Our Work With Home Grown

Working together to advance home-based child care in the U.S.

Home Grown is a national collaborative that works to increase recognition and resources for home-based child care.

Home Grown and Smart Start of Transylvania County envision a national child care landscape in which all children have access to the care they need to reach their full potential.

To achieve this vision, Home Grown works to remove policy barriers, strengthen home-based child care (HBCC) practices and business models, and support the growth and recognition of the HBCC sector so that all providers can sustainably offer high-quality care to children.

SSTC is proud to have partnered with Home Grown for three initiatives: Building Comprehensive Networks, Voices from Home, and Thriving Providers Project.

Building Comprehensive Networks

Through the Building Comprehensive Networks Initiative, SSTC built our Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care Network to connect home-based providers in Transylvania County to resources, professional development opportunities, and community round tables.

Our FFN Care Network began with 13 local home-based care providers. Since its inception, it has now grown to 73 active providers, creating durable infrastructure positioned to tackle the big issues facing our home-based child care sector: building care quality, retaining caregivers, and connecting providers and families to additional services.

Learn more about the development and expansion of our home-based care network through the Building Comprehensive Networks initiative on our blog.

Voices from Home

Amplifying providers’ viewpoints and experiences

SSTC served on Home Grown’s national Voices from Home coalition as one of 8 FFN-serving organizations working collectively to form and deliver key messages to increase support for FFN Providers and raise awareness about the important role that FFN Care plays in the early child care sector.

Providers’ voices were the heart of this work and we partnered with FFN providers in our local care network , relying on their experiences and knowledge to help develop our FFN advocacy campaign.

    • Advocacy spotlights on our FFN network and stories featuring local providers were published across various media outlets including PBS North Carolina, Territory Brevard, The Daily Yonder, Yes Magazine, and The Transylvania Times.

    • 82 unique contacts to legislators and policy influencers were made, uplifting the challenges and triumphs of FFN caregiving and naming specific requests for support.

    • Experiences and perspectives gathered during this initiative were the foundation of SSTC’s FFN Advocacy Coalition messaging

Thriving Providers Project

Thriving Providers Project is our latest venture with Home Grown, in partnership with WeVision EarlyEd.

This project intends to improve the economic stability and overall wellbeing of home-based care providers through the administration of direct cash payments.

SSTC serves as an implementation partner for the Thriving Providers Project and as a Solutions Lab site for WeVision EarlyEd, an initiative of the Bainum Family Foundation.

As a pilot site, SSTC is partnering with selected providers within our FFN Care Network to assess how these cash fund transfers impact their stability and their ability to consistently offer high-quality child care.

Data gathered during this initiative will help inform the development of policies that promote recognition and public funding for home-based caregivers, in an effort to reshape the early child care system.