United Way Northern NJ affordable childcare gets Congressional … – Daily Record
PARSIPPANY — To support a United Way of Northern New Jersey initiative designed to make child care services more available and affordable, especially for families living paycheck-to-paycheck, Rep. Mikie Sherrill and New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy teamed up Thursday.
They visited the Parsippany Childcare Center to tout United in Care, a four-year pilot project that is recruiting home-based child care providers as partners in Sherrill’s 11th District, which includes much of Morris County, parts of Passaic County and extends into suburban Essex County.
United Way recently received $1.1 million from Congress to expand the program, designed to increase access to child care, beginning with what they call “ALICE” (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households.
Those funds came from the House appropriations bill for fiscal 2022.
“High quality, affordable and flexible child care for all working parents is absolutely critical to our state’s economic recovery,” said United Way of Northern New Jersey CEO Kiran Handa Gaudioso.
About United in Care
According to United Way research, 37% of the nearly 22,000 families with children in the 11th District were considered “ALICE,” or in poverty, and struggled to afford basics pre-pandemic.
United In Care was conceptualized during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its launch in 2020, the pilot has established alliances in other child care areas of need across the state in Hudson, Warren, Gloucester and Camden counties.
“It really has turned out to be an incredibly tough couple of years for so many families,” Sherrill, D-Montclair, said of the COVID-19 pandemic. “But what has been a bright spot for me has been how our federal, state and local governments have come together to make sure we have been taking care of our families. And one of these areas has been child care.”
The Parsippany Child Day Care Center will serve as the anchor for the pilot’s shared-services model, which seeks to maintain and expand the existing child care infrastructure.
Portions of the district still suffer from a scarce supply of child care, according to Childcaredeserts.org.
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They hope to recruit up to 10 registered home-based child care providers with help from Child & Family Resources of Mount Arlington. Through the pilot, these local small businesses will access free resources, expertise and technical support.
United In Care is designed to also improve the quality of life for child care workers in the program, many of whom are ALICE essential workers and represent growing small businesses in the community.
The project is looking for home-based child care providers to join the 11th District alliance. Interested business owners can contact Susan.Cohen@UnitedWayNNJ.org or call her at 973-220-9494. Providers can also call Child & Family Resources at 973-398-1730.
Costly burden of child care
Sherrill, a mother of four, talked of earning less at her full-time job than she was paying in child care.
“My husband asked if I could get a less-expensive hobby than my job,” she said.
The costly burden of child care is harder for lower-income families and women in particular.
“We now know if a woman leaves the workforce at age 26, even for just five years, that’s a 20% hit on her lifetime earnings,” Sherrill said.
Referring to U.S. child care as “a broken system,” Murphy said United in Care can be “a role model for the rest of the country.”
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven