HBCC supports eligible refugee women to establish licensed home-based child-care businesses throughout Harris County. With ARPA funding, they are expanding their client and train services with the goal to add 1,103 child care slots for 75 new child care providers over three years.

PRIMARY PARTNERSHIPS

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

  • Community and client outreach at First 3 Years’ Baby Day Event April 29, 2023
  • Social media and TV advertisements detailing their programming in multiple languages
  • Community outreach activity and recruitment (Houston East End Magnolia's Toy Drive) with over 200 families
  • Round table discussions with active child care providers/graduates of their program 

TARGET IMPACT

Target goals

To assist low- to moderate-income communities to:

  • Become economically self-sufficient.
  • Gain access to affordable, quality child care within their respective communities.
  • Help meet the early care and developmental needs of children who live in these communities by creating state-licensed high-quality affordable family child-care businesses.

Program KPIs:

  • Number of clients targeted for outreach
  • Number of clients enrolled in the program
  • Number of child-care slots created

WEBSITE LINK

USE OF EVIDENCE & PROGRAM EVALUATIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on child care, with nearly 4.5 million child-care slots lost nationwide. Prior to COVID-19, Harris County experienced a significant shortage of affordable child care options. According to a February 2021 report, 25% of all child-care centers in Texas closed due to COVID-19. Many child-care programs are not licensed and only 43% of licensed child-care providers accept subsidies, resulting in a lack of affordable, quality child care. Moreover, many families suffered financial hardship during the pandemic and child care is the second most expensive item in the family budget, falling just behind housing.

During the pandemic, fewer families enrolled their children in child-care programs, which resulted in the closure of many child-care facilities. Child-care facilities also saw an increase in employee shortages and turnover during the pandemic, which created challenges for ensuring child-care centers were adequately staffed. As families returned to work, they experienced obstacles in finding child care. Working families need access to culturally competent, accessible, and affordable child care. The RAND Policy Research Corporation will be evaluating Early Childhood Impact Fund investments, including Home-Based Child Care Entrepreneurship.