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Author: Jennifer R Farmer

Faith Leaders: The Solution to Homelessness is Not Criminalization; It’s Housing

Posted on

For Immediate Release

NEW YORK – Being homeless in America is incredibly hard, and last week the Supreme Court made it harder still. In a 6-3 decision in City of Grants Pass v Johnson, the majority ruled that it was permissible to ticket and jail people for sleeping outside or in their cars, even with just a blanket covering them, when they have no other place to go. United Women in Faith and several affiliated National Mission Institutions, weighed in, and shared thoughts on the decision, its dangers, and what needs to happen going forward:

Last week’s Supreme Court decision criminalizes people experiencing homelessness, while moving the country no closer to solving the underlying problem as 653,104 people were homeless in America on a winter night in 2023. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, “This is the highest number of people reported as experiencing homelessness on a single night since the national reporting on the Point-in-Time count began in 2007.”

The solution to homelessness is not criminalization; it’s housing. But all across the country, our communities face a dire shortage of affordable housing.

“Columbus, GA is short about 14,000 units of affordable housing,” said Kim Jenkins, Executive Director of Open Door Community House.

“Nashville’s housing situation is very troublesome,” said Steve Fleming, Executive Director of the Bethlehem Centers of Nashville. “It’s a very fast-growing city. There’s been an influx of people from other parts of the country – California, New York – and it’s a steal for them. But it’s really stressing some local families to the max. Those typical, low-income families we serve every day, who are just trying to keep up with everyday living, are having to leave, or falling into homelessness because they can’t keep up with rent. We found out that there were some families that were living in cars, or living down by different properties downtown by the river. I had a situation where one family was sleeping under a bridge.”

The housing crisis is not limited to a single city, state or region. It is engulfing the whole country.

“The cost of the average apartment went up 21% in 2021,” said Bill Tibbitts of the Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake County. “At a recent Crossroads BBQ, a man served by our ministry pointed to a nearby building and said he used to live in a two-bedroom there. He had been paying $950/month. The rent was up to $2,100/month last he’d heard and the man, himself, was currently homeless.”

“The bigger situation is that, country-wide, we don’t have anything close to the affordable housing we need, especially for those earning less than 30% of Area Median Income,” Tim Shanahan, Executive Director of Families Forward in Des Moines, Iowa, remarked. “That impacts not just homeless people, but other low-income people, as well. There’s not enough shelter space, rent assistance, rapid rehousing supports, or utility assistance. As long as we don’t have enough affordable housing, and don’t have enough programs for people who need short-term help, we’re going to be in that situation where people have nowhere else to go.”

Another commonality across the nation is a lack adequate safe and accessible short-term and transitional housing options.

“We have 61 [shelter] beds in Mobile and 35 beds in Baldwin County and we have a waiting list of nearly 200 individuals. Last year, our local homeless coalition reported 2830 individuals were in a housing crisis,” said Kate Carver, Executive Director of Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, AL.

“I get calls all the time, people showing up at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday saying they need somewhere to go,” Jenkins said. “But even rapid rehousing is not that rapid –it’s not same-night. We have people who pop in the door all the time who say I literally have nowhere else to go. Those people are, for a while, literally on the streets, sleeping on a park bench for a short time, because they have nowhere else to go. If those people are now going to be taken to jail, then I think we have a real problem. If we criminalize people just because they’re on a park bench sleeping because they have nowhere else to go, then I don’t know where that leaves us as a society.”

The consequences of Grants Pass v Johnson may well be lethal, if it means that people without shelter are unable to protect themselves from the elements for fear of criminal punishment.

“We cannot really calculate how many more people will die, will have frostbite that causes them to lose digits or limbs, because we’ve never had this many people being exposed to the elements before,” Bill Tibbitts, of Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City, UT. “If we’re going to say that you can’t use a tent anymore, when there are 1,000 people outside in the snow, that’s alarming. Criminalization has been a kneejerk reaction, the default for politicians from both parties. But we know that it doesn’t work.”  

Criminalization is a step in the wrong direction.

