We need help, we need support. It takes a village to raise a child. And it’s not just the village of the family, it’s the village of the community. All Our Kin is our community.
— Shanette Linton, Little Leaders Group Family Day Care, Bronx, NY
To make high-quality, affordable child care available to more families in Trenton, NJ, the Burke Foundation partners with national nonprofit All Our Kin, an organization that trains, supports, and sustains home-based child care providers (also called family child care providers) in communities where hardworking people struggle to make ends meet.
All Our Kin, whose evidence-based approach improves the quality, availability, and sustainability of home-based child care, works with home-based child care providers to raise the quality of care they provide and more effectively manage their business to improve long-term viability. The aim is to help increase the quality and quantity of care providers in Trenton.
Home-based child care is often more affordable, making it a critical source of care for families and an important business opportunity for providers.
Home-based child care providers can care for smaller groups of children with flexible operating hours, meeting the diverse needs of New Jersey’s workforce.
Quality, affordable child care is essential.
For parents to succeed in the workforce and for families to thrive, they need high-quality, affordable, and reliable child care. Yet New Jersey faces a shortage of affordable child care centers. Most families turn to private family child care businesses, which have an enormous potential to provide the loving, reliable, and affordable care families need.
97% of child care settings in the US are homes, of which 27.5% are family child care programs.
Only half (51%) of estimated child care needs in Mercer County are met by licensed or registered providers.
In 2023, 26% of Trenton residents lived in poverty.
With support from the Burke Foundation, All Our Kin is partnering with a local organization, Children’s Futures, to build and strengthen a staffed home-based child care network that will improve the supply, quality, and sustainability of child care in Trenton, NJ.
What’s next?
All Our Kin worked directly with key practitioners to gain a more in-depth understanding of the Trenton and Mercer County child care landscape, and selected a local nonprofit partner, Children’s Futures, to implement this initiative due to its expertise in community-driven, relationship-centered work.
In partnership with All Our Kin, this initiative is strengthening home-based child care in Mercer County by empowering home-based child care educators with business training, expert support, and coaching to grow the workforce and make child care more affordable and sustainable.
All Our Kin made the learning environment fun and inclusive, while also providing valuable content and experiences. [The] positivity was infectious, and [their] dedication to this work definitely showed!
— Chelsea Denny, Early Childhood Council of Larimer County, Colorado
