No One is Coming to Save Us

Every young person deserves access to high-quality education and career opportunities. But for young parents, none of that is possible without first solving for the basic need of childcare. In the sixth episode of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's series on what young people need to thrive, host Gloria Riviera talks with Bella Agee, a 21-year-old student, worker, and mom, and Quanic Fullard, Senior...

People are going to space for fun, yet building a supportive child care system can seem impossible. What gives? In this episode, we’re looking at the work of Neighborhood Villages, an organization that's spent nearly a decade creating the blueprint and putting into action what a truly supportive child care looks like – one that values kids and caregivers alike. From providing material goods like c...

Finding child care is too often a maze of confusion and financial strain. Families struggle to secure a spot, navigate different options, and afford care – if they can find it at all. In this episode, we talk to Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University Jeff Liebman, to break down the root causes of the child care crisis, and we hear from listeners about the ripple effects all of this has o...

High-quality child care isn’t about fancy buildings or high-tech gadgets - it’s about relationships. Meaningful connections between caregivers and children create the foundation for great early education, no matter the setting. In this episode, we talk to early childhood expert Junlei Li to explore what truly defines high-quality early learning, the many places where children can experience it, an...

What would it mean to have child care for your kid from ages zero to five, no matter what you make, where you live, or whether or not you’re employed? The United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t offer meaningful support to families. But in New York, there’s a movement daring to challenge that status quo by demanding a better system: guaranteed universal public child ca...

In Season 5 of No One Is Coming to Save Us, we're talking about what the child care system should – and urgently needs – to look like. We demand a system that is guaranteed, high-quality, accessible, and supportive. Follow along this season as host Gloria Riviera takes us into the heart of these demands, bringing you stories from families, educators, and experts who are fighting to make a better c...

A request from the No One is Coming to Save Us team: Tell us what the child care struggle looks like for you. Send us a voice message at speakpipe.com/noone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Families across L.A. are struggling with the rising cost of childcare and how to access support programs. Meanwhile, childcare providers are grappling with their own challenges, including low wages and staff shortages. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks about how leaders in L.A. can invest in a more unified, affordable, and culturally affirming system of childcare. She is joined by D...

A couple years ago, early education and childcare expert Rhian Allvin made a drastic change. After decades working in policy and advocacy, Rhian decided to start Brynmor Early Education and Preschool, which now has sites in Virginia and Washington, D.C. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks to Rhian about what it means to truly value early childhood educators, and how that leads to qual...

Does universal Pre-K guarantee school readiness? To answer that question the podcast is headed to Wisconsin! Land of freezing winters, dairy cows, and universal Pre-K. Back in the 1980s, Wisconsin made publicly funded preschool almost ubiquitous throughout the state. But they’re still suffering from a massive underinvestment in childcare and early education, as well as one of the worst racial achi...

Climate change is not just an issue for our children’s children. We are already feeling its effects today. Gloria talks to two experts who lived through historic California wildfires and droughts in recent years. Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine, tells Gloria about how scorching heat waves and wildfire pollutants can trigger asthma in children. S...

Did you know that families with young children are one of the most likely groups to experience homelessness? Being a new parent is hard enough – it’s nearly impossible when you don’t have stable housing. This week Gloria’s talking to Kate Barrand, who runs Horizons for Homeless Children, an organization in Boston providing quality childcare and early education to unhoused families. They’re doing i...

There’s a mental health crisis in America. If we want to turn that around, we need to start from the very beginning of a person’s life. Gloria speaks to Terri Chebot, an infant mental health consultant, about the huge role that childcare providers play in children’s emotional and social growth. With so much on the line from the ages of 0-5, how caregivers handle a child’s emotions is everything. T...

On the first episode of Season 4, Gloria’s taking a look at how quality childcare and early education can help families break out of poverty, and what that means for our country’s future. First, Gloria hears from Professor Jorge Luís Garcia, an economist at Texas A&M University whose research shows that investing in young children pays dividends for decades. Then she connects with Emily Centeio, w...

What happens in the first six years of a child’s life can shape their entire future. This season, we’re back to uncover the links between childcare and some of the most pressing issues of our time, like intergenerational poverty, homelessness, and climate change. With powerful expert insights and compelling personal stories, we connect the dots between access to quality childcare and the promise o...

When young adults leave the foster care system they’re left trying to find housing or employment on their own. Oftentimes, the thing they yearn for the most is family. In this special episode, Gloria chats with the Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Systems Innovation, Sandra Gasca, and CEO at Foster Forward, Lisa Guillette. Our guests discuss how they’re helping youth ag...

Gloria is live at CareFest in Los Angeles, presented by Caring Across Generations, to bring you a conversation among leading care advocates about the potential of the care agenda to unite a divided nation. She is joined by Lisa Hamilton Daly, the Executive Vice President of Programming for Hallmark Media; Mónica Ramirez, an attorney, author, and founder of Justice for Migrant Women; and Jenn Stowe...

Keri Rodrigues's son was suspended 36 times while he was in kindergarten. She felt abandoned by school officials and like the teachers hated her child. So she went into mama bear mode, organized local parents, and changed the local school system. Now, as President of the National Parents Union, she’s organizing parents across the country to help improve their local schools and make schools more eq...

The tour makes a virtual stop in Richmond, where host Gloria Riviera learns how the community has built a public-private partnership to help subsidize a mixed-delivery model of care that helps families find programs tailored to their specific needs. This week we meet Cheryl Morman, a family child care provider and president of the Virginia Alliance for Family Child Care Association; J David Young,...

Literacy advocates are asking us all to face an uncomfortable reality: For decades, we’ve done a poor job of teaching children how to read in this country, and the widening gap in literacy is most apparent among our Black, Latino and Native American young people. The good news is that we now know many the sources of our problems with literacy instruction, and advocates have both the policy solutio...

As we conclude our national tour, host Gloria Riviera and our partner Latoya Gayle reflect on the lessons learned from advocates and caretakers we met across the U.S. They chat about the inspiration they are taking away from this journey after meeting so many people working to make a difference in the lives of families everywhere. Later in the episode, Gloria and Latoya discuss how you take the le...

The tour stops in Denver to learn how advocates are advancing universal pre-k and how they’re working to fill the rest of the child care and early childhood education puzzle so children have robust support from ages birth to five. We meet panelists Natriece Bryant, public private partnership director for the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration; Lorena Garcia, representative for the 3...

Throughout the tour, New Mexico has been held up as the shining example of communities coming together to energize voters and pass funding for early child care. For over a decade, organizers worked tirelessly to pass a constitutional amendment which increased funding for early childhood education. This week, we meet panelists Trisha Moquino, founder of Keres Children’s Learning Center, a not-for-p...

The tour makes a virtual stop in Texas to learn how child care and early childhood education advocates are working with business leaders and elected officials across the political spectrum to expand care options for families.  We meet panelists Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes, the representative for District 2 on the Austin City Council; Natalie Boyle, founder and CEO of Mommies in Need; and Sarah B...

The tour stops in Detroit to highlight how advocates are expanding quality child care and education options for Michigan families; and how they’re advancing historic state investments in child care by promoting early childhood education as a public good, not a private benefit. We meet panelists Denise Smith, the implementation director for Hope Starts Here, a coalition and framework to transform e...