The Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach
Dedicated to Helping Children and Families
By Mike Danahey
Child care is the industry that fuels all of this. It’s about preparing he workforce of the future.
The Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach seeks to expand opportunities for children, youth and families of the area through collaborations with community, civic and education partners to help address the most pressing needs facing local families.
And that work, says Mayor’s Fund Executive Director Karissa Selvester, is hugely rewarding for those doing it.
“It’s incredibly exciting work,” Selvester said. “I consider myself very lucky to focus on the basic needs of local kids and their families.”
The Mayor’s Fund’s key areas of impact include college and career readiness for local youth as well as youth engagement.
But perhaps more importantly, the Mayor’s Fund is focused on the needs of young children and their families.
“Child care is the industry that fuels all of this,” says Whitney Leathers, chief impact officer for the Mayor’s Fund. “It’s about preparing the workforce of the future,” she adds, citing studies connecting early childhood education to higher high school graduation rates and lower crime rates.
Toward that end, the Long Beach Early Learning Hub (aka “The Hub”) envisions a community where all children’s early learning and child-care needs are met, resulting in a stronger local economy.
The Hub is a project being developed in collaboration with the Long Beach Unified School District and the Long Beach Early Childhood Education Committee. The development of the Hub was made possible by a generous investment from the Long Beach Recovery Act.
“Our mission is to facilitate access for all families seeking early care and learning services through an integrated network of partners,” Selvester said.
The Hub is designed to support all families, whatever their needs or budget, in finding quality and affordable child care they can be confident in. At the Long Beach Early Learning Hub, the goal is to make the search for child care seamless for families, providers and employers.
Surprisingly, the Hub is a positive outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding was made available at that time in the interest of addressing the persistent issues stemming from the pandemic, during which it was determined that child care and early education are essential services. The Hub seeks to leverage a one-time investment to create sustainable change and sustainable infrastructure toward that goal.
Selvester is thankful for the City of Long Beach’s support in sharing the Mayor’s Fund’s vision that investment in early care and education is a worthy investment and one that really supports the infrastructure and the vitality of the city.
In the greater Long Beach community, Hub planners stress, there are about 40,000 children in the age-0-to-5 category, that phase of life when the greatest brain development takes place. Approximately 36 percent of families in the region live in poverty. Twenty-three percent are eligible for publicly funded early education services. Still, roughly 16,164 eligible children are left unserved.
The goal is to provide a mixed delivery system that meets the needs of all families, and encompasses various providers, including school district programs, family child-care centers, private institutions, faith-based organizations and community partners.
The Hub is intended to provide centralized back-office administrative support and to simplify and centralize the enrollment process.
Toward that end, the Hub has seen the following:
The 2018 adoption of the Long Beach Early Education Strategic Plan, with a goal of increasing access to and affordability of infant-through-pre-K early care and educational services through creation of a centralized enrollment system.
2020 COVID-19 response and recovery: Child care and early childhood education were deemed essential. City investments were made in the early childhood education industry via the CARES Act and Long Beach Recovery Act. Child care and early childhood education were prioritized in the Long Beach Economic Blueprint and Long Beach 2030 City Vision.
Long Beach Recovery Act funding allocation: Approximately $2.48 million was set aside for early childhood education and child care, with $600,000 identified for the stabilization of the early childhood education industry and the development of a community-led centralized enrollment system.
The Mayor’s Fund was identified as the organization to lead the Hub development effort because it is seen as a trusted partner with a proven track record, expertise and the ability to collaborate with various stakeholders, including the local school district and independent early learning programs.
The contract for the development of the Long Beach Early Learning Hub, funded by investments from the City of Long Beach, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Long Beach Recovery Act, was finalized in February 2023.
Early Learning Hub Progress, which is ongoing, includes the formation of a stakeholder Advisory Committee; the development of Hub technology; the city’s commitment of $375,000 in tuition support; the signing on of more than 50 ECE sites to Hub Phase 1; the launch of the Hub website in August 2023; and the launching of Hub centralized enrollment.
The Hub and its partners envision a community in which all children’s early learning and child care needs are met, resulting in a stronger local economy. Those involved seek to increase equitable access to quality child care through one centralized access point, to facilitate enrollment of families in available child-care opportunities, and to connect them with available financial assistance.
The group aims to support child-care industry stabilization and, in turn, to stabilize a family’s ability to go to school or work. They would link and coordinate with ancillary services including intervention and prevention, and commit to continuous Hub improvement.
“A good day for us,” Selvester says, “is one where we’re collaborating with our partners and we start to see the needle move, we get feedback that a difference is being made, that there’s a positive impact on local families, their needs are being met.
“Our wins are team wins. It’s about all of our partners and our families doing well.”
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