“You have one event – major medical bill or some other situation — almost anybody can find themselves homeless, and find themselves having to sleep outside, or sleep in a car, in a way that would be punishable,” Shawna Nelsen-Wills, of Emma Norton, reflected. “When you talk about jailing people or giving them fines for sleeping outside, then that just pushes them back further from their goal of finding safe, affordable housing, or a job, or whatever they’re trying to achieve. It just makes it that much more difficult. We, as a society, should be helping them find what they need to succeed and take those next steps, not punishing them for sleeping outside.”

“The City of Grants Pass v Johnson decision will exacerbate existing inequalities and further criminalize poor people, especially poor people of color,” said Emily Jones, Executive for Racial Justice at United Women in Faith. “We know that nationally, 37% of people experiencing homelessness are Black and nearly a third are Latina/o/x. Homelessness is already a racial justice issue. We also know that people of color are targeted by policing and arrested more frequently than white people who engage in the same behavior. So, there is a double-disproportionality at play here. People of color are more likely to experience homelessness and, once homeless, people of color are more likely to be criminalized for their homelessness.”

Criminalizing homelessness sets people up both for short-term traumatic experiences and erects further barriers to accessing stable housing in the future.

“Criminal punishment serves no purpose,” said Kate Carver, Executive Director at Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, AL. “Research shows that providing affordable housing is cheaper than repeatedly jailing someone. Criminalizing homelessness violates constitutional and civil rights, and it’s also traumatizing. It is already traumatizing to be sleeping in your car, and then it becomes a criminal act, and that has a multiplier effect. When you play this tape to the end, what happens? The unaffordable ticket. The arrest. The collateral consequences of that arrest. Hundreds or thousands of dollars in court fines. Taken to jail and there for weeks. Maybe losing custody of kids or losing your employment while you’re in jail. And then when you do come out, it’s harder to get a job, housing or other public benefits because you have a record.”  

“The SCOTUS decision on homelessness is really scary and troubling because I’m just one of millions of people that have experienced homelessness and having to figure out where we’re going to go, where we’re going to live and how we’re going to survive, without somebody knocking on your car door saying you can’t park here, with the fear of your children maybe being taken away,” said Joni Hendee, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Dumas Wesley Community Center in Mobile, Alabama. “Nobody chooses to become homeless. It’s an experience that one goes through.”

Serving people who are experiencing homelessness is a vital expression of faith and decency.

“We run a food distribution program, among other services,” said Renyatta Banks, Executive Director at Wesley Community Center in Portsmouth, VA. “When I started as Executive Director six years ago, a man with diabetes was living in our building. I still sometimes find people sleeping outside our building and know that some food program participants are living in their cars. These are maybe your Vietnam Vets who came home to nothing. Maybe people who lost their home in the mortgage crisis. There are so many different situations. It’s an honor, to me, that they’re here. They look at it as a safe haven.”

“God wants us to help each other,” Steve Fleming added. “I wish we had a heart of compassion for everyone, regardless of their situation, because everyone needs a little love to grow and prosper.”

“People of faith, likewise, are called to advocacy,” Jones added. “We must be vocal and active all around the country, pushing back on the criminalization of homelessness. Above all, we must continue to uphold the inherent dignity of all people.”

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Officials with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Accused of Unfairly Targeting Residential Treatment Facility, Putting ‘Stress on the System’

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For Immediate Release

June 24, 2024

COLUMBUS – A residential treatment facility in northeast Ohio recently turned to the Ohio Supreme Court for assistance compelling a state agency to turn over records, and cease its unfair and malicious targeting of the establishment. The complaint for mandamus relief was brought under the Ohio Public Records Act by Zeiger, Tigges and Little LLP on behalf of the Mohican Young Star Academy (MYSA).

“The priority of state agencies should be to serve her people,” said Marion H. Little Jr., Partner with Zeiger, Tigges and Little LLP. “And yet officials with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services erected one road block after another in the path of a provider of residential treatment services for boys and young men in Northeast Ohio. Agency officials appeared to have an ax to grind and were laser-focused on punishing MYSA, even at the expense of the young people it purports to serve.”

Research shows that 1 in four Ohioans reported needing mental health and substance abuse treatment services in 2023. “And while there are few programs in Ohio that offer intensive, residential treatment for children and young men, officials with the ODMHAS have strained the system by targeting MYSA,” Little added.

