Policy Advising

As part of Policy Advising, participants will join a growing community of teams of state and local leaders who are ready to address key child care gaps in their communities by creating the policy and practice conditions for family child care to thrive. Participants will receive individualized consultation and support from All Our Kin’s Policy TA team and various subject matter experts—as well as national partners, as necessary—to build a robust child care system that truly meets the diverse needs of all families. Through Policy Advising, teams can:

• Develop an increased understanding of the family child care landscape in their state/community, including the major challenges and opportunities related to the supply, quality, and sustainability of family child care businesses.
• Identify a policy/practice issue(s) to focus on for the duration of the partnership, shaped by factors including available data, parent and educator voice, and potential for impact.
• Create a family child care policy agenda and action plan with short- and long-term goals, concrete benchmarks, and a timeline; made progress on implementation.
• Build relationships with key stakeholders whose partnership is needed to move the action plan forward.
• Increase their internal capacity to move the needle on family child care, including through a better understanding of the data, messages, stories, and strategies that garner support from multi-sector stakeholders.
• Join a growing community of innovative leaders from across the country who are dedicated to supporting and strengthening family child care and who can act as a brain trust for years to come.

Participants are small teams of 5-6 state and/or local leaders who:
1. Are deeply committed to family child care;
2. Are well-positioned to transform family child care policy and practice; and 
3. Have the time and capacity to participate as full members of the experiene, as outlined below.

At least one member of every team must be a currently operating family child care educator. Family child care educator participants should be included in early conversations about this opportunity and their ideas should inform the application responses. Each team is expected to compensate the family child care educator participant(s) for their work in meetings, which is separate from the participation fee due to All Our Kin.

Each team must also have a designated team leader who will be the main point of contact for the team. The team leader is responsible for communicating with All Our Kin to coordinate team meetings and logistics, co-create team meeting agendas, and serve as the team’s point person for all activities.

The Team Lead will serve as the main point of contact for the team and will be responsible for coordinating with All Our Kin to schedule and plan meetings, co-create meeting agendas, and facilitate the team’s progress on policy agenda goals. In addition to the time commitment for the entire team, the Team Lead might also spend an additional 30 minutes to 1 hour each month supporting meeting coordination and preparation alongside All Our Kin’s team. 

There are different ways your team might fund the participation fee. Teams should identify a source of funding that makes sense for them. We encourage teams to consider different funding sources including your organization, philanthropy or funders, state funds, or federal funds. Consider whether this work forwards the goals of an existing grant to your organization, or whether other funds need to be solicited for this work. If the fee presents a barrier to participation, please reach out to us.

Please indicate your interest in All Our Kin’s Policy Advising technical assistance offering by completing the application. The application requests short answers to a series of questions designed to help us better understand the participants and goals of each team. As a reminder, only one person (the team lead) should fill out the application on behalf of the entire team. We will review your application and be in touch to schedule a short, informal interview to further understand your team’s goals. If you have questions specific to the application, please contact All Our Kin’s Policy Advisor, Becca Smith at becca@allourkin.org. 

We can support your team in examining the landscape and context in your state or community and identifying a challenge or issue to focus on.