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Neighborhood Villages in the News

Child care COVID-19 testing pilot reports low positivity rate
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Child care COVID-19 testing pilot reports low positivity rate

Thirty-three cases of COVID-19 from more than 40,000 tests administered to teachers, staff and students of child care programs around the state have been detected since September as part of a partnership between the state and the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages. | State House News Service

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What’s Missing in Early Childhood Education: A School District
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What’s Missing in Early Childhood Education: A School District

Neighborhood Villages began with a goal: do for childcare what the state already does for K-12. Organize it, regulate it and most importantly, support it. “If child care is a public good, we should create a public infrastructure to allow providers to thrive, but for free,” said Lauren Kennedy, co-founder of Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit which serves as an early childhood district for five child care centers in the Boston area. | Early Learning Nation

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Congresswoman Pressley Comforts Kiddo at Daycare, Touts Build Back Better Act
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Congresswoman Pressley Comforts Kiddo at Daycare, Touts Build Back Better Act

On a tour of Ellis Early Learning, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley may not have been planning to comfort a little lady. But that's exactly what happened during a recent visit. Pressley visited EEL on Oct. 14, and was also there to promote the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) that President Biden is pushing to pass. Among other things, the BBBA would lower childcare costs, and lower higher education costs. | Jamaica Plain News

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Child care is costly everywhere. But in Massachusetts, it’s ‘particularly bad.’ Here’s why
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Child care is costly everywhere. But in Massachusetts, it’s ‘particularly bad.’ Here’s why

“We can’t find teachers to be in classrooms, and if we don’t have teachers in classrooms, we cannot enroll kids,” said Lauren Birchfield Kennedy, cofounder of Neighborhood Villages, an organization that advocates for child-care reform. “And as a result, we’re seeing many programs need to close the entire classrooms or in some circumstances even close entire locations.” | Boston Globe

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Affinity Empowering and Neighborhood Villages Launch No-Cost COVID-19 Testing Program for All Massachusetts Early Care Centers
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Affinity Empowering and Neighborhood Villages Launch No-Cost COVID-19 Testing Program for All Massachusetts Early Care Centers

Affinity Empowering, Inc., today announced a program to offer no-cost weekly COVID-19 testing for all Massachusetts licensed early education and care programs. The testing is being offered to both center-based and family childcare, as coordinated by Neighborhood Villages and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). | Yahoo Finance

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No-Cost COVID-19 Testing Program for All Massachusetts Early Care Centers is now available for No COST COVD 19 Testing for Affinity Empowering and Neighborhood Villages
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No-Cost COVID-19 Testing Program for All Massachusetts Early Care Centers is now available for No COST COVD 19 Testing for Affinity Empowering and Neighborhood Villages

Affinity Empowering, Inc., a leading provider of the most sophisticated and secure occupational, behavioral, and direct-to-consumer health services, along with non-profit Neighborhood Villages, today announced he will conduct weekly COVID-19 testing for all Massachusetts licensed early education and care programs. | List23

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Pool Testing Expanding To Cover More In Early Care Settings
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Pool Testing Expanding To Cover More In Early Care Settings

A small pool testing program that caught 37 asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in early education and child care settings in 2021 is about to be expanded substantially through a partnership between the state, Neighborhood Villages and the Biden administration. | State House News Service

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Morning Rundown: Expanding Pooled COVID Tests For Child Care Centers; Legislature Talks (Again) On How To Spend Relief $
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Morning Rundown: Expanding Pooled COVID Tests For Child Care Centers; Legislature Talks (Again) On How To Spend Relief $

Good news for child care providers and parents. Neighborhood Villages, a program that runs pooled coronavirus testing at child care centers, is expanding this fall after teaming up with the state. The nonprofit will be able to offer pooled testing every week at 260 centers – covering at least 13,000 children – across Massachusetts. Who's paying for the tests? The state is working with the federal government to cover the costs. | WBUR

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Will We Ever Solve the Childcare Crisis?
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Will We Ever Solve the Childcare Crisis?

We live in one of the most innovative and progressive regions in the country—not to mention one of the richest. Yet Massachusetts is also the state with the most expensive childcare in the nation, which is crippling families, mostly working moms. Will we ever figure out how to solve the childcare crisis? | Boston Magazine

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Opinion: What to do with billions in surplus and federal relief funds
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Opinion: What to do with billions in surplus and federal relief funds

The numbers are in: the Massachusetts state budget that ended last month had a surplus of more than $3 billion (yes, with a "B"). We could find ourselves with another surplus next July. Currently, Beacon Hill is debating what to do with the $5 billion in additional funds coming to the commonwealth from the federal American Rescue Plan. These billions in surplus and relief funds must be used to fix the major fault lines in our social infrastructure. We know exactly where to start. It’s time to fix our broken early education and child care system. We can’t afford not to. | Boston Business Journal

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New White Paper: We Have School Districts — Why Not Early Childhood Districts?
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New White Paper: We Have School Districts — Why Not Early Childhood Districts?

What if, as a counterpart to public school districts for children five and under, we had “early childhood districts” adapted to the early childhood context and informed by lessons from the inequities found in the K-12 system? This bold vision may offer a key for unlocking many of the tricky doors blocking our progress towards an effective early childhood system. Policy expert Elliot lays it out in this new white paper for the think tank Capita. | Early Learning Nation

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Early Education Non-Profit Promotes Child Tax Credit Awareness Day
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Early Education Non-Profit Promotes Child Tax Credit Awareness Day

Starting July 15, most families will begin receiving a monthly payment of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child between 6-17 through the end of 2021. Approximately 39 million households will automatically receive the new Child Tax Credit. The payments are another tool that can be used to help all families access early education and care for their children. | Press Release

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Pooled COVID testing finally coming to childcare centers
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Pooled COVID testing finally coming to childcare centers

On Thursday, the Department of Early Education and Care and the nonprofit Neighborhood Villages announced that early educators and children will now have access to a…free, weekly pooled testing program. | CommonWealth Magazine

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Free pooled COVID testing offered to day cares statewide
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Free pooled COVID testing offered to day cares statewide

Massachusetts is declaring that early educators, families, and children are not on their own when it comes to COVID testing,” said Sarah Muncey, a copresident and cofounder of Neighborhood Villages. Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to establish coordinated testing for child-care facilities, Muncey added. | The Boston Globe

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Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Program Launched For Early Education and Care Providers Across Massachusetts
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Comprehensive COVID-19 Testing Program Launched For Early Education and Care Providers Across Massachusetts

In an effort to protect early educators, children, and their families, a new weekly COVID-19 pooled testing program is being offered statewide at no cost to early education and care programs across Massachusetts. This is the first comprehensive pooled testing program for the early education sector to be administered in Massachusetts and is one of the only of its kind in the country. | Press Release

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In Crisis? Lemonada Has a Podcast for You
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In Crisis? Lemonada Has a Podcast for You

Last winter, Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit that pushes for early education and care policy reform, approached Lemonada Media about collaborating on a show about the child care crisis. | The New York Times

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In bid to end COVID-19 unemployment boost, GOP misses the she-cession
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In bid to end COVID-19 unemployment boost, GOP misses the she-cession

[W]orkers can’t return to the job if the high cost or unavailability of child care can’t justify a paltry paycheck. And we still live in a society that places most of the responsibility of child care on women. As restaurants, hotels, and airports — but not most schools — reopen as Americans are getting vaccinated, that helps explain why men are getting back to work and women are not. And for those with very young children, the cost of child care skyrocketed during the pandemic. | The Boston Globe

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