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Futuro Media Group launched a new multimedia effort, The We Imagine…Us Project, and just released two interlocking podcast series exploring themes of racial solidarity and equity – with support from the Kellogg Foundation. The first is a fictional story of a Black American father and his Black Vietnamese American daughter as they set out across the U.S. in hope of rebuilding their lives. The companion podcast features interviews with WKKF Solidarity Council on Racial Equity (ScoRE) members including Michelle Alexander, Heather McGhee, Linda Sarsour, WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron and more.
Alliance for Early Success recently launched Child Care NEXT to promote state advocacy for comprehensive, quality early childhood education. COVID-19 has exposed that our child care system is broken. Child Care NEXT tries to address that by giving state advocates the know-how and tools to mount long-term campaigns to achieve transformative change in their child care policies and funding.
Our grantees were featured at least twice in the Miami Herald in recent weeks. An Oct. 22 article described how Hope for Haiti supports Haitian farmers by buying locally to provide food aid – along with other assistance – to victims of the Aug. 14 earthquake. Five days later, the paper ran a powerful op-ed by Jim Ansara, co-founder and director of Build Health International (BHI), in which he urged the international community to support Haitian-led work for long-term development. Ansara highlighted organizations that have developed health care workforces and infrastructure since the 2010 earthquake, including BHI and grantees Partners in Health and Health Equity International.
WKKF grantees in Michigan, including BC Pulse, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Battle Creek Shared Services Alliance and the Michigan Women’s Commission, are working to create innovative solutions to the child care workforce crisis. One potential solution is a statewide project running in three communities called the MI Tri-Share Child Care Pilot Program. It splits the cost of child care three ways between employers, employees and the state in an attempt to create a funding model that makes high-quality child care more affordable for families.
Community Action Agency and Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Michigan, are working to improve the quality of early care and education programs in the city by helping early childhood workers access training programs and build career pathways. Through a program offered by the WKKF grantees, early care and education workers can earn a child development associate degree at no cost to them, making them eligible for full-time assistant teacher roles with better pay and benefits.