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Angelica Lerrga started caring for children in the basement of her sister鈥檚 Colorado home in 2009, after her husband had been deported two years earlier. She and her two children were living in a mobile home and she couldn鈥檛 cover all of the bills on her own. She needed 鈥渢rabajar y cuidar a mis hijos,鈥� she said: to work and to care for my children.

So when her sister offered to let Lerrga live in her basement and care for both her and her sister鈥檚 children, she took her up on the offer. Word got around that Lerrga was offering quality care, and more families came to her needing care for their children, too. She started taking on children outside of her own family.

It鈥檚 been a struggle ever since. Today she cares for three children who were referred to her by friends: a five year old, a three year old, and one who isn鈥檛 even yet two, 鈥渕uy chiquitita,鈥� she said: very little. She charges $30 a day for the youngest child since she requires more care and supervision, and $20 a day for each of the other two. 鈥淣o me gano mucho,鈥� she said: I don鈥檛 earn much. But that鈥檚 all that the parents can afford to pay her, and even as it stands parents complain about how much she charges. She once had a family that had so little money that they sent their baby to her with an empty bottle, and Lerrga had to spend her own money buying formula to make sure the baby was fed. She knew she had a duty to do it, even if it was a struggle for her 鈥� because it鈥檚 not the baby鈥檚 fault that its parents couldn鈥檛 afford to send supplies.

Even her low rates are an improvement. Before she recently took a course at the local United Way, she was only charging $10 a day per child. She also didn鈥檛 know how many children was too many to accept, and one summer watched eight by herself. But now she offers more enriching care 鈥� guiding the kids in her care to learn through play, teaching them colors, numbers, how to share.

Then there鈥檚 the lack of predictability. She often abruptly loses income when parents lose their jobs or their shifts. She once had a child whose father worked in construction, and every time it rained he stayed home with his kid and didn鈥檛 pay her.

She puts in long hours, starting at 5 in the morning and working until 3 every day. One parent works on a farm an hour away, another works an early shift at a tamale factory and another works an early shift at a meat processor. Lerrga makes so little, however, that she has to work a second job cleaning a restaurant at night after the children leave.

鈥淓s dif铆cil,鈥� she said: it鈥檚 difficult. 鈥淣o me descansa鈥�: the work doesn鈥檛 let her rest. Even with the two jobs she lives paycheck to paycheck.

Lerrga鈥檚 struggle has recently gotten much easier. She is now part of a new program being piloted in her state: the Thriving Providers Project, which sends out regular, guaranteed payments to home-based child care providers like her. Now Lerrga receives $250 every two weeks, no strings attached. 鈥淢e ha ayudado mucho,鈥� Lerrga said: It has helped me a lot.

The goal is to 鈥渞educe income volatility and increase economic stability among home-based providers.鈥� By doing so, the organization wants to explore what the knock-on effects are: Does it improve the quality of care? Do families have a better experience? 鈥淥ur theory is when child care providers are less stressed and less burdened by economic volatility and instability, they can be more valuable caregivers.鈥�

Natalie Renew, Executive Director, Home Grown

Thriving Providers offers guaranteed, unconditional cash payments to home-based child care providers for between a year and 18 months. It grew out of the pandemic: in March of 2020, Home Grown, a national collaborative of funders, gave money to 13 emergency funds around the country to give cash payments to 2,500 home-based child care providers. Home Grown has always focused on these child care providers 鈥� including both those who care for other people鈥檚 children out of their own homes and family, friends and neighbors who offer care more informally 鈥� because it鈥檚 a frequently used form of care but it 鈥渋s really under investigated, under invested in, and underappreciated,鈥� said Executive Director Natalie Renew. These providers were among those most likely to stay open in the early shutdowns to care for the children of essential workers, but there was little support for them within existing systems.

Even though the recipients of the pandemic emergency payments were from many different kinds of places and weren鈥檛 necessarily like each other, it became clear that across the board 鈥渢hese relatively small amounts of cash were being used for very basic things: housing, utilities and food,鈥� Renew said. Home Grown realized that, even outside of a crisis like the early days of the pandemic, these providers were living in a precarious financial state and needed financial support.

The current iteration 鈥渓everages what we鈥檝e learned in the guaranteed income sector,鈥� Renew said, and applies the lessons to child care, specifically care that鈥檚 provided by family members, friends and in people鈥檚 homes. Universal basic income pilots have essentially proven that 鈥渃ash is best,鈥� Renew said. 鈥淲e think providers know best what they need to run the best possible programs.鈥� Thriving Providers, therefore, offers the money without any conditions and 鈥渘o expectations,鈥� she said. It stands in stark contrast with other forms of support that are available to child care providers, particularly the government subsidy system, which has a multitude of rules and regulations providers have to meet to participate and typically doesn鈥檛 pay enough to cover the actual cost of care. Participation in the subsidy system also relies on parents to seek out funding, which is outside of providers鈥� control. Payments are made based on how many children are enrolled, not on the amount of labor a provider puts in nor what would add up to a living wage.