Since 2016, out-of-state placements for children in need of residential treatment has tripled, with more than 140 Ohio children living in treatment facilities outside of the Buckeye state. The costs for such services can exceed $1,100 per child, per day.

“I do this work because I care about young people, I care about our community, and I care about wellness,” said Olga Strasser, owner of the Mohican Young Star Academy. “I want nothing more than for the ODMHAS to cease its unfair targeting of MYSA and allow us to get back to the work that we are passionate about doing – serving young people in need.”

“Unfortunately, our state is spending millions to send at-risk youth to treatment programs at out-of-state facilities,” Strasser added. “This removes children from their communities and drives up the cost for care.”   

The filing for mandamus relief alleges that over past three years, ODMHAS unfairly targeted, besmirched and retaliated against MYSA and its owner. In response to an ODMHAS complaint against MYSA, the corresponding hearing officer concluded:

  • “First, MYSA is taking care of its resident youth – and instead of harm being caused to them, “[t]he residents at Mohican Young Star Academy are benefitting from the culture of the facility.” [Administrative Hearing Decision at 46.]”
  • “ODMHAS has been unfairly targeting MYSA, and that “MYSA is being penalized for at least trying to accommodate children with well-documented behavioral issues.” [Id. (emphasis added).]
  • “ODMHAS’ unfair treatment of MYSA puts stress on the entire mental health treatment system, because “[t]o revoke a license for a facility with the capability of providing services such as MYSA would place an even heavier burden on the agencies that search desperately to locate options for the children in their caseload.” [Id.]””

“Although MYSA’s county partners view the organization as a highly reliable and efficient behavioral health provider, we fear MYSA has been the subject of a smear campaign by state officials intent on covering their tracks versus serving children and young people,” Little said.

“I am not sure which is worse, being viciously maligned, or watching state officials treat young people and their families with utter indifference,” Strasser concluded. “Either way, the courts must intervene; not just for me but for the well-being of children and youth.”

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On Juneteenth, Returning Citizens Continue to Fight for Full Inclusion Back into Society

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For Immediate Release

June 19, 2024

ORLANDO – The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC) today celebrated Juneteenth by outlining the ways in which formerly incarcerated persons continue to fight for freedom. This statement can be attributed to Desmond Meade, executive director of the FRRC and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize nominee:

“This holiday is particularly resonant for me because the people in Galveston didn’t learn they were free until about two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was passed. In 2024, there are many returning citizens who have repaid their debt to society and are continuing to fight for full inclusion in society. One way we see this is through voter registration.

“There are approximately 19 million returning citizens across the country. Many may be may eligible to register to vote but may not realize it. In Florida alone, there are approximately 600,000 formerly incarcerated persons who do not owe fines and fees but aren’t registered to vote. In the same way the people in Galveston didn’t know they were free, there are many returning citizens who – for a host of reasons – have yet to fully realize their freedom, let alone be reintegrated back into society. In addition to spreading the freedom message, Juneteenth should be about removing barriers for all of us, including formerly incarcerated persons.”

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Ohio Organizing Collaborative Recognized with Brennan Legacy Award for Leadership in Redistricting Work

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For Immediate Release

May 6, 2024

Ohio Organizing Collaborative Recognized with Brennan Legacy Award for Leadership in Redistricting Work

COLUMBUS – On May 1, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law recognized Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC) for their work in the fight for fair maps in Ohio. They acknowledged O’Connor’s and The Collaborative’s leadership in educating Ohioans and engaging policymakers about fair and equitable maps.

“It is meaningful to be honored among leaders such as the honorable Chief Justice O’Connor and long-time voting rights advocate Samuel Gresham Jr., for our collective work in the fight to end partisan gerrymandering,” said Molly Shack, executive director of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. “Gresham, my colleague Jeniece Brock, my former co-director Prentiss Haney, and our entire team at the OOC wake up each day with the singular goal of furthering democracy. We are grateful for this important recognition.”

“The Ohio Organizing Collaborative received a Brennan Legacy Award for being the galvanizing force behind a three-year lawsuit seeking fair maps,” writes the Brennan Center in an organizational release. “The Collaborative’s staff and volunteers, represented by the Brennan Center in the litigation, not only served as plaintiffs in a rollercoaster of a lawsuit, but also kept communities across Ohio engaged and informed about the battle and why gerrymandering matters.”

