Forward With Families Forum in New Mexico Focuses On Childcare Access in States and Localities

Across the country, states and localities are setting a new bar for access to high quality affordable childcare.

Last year, New Mexico became the first state to codify universal, no-cost childcare for families, establishing a national benchmark that’s had states, cities, and counties anxious to learn more. Across the country, eyes are on New Mexico’s implementation journey. 

It was fertile ground for a Forward With Families Forum. This fall, Ascend is hosting state- and county-based convenings in six locations, each with a different theme and purpose. In New Mexico, the topic was childcare, but the theme was exchange. 

The model that worked for New Mexico should not and cannot necessarily be copied and pasted in different states, cities, or counties. Communities throughout the country have unique advantages and challenges to consider, from funding landscapes, to infrastructure management, to population. But whether studying ways to creatively braid funding streams or identifying unlikely partners for coalition building, there are powerful lessons to be learned from any effort to expand childcare access.

So we joined with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation to invite delegations from across the country – two cities, two counties, and four states – to meet in New Mexico and explore what it looks like to expand childcare access. 

It turns out that while the details vary from place to place, fundamental elements of the childcare landscape – growing and sustaining a workforce, funding the building of infrastructure like childcare facilities, and navigating how best to communicate services to families – are relatively consistent. 

Here are some of the messages delivered from the stage that resonated with attendees from New York City and Georgia, to New Mexico and Los Angeles County, and beyond. 

New Mexico’s Path to Universal Childcare

Attendees were inspired by New Mexico’s bold strategy, codifying no-cost universal childcare into its constitution to ensure long term commitment to the initiative. But the key takeaway from the opening panel discussion was that New Mexico’s bold move was the result of a decade of sustained community organizing and tireless advocacy. Throughout the effort, leaders of the movement worked hard to ensure the coalition included diverse voices and buy-in from across constituencies.

The Road Ahead: National Perspectives

Mirroring other Forward With Families Forums, the conversation shifted to a series of “lightning talks” – panels inviting attendees into the weeds for just 20 minutes at a time. 

• In a session on childcare workforce, speakers highlighted the importance of building a strong, language inclusive, culturally aware pipeline for workers, and increasing access to training resources.
• Discussing childcare supply and infrastructure, speakers urged that bankers, real estate developers, colleagues with an understanding of zoning, and others with relevant expertise should be a part of discussions from the earliest stage, treated as problem solving partners.
• In a final panel on building conditions for change, speakers hit a similar note, expanding to a broad lens on unusual partners from sports teams and military partners to education, health, and other government agencies.

Regional Spotlights at the State, City and County Level 

Each participating delegation was invited to address the group – a precursor to cross-sector and cross-geography exchange sessions held later in the forum. The goal was to increase collective knowledge of where each delegation was coming from, but the resounding theme was that states and localities are each in different positions when it comes to designing and implementing early childhood systems – and all have something to learn from one another. Rather than seeing access to childcare as a spectrum of progress on a linear path, we need to expand our mindset and see the many directions systems can choose as they work to increase affordability, quality, and quantity of childcare available.

Community at the Center: Making Universal Child Care Work for Families

In a day full of ideation and creativity, this meaningful panel grounded participants around the needs of families, inviting speakers including Ascend Parent Advisor Veronica Ramirez to speak openly about what makes childcare work for them. The crucial message for delegations was that families shouldn’t have to choose between care that works for them logistically and care that aligns with their values and cultural identities.

Featured Fireside Chat: Navigating a Landscape of Change for the Earliest Years

Joined by Bezos Family Foundation President Bill Hite, Ascend Founder and Executive Director Anne Mosle discussed how to create systems change that lasts. Both agreed on a takeaway that dovetailed elegantly from the conversations of earlier that day: that leadership is informed by being in communities, and systems must be responsive to the needs of families who are active collaborators in developing the solutions that will serve them. The conversation reminded attendees of that first conversation of the day, hearing about how communities came together to envision the change they wanted in New Mexico over a decade of inclusive discussions.

Together over those two days, steeped in the surroundings of a state deep in the implementation of universal childcare, delegations tapped into the power of civic imagination, learning about one another’s highs and lows and taking time to envision their own bold next steps. 

Thank you to both the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Low Income Investment Fund for bringing these delegations together and helping shape the content.