The goal is to 鈥渞educe income volatility and increase economic stability among home-based providers,鈥� Renew said. By doing so, the organization wants to explore what the knock-on effects are: Does it improve the quality of care? Do families have a better experience? 鈥淥ur theory is when child care providers are less stressed and less burdened by economic volatility and instability, they can be more valuable caregivers,鈥� she said. They鈥檒l be able to focus more on the care they provide and how they provide it when they鈥檙e not constantly worrying about how to cover costs and pay the bills.

Lerrga is part of the program鈥檚 first pilot in Colorado, which, in partnership with local nonprofit Impact Charitable, launched in the summer of 2022. It is now making payments to 100 providers. Many are similar to Lerrga: friends and family caring for children in a more informal way than a child care center. They are receiving the same payments as Lerrga, plus providers are offered access to tele-mental health services as a peer support group.

What Lerrga has experienced is typical: Joyceline Felix, a consultant on the Colorado pilot, said that what she charges is about average for family child care in Colorado. 鈥淎 lot of families can鈥檛 afford to pay these rates,鈥� Felix said. Home-based providers generally tend to have unstable incomes because they serve low-income families that are unstable themselves, and they also typically work second or third jobs to make ends meet, Renew said. Nationally, most earn a year from the care they provide.

The Colorado pilot is already having a big impact. Over 80 percent of participants say that it鈥檚 allowed them to continue being a child care provider, while over 86 percent say that it鈥檚 helped them manage the fluctuations in their incomes, according to recent findings from surveys conducted by the Center on Early Childhood at Stanford University. 鈥淚 don’t have to work elsewhere,鈥� one recipient said. 鈥淚’m not stressing out so much about monthly bills.鈥� They鈥檙e having less of a hard time affording food and health care, and paying for the basics has gotten easier. Their housing instability has been greatly reduced and their schedules have become more predictable. 鈥淚 feel very supported and with less financial stress,鈥� a recipient said.

That, in turn, seems to be increasing the quality of care they can provide. The survey tracks seven measures of quality, including how often providers engage in back-and-forth exchanges with children or prevent difficult behavior, and all have steadily increased over the course of the program.

The goal, ultimately, is to get these kinds of programs in place in 鈥渁s many places as possible,鈥� Renew said. Her organization partnered with local providers in Colorado to design the pilot, and as they did, they created a toolkit to replicate the program as quickly and cost efficiently as possible in other places. Home Grown is 鈥渁ctively planning in several other places,鈥� she said, including Nashville, New York City, Los Angeles and possibly statewide in Pennsylvania. King County in Washington is also partnering to build its own project.

Eventually, Renew said, she hopes to influence how all child care providers are paid 鈥� offering them more stability, predictability and financial security.

鈥淵o no creia caundo me dieron,鈥� Lerrga said: when she was told she would be receiving the money, she couldn鈥檛 believe it.

But now with the money, 鈥渢engo suficiente por todos,鈥� she said: she has enough supplies for all of the children she cares for. She鈥檚 able to buy the diapers and toilet paper she needs, as well as snacks and even some small toys for the children. She can buy ingredients for her sopita, a soup all of the children love whenever she makes it. It鈥檚 also given her peace of mind, alleviating the stress she used to feel about being able to cover all of her bills, especially the high gas bills in cold Colorado winters. As the weather gets hot this summer she鈥檒l be able to afford to buy popsicles for the children 鈥� what was a luxury she couldn鈥檛 afford previously 鈥� to help them stay cool while they play.

The money also came at an important time her personally. She had a baby a month ago, and when she was pregnant she was able to use the money to cover the cost of prenatal care since she doesn鈥檛 have health insurance. After her baby was born, she was able to take a month off to recuperate while she had a friend watch her children. She didn鈥檛 get any payments from the parents during that time, but the Thriving Providers money kept her afloat. 鈥淣o iba a vacaciones,鈥� she said: I鈥檝e never taken any vacations. She never took any time off at all before the payments 鈥� if she did she would lose money she couldn鈥檛 afford to forego. This was the first time she鈥檇 ever stepped away from her work.

鈥淓sta ayuda es muy importante,鈥� Lerrga said: this help is very important, and not just for her, but for all home care providers in her state receiving the funds. 鈥淵o estoy muy agradecida,鈥� she said: I am very grateful.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 麻豆精品. Learn more here.