“The Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s commitment to fair maps is formidable,” said Yurij Rudensky, senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. “Through lived experience, the staff and volunteers give voice to the damage the current system has done in the lives of millions of Ohioans, especially for communities of color. Despite setbacks in the courts, despite opposition from politicians and lobbyists, the Collaborative remains resolute: the people of Ohio deserve maps drawn in the public interest, not for political gain.” 

“We are excited to continue our efforts to advance democracy by registering young people to vote, challenging voter purges and working to ensure that voters can draw legislative maps, not politicians,” Shack said.

 

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Parents and Providers Gear Up for National Day Without Child Care; Activities Planned in Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, D.C., Georgia

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For Immediate Release

April 23, 2024

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Parents, child care providers, and child care advocates affiliated with the Raising Child Care Fund today announced coast-to-coast events coinciding with the Day Without Child Care (DWOCC). The DWOCC will be held on May 13, and is designed to build support for fully funded, quality early childhood education and care. The advocates released the following statement:

“In the spirit of the labor movement, which hosted the Walk A Day in My Shoes, child care professionals, advocates and parents will participate in the Day Without Child Care on May 13. Our intention is to demonstrate the fundamental need for quality, accessible child care,” said Danielle Atkinson, executive director of Mothering Justice (Michigan). “We need child care policies that ensure affordable care for families, competitive wages for workers, and stabilization in the industry.”

“California wouldn’t need a Day Without Child Care if the state didn’t give away $70 billion in tax breaks,” said Mary Ignatius of Parent Voices. “Our elected leaders are attempting to balance the budget on the backs of Black and Brown parents. We want to highlight the true cost of care and encourage our leaders to do better for children, families and providers.”

Parent Voices will host a Stand for Children event on May 8 that will see 500 parents and providers assembled at the state capitol.

“The childcare industry, which I am so passionate about, is unsustainable, which is why I am leading a shutdown of childcare centers on May 13 and traveling with a busload of providers and teachers to the MN State Capitol,” said Shawntel Gruba, CEO of Iron Range Tykes Learning Center in Mountain Iron and member of Kids Count on Us, Minnesota. “Childcare is a broken business model. We need a universal childcare system in which early educators can make thriving wages and families can afford care. Thriving wages for teachers would make childcare a sought-after job and bring dignity and respect to the workforce. This industry should be viewed as a career, not a stepping stone. Our state and federal elected leaders need to recognize that childcare is the workforce behind the workforce, which is why we’re shutting down childcare centers and heading to the Capitol. We want to highlight the need for substantial and sustained public funding for childcare.”

Kids Count on Us will take busloads of parents and providers on a 4-hour trek to the state capitol.

“We are calling on the mayor and the DC Council to invest in our babies the same way they invest in millionaires,” said LaDon Love, executive director of SPACEs in Action.

On May 13, SPACEs in Action will bring child care providers and parents to the Wilson Building for site visits and meetings with DC Council members. They will also meet with child care champions such as Councilmembers Phil Mendelson, Jeneese Lewis George, Kenyan McDuffee, Christina Henderson and others who support restoring the pay equity fund. SPACEs will also host car brigades and do a banner drop urging D.C. Council to keep their promise to child care providers.

“I’ve been in this work for 24 years and I care deeply about children, families and providers,” said Ellicia Lanier, founding executive director of Urban Sprouts Child Development Center. “Our intention with the Day Without Child Care is to signal to legislators that more must be done to ensure that our babies are free. From birth, our children deserve to live in a world full of possibilities. They deserve a world in which the community values them enough to ensure that their parents aren’t burdened by unaffordable, inaccessible care.”

On May 13, Urban Sprouts members will participate in a Strolling the Capitol event in Washington, D.C.

“For the DWOCC, 9to5 Georgia will highlight the crisis in the state’s reimbursement system,” said Erin Clark, 9to5 Georgia. “We will highlight the consequences of inadequate funding; every inadequate payment threatens the ability of our providers to stay open and offer the care that our families rely on.”

The organization will shuttle providers and parents to a May 16 Board Meeting of the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. The mobilization is designed to enable providers and parents to communicate directly with bureaucrats and policymakers around childcare. 9to5 Georgia will also host a provider appreciate event and press conference in Atlanta on May 10.

