We are a national nonprofit organization that trains, supports, and sustains family child care providers. Our mission to transform the nation’s child care system results in a triple win: child care providers succeed as business owners; working parents find stable, high-quality care for their children; and children gain an educational foundation that lays the groundwork for achievement.
All Our Kin serves nearly 1,100 family child care providers, who in turn educate and care for over 6,000 children from chronically under-resourced communities in Connecticut and New York City. In addition to our direct service program, we train and advise partner organizations across the country to strengthen their engagement and practice with family child care providers.
The following values guide and inform All Our Kin staff members’ work in the field.
Maintain High Standards
Set the highest standards for yourself. Strive to be a model of best practice. Be ambitious. Hold yourself accountable for the quality of everything you produce.
Focus on Strengths
Value children, providers, and parents, and respect their unique perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Start from a place of potential and positivity. Understand that an asset-based approach to change requires sensitivity, flexibility, respect and commitment. Work in partnership with providers and parents to improve outcomes for children.
Place Relationships First
Create authentic relationships based on recognition of each person’s individuality and grounded in mutual respect. Approach others without prior judgment. Work cooperatively and collaboratively with people at different educational levels. Be culturally and linguistically sensitive. Work hard at building community wherever you go, both inside and outside All Our Kin.
Commit to Transformative Outcomes
Believe in and commit to the bold goal of quality early care and learning experiences for all children and equity for all caregivers. Continually ask yourself whether your work is improving outcomes for children and caregivers.
Engage in Continuous Learning
Seize every opportunity to gain more knowledge and use it to inform your work. Reflect on your experiences and change your practice in response. Be open to feedback and constructive criticism. Be humble, honest, and admit mistakes. Understand that we don't yet know all the right answers, and keep trying new strategies. Use data to inform your work. Persist in the face of obstacles. Experiment, innovate, and explore.
Center Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
Work on behalf of equitable opportunities and outcomes for all children, families, and caregivers. Prioritize and promote equity, diversity, and inclusion in every aspect of your work. Learn the history of racism and discrimination and understand its impact on your work today. Actively work to combat systemic racism and injustice internally and externally. Examine and challenge your own biases and roles in systems of power and privilege. Speak your truth and empower others to do the same.
All Our Kin began as a response to the ramifications of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 on low-income families, especially single mothers of very young children who struggled to find both decent work and affordable high-quality child care in their communities.
Family child care educators operate small, home-based programs that are the primary source of care for our youngest children, many of whom are children of color and children from low-income communities. Family child care provides a high-quality early childhood education in an intimate environment, and is flexible, affordable, and often available during non-traditional hours.
Family child care has the potential to create transformative community change in culturally responsive learning environments, yet educators often cannot access resources, training, and support. All Our Kin’s highly successful, data-driven model propels family child care providers forward as educators and small business owners while providing families and children high-quality educational options.
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