Tribal Nations and Communities
Adaptive and Multifaceted Partnerships with Tribal Nations to Build the Supply and Sustainability of Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Child Care
At FCF, we are committed to creating and sustaining meaningful, thoughtful, and lasting partnerships with sovereign Tribal Nations located within the current boundaries of the United States. Tribes have a deep commitment to the well-being of children and use their sovereignty to enact policies that prioritize the needs of children, families, and future generations. Culturally and linguistically relevant child care can be an important piece of this commitment. It plays a critical role in preserving indigenous languages and cultures, helping to heal generational trauma from policies that separated children from their families, and enabling the economic self-determination of Tribal families and caregivers. In short, creating access to Tribally operated and licensed care is a nation-building endeavor.
Yet, Tribes face child care shortages similar to the states that share their geography. As the child care sector unevenly recovers from disruptions sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, Tribal child care systems face unique obstacles to familiar child care system challenges. Many Tribes can benefit from innovative, locally designed strategies developed to respond to such challenges, including: recruiting and retaining staff; developing and maintaining quality facilities; and building an affordable and accessible child care supply for families.
First Children’s Finance is the only national nonprofit that addresses the business and finance needs of child care in three ways: we build the financial sustainability of child care entrepreneurs, partner with communities to grow their child care supply, and influence systems to provide supports and investments needed to sustain child care. Engaging on all three levels is especially critical to building the supply and sustainability of Tribal child care.
As sovereign nations, Tribes may simultaneously play many roles, including child care program operators, primary regional employers, and child care systems leaders or policymakers, through activities such as licensing, administration of federal programs, as well as Tribal investments.
Flexibility in federal funding to Tribes coupled with increased opportunities for collaboration among child care practitioners, elected Tribal leaders, and local economic drivers — can create a powerful potential for innovation and custom solutions. Nonetheless, there is no one right answer to building strong, sustainable, and sufficient Tribal child care systems. Therefore, First Children’s Finance provides a suite of services designed to support and honor the unique strengths and needs of Tribes and meet Tribes where they are in the maturity of their child care ecosystem.
Programs and Services Available
The First Children, First Nations Child Care Collaborative (FCFN), delivered in partnership with All Nations Rise, is a two-year planning and implementation process, which builds the capacity of Tribes to identify the scope and size of their child care challenges and develop local solutions to address these challenges. he FCFN team accomplishes this by partnering with Tribes to conduct a thorough analysis of the current child care supply and demand and evaluation of community factors impacting the local child care supply. This process is more than just a study-it’s a community-driven partnership designed to facilitate the creation of meaningful solutions based on the unique strengths and challenges of a Tribe’s local child care system. We work with partner Tribes to facilitate engagement across the community, bringing together leaders, stakeholders, and families to surface key insights. Our facilitation process ensures that community voices are at the center of solution generation, with a focus on culturally grounded innovations and solutions that reflect the true needs and aspirations of the community. Together, we help partner Tribes create an actionable child care system strategic plan that addresses the specific opportunities and challenges identified throughout the process. The FCFN team further supports Tribes with CCDF planning, research, financial modeling, and links to other Tribal communities working on similar issues to turn the community’s ideas into an actionable plan.
Discover the innovative solutions developed by two participating FCFN partner Tribal Nations:
ECE Business Collaboratory of Tribal Nations
Designed to build the capacity of cross-sector Tribal leaders to think systemically about the current state of child care. The Collaboratory carves out dedicated time and space for cross-sector Tribal teams to break down siloes and collaboratively focus on child care while revealing the interplay between components of Tribal systems and how they impact the supply and sustainability of child care including economic development, workforce, and finance.
Through collaboration, technical assistance, and peer learning, we work with Tribal leaders to identify gaps and develop strategies for sustainable, culturally relevant child care solutions. Using FCF’s Child Care Business Ecosystem planning and assessment tool, Tribal teams map, assess, and explore solutions to ensure that they can meet the child care needs of every child and family within their communities.
Participating Tribal Nations also benefit from connecting with national experts and other Tribes to share proven and promising practices. By learning from each other’s experiences, Tribes can adopt and adapt proven methods that have worked well in similar contexts, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their own child care programs. Additionally, Tribal Nations can be exposed to innovative approaches and creative solutions to common challenges in child care systems. This exchange of ideas can spark new ways of thinking and problem-solving, leading to improvements and innovations that benefit children and families across multiple Tribal communities.
The following video shares highlights from the first ECE Business Collaboratory Convening of Tribal Nations and hear from Tribal Nations that are thinking outside the box about how to leverage Tribal sovereignty to create a blueprint from a strong, sufficient, and sustainable child care supply.
Tribal Ties: Weaving Stronger Child Care Systems Lessons from the Collaboratory shares key findings and insights from the inaugural ECE Collaboratory Convening of Tribal Nations and highlights how Tribal Nations are leading the way in ECE innovation.ECE Business Collaboratory of Tribal Nations
Targeted Support for Busy Leaders
Tribal child care systems leaders often have wide-ranging responsibilities. To meet the needs of leaders whose time and energy are spread across so many concerns, it is critical for technical assistance to be clear, actionable, and timely. To meet this need, FCF launched Innovation in Tribal Child Care Convenings as a system of support and learning specifically for Tribal CCDF administrators. The six-month series hosted in 2022 focused on effectively and successfully using American Rescue Act (ARPA) funding to strengthen child care in Tribal communities. CCDF administrators from 10 Tribes participated in iterative, virtual working sessions with content and facilitated discussion guided by their questions and needs.
Custom Consultation
Available to Tribes at the business, community, and systems level to support a range of child care supply-building goals. For Tribes seeking to develop new facilities or expand current Tribally operated child care facilities, FCF partners to develop feasibility studies, business and marketing plans, and financial projections. For owners and administrators of Tribally licensed programs, FCF offers financial capacity building in the form of training, coaching, and financial consultation.
For Tribes interested in growing and strengthening their child care system, FCF can assess supply-demand gaps and the current state of Tribally licensed child care businesses. FCF can study the cost of care and subsidy access barriers to inform Tribal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) policy and investments. FCF can also conduct landscape analysis of the local child care ecosystem to identify underutilized resources and opportunities for alignment and investment.
