Earlier this year, I had the honor of joining more than 200 parents, kids, child care providers and allies at the Minnesota Children’s Museum to celebrate the partners who have walked alongside us in our journey with 80×3: Resilient from the Start.
This was not a conference or a professional development day, and we had no business on the agenda. We simply wanted to give our partners and families the chance to connect. Again and again, the feedback from our attendees was clear: We needed this.
This has been a common refrain since 80×3 launched in 2022. We’ve worked with partners across the state – from families and child care providers, to philanthropic funders and state agencies – to support early child care that meets the needs of all families and caregivers.
That means care that is trauma-sensitive, helping kids and families navigate the hardships they face, and which is culturally responsive to the community’s values and traditions.
More than 500 children have already benefitted from 80×3’s work – but this is only the beginning. With the right public investments and resources for our communities, we can ensure that every child in our state has a great start. Two years in, we have a lot to celebrate.
Funding from 80×3 has helped our child care partners implement new forms of trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care – maintaining competitive compensation for their staff; investing in new curriculum and training materials; and providing support for parent, child and staff trauma.
We deepened that support through our partnership with Creative Kuponya, offering mental health support for child care professionals through healing circles and one-on-one support.
This work is normalizing mental health care among child care professionals – helping them get the support they need, so they can be present and engaged in the classroom. One of our cohort members called this “the biggest gift ever.”
Our partners in the classroom tell us that our work is making an impact, but we know that lasting change requires new statewide policies and practices – prioritizing trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care at every level of our child care system. This year, United Way and our 80×3 partners advocated for two key policy shifts that took effect on July 1.
First, updates to the state of Minnesota’s Early Learning Scholarships program expanded the criteria for eligible families, making scholarships available for children facing a wider range of adverse childhood experiences (like an incarcerated parent, to give one example). These updated scholarship criteria are a crucial step in ensuring our child care system can engage families impacted by trauma.
At the same time, 80×3’s advocacy was pivotal in driving updates to the statewide Parent Aware rating system. As of July 1, child care providers at or above a two-star rating are now required to demonstrate competency in trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive care. This new requirement will provide families with a clearer indicator of their provider’s capabilities – helping them ensure that their kids are getting the support they need.
Together, these shifts are bringing us closer to establishing trauma-sensitive and culturally responsive practices as the baseline for child care in our state.
While 80×3 has been pivotal in bringing this work to life, we know that the people who best understand the challenges are those who navigate it every day. The early childhood education professionals and leaders we’ve partnered with, and the children and families who have come into their centers, have shown us the path forward. Looking ahead, our team is already hard at work on our next funding opportunity for child care providers, which we expect to make available next year.
All of this work takes place in dialogue with United Way’s other work in early childhood education – working in partnership with our advocacy and grantmaking teams to meet the holistic needs of families in our state. This is just one part of the greater impact we’re able to achieve for kids and families.
You can play a part too. A gift to our annual fund helps deepen our impact – driving lasting change through initiatives like 80×3, while continuing to meet the urgent needs of families in our region and state.
