Children’s Council 2021: A Year of Possibilities

Where were you on December 31, 2020? Political unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic made us all concerned about what was to come. Yet for all the challenges our child care community faced, 2021 was a year of possibility.

This past year was not without hurdles, but at Children’s Council we kept moving forward towards our vision: a San Francisco where every child is able to reach their full potential and thrive. Will you help us reach that vision?

For over 45 years, Children’s Council has been standing by our San Francisco community, even when times are tough, and this year was no different. Here’s a look at what we accomplished together in 2021.

We ensured our child care infrastructure remained in place

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, we immediately pivoted our most critical trainings – ones child care providers needed to keep their businesses open – to virtual trainings. Since then, we’ve offered hundreds of virtual workshops and services, supporting families in crisis and helping early educators stay ahead of local and state ordinances.

We launched our Financial Aid Eligibility Calculator

Our family support navigators guide families through a complex system to find the care they need. To streamline this process, we created our Financial Aid Eligibility Calculator to greatly reduce some of the stressful guesswork.

We piloted our Black Early Care Education Pipeline Program and African American Early Educator Policy Council

San Francisco had a shortage of child care even before the pandemic, especially for Black families. That’s why we successfully launched our Black Early Care Education Pipeline Program with forty participants; we’re now recruiting for a second cohort. We also formed the African American Early Educator Policy Council to provide both support and a platform for Black child care providers to have their voices heard by city leadership. This was only possible with your support!

We reunited with our community in person at City Kids Family Fair

Thanks to the hard work of our staff and community partners, we were able to safely host hundreds of children and families at our annual City Kids in person, with plenty of free resources and fun family activities. Did you join us? See if you can spot yourself in our photo album!

We celebrated the passage of “Baby Prop C“

After the passage of Prop C in 2018, the bill’s legality was challenged and held in limbo for three years, as it made its way through the local and state court system. In a thrilling victory for our community, the bill’s lawsuit was defeated by the California State Supreme Court, allowing our local government to access millions of dollars for stabilizing our city’s child care infrastructure.

We launched BizNest at Children’s Council

This year we created a new overarching program to truly elevate our work supporting our city’s early educators. BizNest at Children’s Council is our full suite of resources, support and trainings for child care providers.

We responded to the financial needs of SF child caregivers in real time

From thousands of emergency mini-grants to the equitable distribution of governmental financial supports, we’ve ensured that millions of critical dollars went directly to our city’s child care programs. Just in the past month (December 2021), we distributed over $5.2 million in government funds to over 1,800 child care programs.

What a year!

Whether you were at the front lines advocating for us or calling us for help, or if you understand how critical child care is to our community, we ask that you please donate. Every dollar counts, and we appreciate your support at this year’s end.

Best wishes for a healthy and joyous 2022!