The issue of delivering accessible and quality child care for families in the workforce has challenged generation after generation, but has been elevated to greater public prominence over the last five years. Driven greatly by the impact of COVID-19 —and the subsequent disproportionate number of women leaving the workforce partially or completely—child care is now just as much an issue around board tables as it is around kitchen tables.
Because of this, multiple public and private entities at every level—local, state, and national—are creating space to tackle the child care crisis, and multiple parallel efforts are arising. In fact, as San Diego County’s Child Care Blueprint Action Team began meeting in December 2022, the Kim Center for Social Balance was also organizing leaders around the business and social implications for child care as part of a larger initiative called LEAPS (Leadership in Ecosystems, Advancement, Policies, Supervisors—these are the top four areas that regions and employers need to focus on to develop thriving workplaces.)
By February 2023, these two efforts connected, and the Kim Center’s LEAPS Child Care Community Action Group (CAG-CC) decided to align their efforts with the County’s Child Care Blueprint. The goal for the LEAPS CAG-CC was to augment and support—not duplicate—the work of the Blueprint, which was contiguous to the work of the San Diego County Child Care Local Planning Council. This ensured that all efforts would be pulling in the same direction to drive more meaningful and lasting impact for the local child care sector. The Local Planning Council has adopted the San Diego County Child Care Blueprint as the current local child care plan for the region to ensure alignment.
Because the CAG-CC had aligned but different perspectives than were present in the Blueprint Action Team, our goal has been to provide a robust thought document providing helpful insights from both within and beyond the child care sector. It represents our work from December 2023 – October 2024, and outlines both research and expertise organized in the same framework as the Child Care Blueprint.
One example is our exploration into creating an automated and centralized portal of employer-offered child care benefits, publicly accessible so that, in particular, small and medium-sized businesses could learn from one another. The CAG-CC investigated multiple avenues for including this information into a business’ regular operations, for example through their regular interactions with the City. The findings from explorations like these are included in the thought document to help identify both obstacles and opportunities for the Child Care Blueprint Implementation Team. The Blueprint Implementation Team is able to use the LEAPS CAG-CC recommendations and findings to enhance and complement the Blueprint Implementation Plan, which is in development and expected to be completed in the Summer of 2025.
Women in the healthcare industry: An update
Although healthcare continues to outpace other industries in the representation, hiring, and advancement of women, the latest data show there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Women in the Workplace 2020
The events of 2020 have turned workplaces upside down. Under the highly challenging circumstances of the Covid-19 crisis, many employees are struggling to do their jobs. Many feel like they’re “always on” now that the boundaries between work and home have blurred. They’re worried about their family’s health and finances. Burnout is a real issue
Sexual harassment of LGBT people in the workplace: A TUC report
#MeToo has been effective in focusing the eyes of the world on the problem of sexual harassment at work. But the voices of LGBT people haven’t been heard clearly enough in discussions around this issue. We wanted to change this and foreground LGBT people’s voices and experiences in the ongoing debate and search for solutions. We therefore conducted the first survey of its kind on this issue.
The Facts Behind #metoo: A National Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault
Stop Street Harassment (SSH) commissioned this study. SSH is a volunteer-run nonprofit organization
dedicated to documenting and ending gender-based street harassment worldwide through public
education and community mobilization. Our work includes the annual International Anti-Street
Harassment Week, the National Street Harassment Hotline, a blog correspondents program, and website
resources. Visit: www.stopstreetharassment.org.
Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business 2020
FAs about small businesses and COVID-19’s effects in 2020.
COVID-19’s effect on minority-owned small businesses in the United States
Whether by necessity or ingenuity, minority owned small businesses may be giving us an early sign of how US businesses will adapt in the wake of COVID-19.
Number of Women-Owned Employer Firms Increased 0.6% From 2017 to 2018
Number of Women-Owned Employer Firms Increased 0.6% From 2017 to 2018