“We want to connect the dots for legislators, and demonstrate the urgency of adequate funding for child care for families, communities and providers,” said Tamara Lunan, project director for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative’s CEO Project. “Unfortunately, the state is stealing wages from its workers. Ohio will not do right by child care providers without federal oversight.”

On May 13, The CEO Project will bring 5250 early childhood educators to the state capitol in Columbus to drop off a petition and urge legislators to invest in child care.

 

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Black Southern Women’s Collaborative Condemns Supreme Court Decision Limiting Mass Protests

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For Immediate Release

April 22, 2024

BATON ROUGE – The Supreme Court recently announced it will not hear Mckesson v. Doe. This decision leaves in place a lower court order that effectively eliminated the right to organize a mass protest in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The Black Southern Women’s Collaborative (BSWC) has previously spoken on the dangers of limiting constitutional rights to protest in opinion pieces from Ashley Shelton who leads the Power Coalition for Equity & Justice in Louisiana and Tameka Greer who leads Memphis Artists for Change in Tennessee. You can read those pieces here and here. If you report on this issue, Shelton and Greer, and other members of the BSWC are available for comment.

“The Constitution’s first amendment protects our rights to freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble; despite this, we see efforts to criminalize protests rather than address the reason people are protesting in the first place,” Greer said. “This is deflection. Policymakers shouldn’t be punishing those who exercise their right to demand answers for their grievances.”

“This ruling undermines the heart of the U.S. Constitution,” Shelton said. “Anti-protest laws are not about safety. If they were about safety, my First Amendment rights would enjoy the same protection as my Second Amendment rights. Instead, these policies are specifically designed to silence Black people, persons in poverty, and persons from marginalized communities. If we do not resist such measures, we will see escalating campaigns to silence Black people, people of color, religious minorities, and others. Once that happens, we will have no way to challenge laws that relegate many to second-class status.”

“All people deserve to live in a society that sees and responds to their needs,” said Nsombi Lambright Haynes, executive director of One Voice and a member of the BSWC. “Preventing the right to gather sends the message that our communities have no right to remedy injustice. The courts are telling the American people that we must accept injustice today, tomorrow and forever. Such messages eliminate confidence in our democracy and in our judiciary.”

“This latest play demonstrates extreme white supremacist governing,” said Phyllis Hill, founder of the BSWC. “It is in line with other efforts to strip away our rights, such as Roe vs Wade. They are stripping away our rights and eliminating our right to voice dissent through voting.”

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Raising Child Care Fund Releases Report Showing Impact of Parent Organizing in Increasing Public Support of Child Care Access as Federal Funding Ends

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For Immediate Release

April 17, 2024

WASHINGTON – Today, the Raising Child Care Fund (RCCF) released a report on grassroots groups’ remarkable work to secure adequate funding for child care and early education. The country is in dire need of stable funding for early childhood education, and the report notes how the RCCF raised more than $17 million in five years to support grassroots groups in their advocacy for accessible, affordable child care and education. The report is available here.

“We know that educating young children is non-negotiable,” said Rachel Schumacher, director of the Raising Child Care Fund. But we can’t give our children the education and care they need without advocacy. The Raising Child Care Fund is proud to have invested in grassroots groups who wake up every day determined to build public will for adequate funding for early childhood educators, providers, parents and communities.”

RCCF grantees are having an impact, and their recent victories are noted in the aforementioned report. Grantees include Parent Voices in California, Louisiana Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, Kids Count on Us in Minnesota, OLÉ in New Mexico, The Ohio Organizing Collaborative/CEO Project in Ohio, and the Coalition for Social Justice in Massachusetts, and more.

“Through years of deep organizing of parents, educators and child care providers, we built strong relationships with elected officials, and held them accountable for how their policies impacted children and families,” said Karin Swenson, child care provider and organizer with Kids Count on Us.

“When parents, providers and grassroots groups fight for our children’s future, they win,” Schumacher said. “This is essential given cuts in pandemic-era funding for child care.”

During the pandemic, the federal government released over $50 billion in child care funding including $24 billion in the American Rescue Plan Act which states used to stabilize 200,000 child care providers. This benefitted as many as 9.6 million children. Advocates have been urging Congress to extend this support and create a stronger system for children, families and providers. In the meantime, a small number of states took action after hearing from RCCF grantees and other advocates:

  • The California state budget included $2.9 billion for child care for the next two years. These funds include $100 million a year to eliminate family fees for most families receiving child care assistance.
  • Minnesota’s state legislature allocated $366 million in 2023 and over $1 billion in continued funding to sustain programs like the Great Start Compensation payment program for early educators.
  • A coalition for children, families and child care providers, advocated for and won $475 million in Massachusetts to continue initiatives to support providers and boost compensation.
  • New Mexico used $100 million of the permanent fund to support early childhood programs for children aged zero to five. This win was the result of a ballot initiative in 2022.
  • Louisiana’s budget included $52 million for child care. This was the largest investment in child care in the state in almost a decade.

While these efforts are noteworthy, more must be done to support children, families and providers. Child care workers are the workforce behind the workforce, and it is imperative they receive the support they need to remain on the job.

“We have come so far in five years and are committed to continuing to push for just and equitable outcomes for kids, families, and the workforce,” said Rebecca Gomez of the Heising-Simons Foundation.

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WATCH: Mother-Daughter Duo in Atlanta Discuss Their Fight for Prison Reform, Impact of the Carceral System on Women

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For Immediate Release

March 6, 2024

ATLANTA – United Women in Faith, the largest denominational organization for women kicked off Women’s History Month with a short film on the carceral system’s impact on women.

“Never Give Up: Cynthia and Michelle’s Faithful Fight Against Mass Incarceration” centers the story of Michelle Morrison, an Atlanta-based Black woman victimized by the carceral system. It weaves together her story of incarceration, the atrocities of the carceral system for women of color, and how the support of her mother, Cynthia Morrison Holland, a leader in United Women in Faith, helped her overcome the odds. 

The film was shot, produced and directed by Ania Freer, an award-winning Australian-Jamaican filmmaker and founder of Goat Curry Gallery. The story begins with the 2007 arrest of Michelle on felony counts of murder due to driving a friend who was involved in an altercation that resulted in homicide via gun violence. Despite not participating in the violence, Morrison was charged on 12 counts of felony murder and received a life sentence, requiring a minimum of 30 years in prison. This over-sentencing aligns with the disparities inflicted on Black women who are incarcerated at 1.6x the rate of white women, and account for one-third of the female prisoners serving life sentences.

This film shares the intimate journey of one faith-filled mother who overcomes incredible odds to win her daughter’s freedom. In doing so, Never Giving Up: Cynthia and Michelle, A Mother, A Daughter and the Faithful Fight Against Mass Incarceration invites the whole church, and especially Christian women, to join this mother-daughter duo in the ongoing work of ending mass incarceration.

The film also touches on the abuses women face in the prison system and the terrible conditions. “That place is terrible. If you don’t have a strong support system, or strong belief system, or a strong foundation in God you will rot away” explains Michelle.

But, at the end, this is a story of persistent and faithful action in the face of overwhelming injustice as lived by one mother who was committed to “never giving up” on her daughter. Despite the sentencing, Cynthia never forgot or abandoned her daughter. She supported her through her thirteen excruciating years of incarceration and ultimately secured her release by getting her daughter’s sentence reviewed and modified by a state-level integrity task force. Michelle continued her education, even throughout her incarceration, obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Life University. Michelle believes that “having a mom that stood beside me, came to see me every weekend, and never gave up meant more to more to me than anything.”

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United Women in Faith is a faith-based organization that aims to help connect and nurture women through Christian spiritual formation, leadership, development, creative fellowship and education to inspire their local and global communities.

 

 

 

 

Ohio Child Care Providers and Parents Secure Major Changes to the Child Care & the Development Block Grant

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For Immediate Release

March 5, 2024

COLUMBUS – Ohio families can breathe a little easier thanks to the hard work of several child care providers and parents affiliated with The CEO Project, a division of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The group submitted testimony in August 2023 on proposed rule changes to the Child Care & the Development Block Grant and outlined ways the federal government could better support children, families and child care providers. On Friday, March 1, the federal Office of Child Care responded to the testimony and granted many of the things the child care providers from Ohio sought.

The Office of Child Care specifically wanted input from child care providers in Ohio, Georgia and Colorado about the impact of proposed changes on parents and providers. The CEO Project convened 12 leaders from cities such as Cincinnati, Columbus, Lima and Youngstown for input; 5 of them shared testimony with federal officials. They also urged child care advocacy organizations in Minnesota and other places to also submit testimony.

As a result of their advocacy, the Office of Child Care agreed to:

  • Ensure equal access to child care by limiting copayment to 7%. (§ 98.45)
  • Structure payment based on enrollment not attendance. Rather than require it outright, there is qualifying language “to the extent possible” but it is a step forward. (§ 98.15)
  • Increase parental choice via the use of contracts and grants. (§ 98.30)
  • Assume presumptive eligibility for 3 months prior to establishing eligibility. At a Lead Agency’s option, a child may be considered presumptively eligible for up to three months and begin to receive child care subsidy prior to full documentation and eligibility determination.

“Every child care worker knows what its like to care for a child, only to find out months later that the parent is not eligible for subsidized care, and the provider therefore doesn’t get paid. This isn’t right and the new rule change will give the state time to determine eligibility and will help ensure providers are not working for free,” said Tamara Lunan, director of The CEO Project.

“These changes are a major win for Ohio children and families, and could not have happened without the courage of parents and providers with The CEO Project,” Lunan added. “The CEO Project is the first ever grassroots effort led by women of color childcare providers in Ohio organizing for structural change to the childcare system. In July 2023, we urged our network of child care leaders with The CEO Project and our national partners to collect comments from other providers and parents about the proposed changes. We then submitted those comments for consideration to federal officials. We wanted to highlight the true impact of the rule changes on ordinary child care providers and parents who desperately need accessible early childhood education and care. This work is the direct result of childcare providers reclaiming their power and fighting for their communities.”

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Revolve Fund Has Generated $10.9M in Additional Capital Access for People of Color-Led Businesses and Nonprofits

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For Immediate Release

Feb. 29, 2024

BALTIMORE – With over $2 million in philanthropic dollars raised since 2020, Revolve Fund has helped entrepreneurs of color secure $10.9 million in additional capital for their businesses and nonprofits through direct leverage, co-investment, referrals, and strategic guidance. Founded and managed by James Wahls, Revolve assists entrepreneurs of color and other organizations committed to supporting entrepreneurs of color that have been historically underfunded by traditional financial systems.

Initially piloting strategies in Baltimore, Maryland and Detroit, Michigan, Revolve Fund has provided grant funding to entrepreneurs nationally. Moreover, with a grant from the Surdna Foundation, Revolve is further expanding by developing and implementing an U.S. Southern pilot strategy in partnership with other similarly committed organizations, funders, and investors.

“For entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders of color, systemic barriers and racial and ethnic wealth gaps continue to disproportionately prevent their businesses and nonprofits from obtaining equitable capital access,” Wahls said. “Revolve intentionally deploys catalytic ‘friends and family-like’ or institutional funding, which are critical factors for entrepreneurial success.”

Research indicates Black families and other families of color often have less disposable income for funding businesses and nonprofits. In 2019, the median net worth of white families was 7.8 times that of Black families. Additionally, Latino-owned businesses are more likely to experience funding shortfalls than white-owned businesses.

Revolve Fund offers recoverable grants and strategic business support directly to organizations or collaborates with community development financial institutions, nonprofits, venture funds and business incubators and accelerators. This approach is designed to foster capital access without creating financial harm while maximizing Revolve’s industry expertise and grantees’ sourcing, underwriting and portfolio-monitoring capabilities.

Revolve Fund will continue its capital fundraising over the next 18-36 months. Revolve’s past and current funders include the Annie E. Casey Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Open Society Institute – Baltimore, PNC Bank, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

As Revolve Fund’s managing director, Wahls brings over 15 years of experience in the philanthropic, impact investing and legal sectors. With stints at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan, Wahls has managed or co-managed $250 million-plus in impact investing allocations comprised of grant, equity, debt and direct investments. In addition to Revolve, notable strategies he has designed or led include the Baltimore Small Business Support Fund and the Detroit Entrepreneurs of Color Fund. Wahls also executed investments nationally in affordable housing, financial inclusion, quality job creation and community development.

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