Shifting early childhood philanthropic leaders' mindsets and approaches to funding strategies by centering counternarratives of Black women, home-based early childhood educators in the District of Columbia

Home-based early childhood educators (also known as family child care providers) are an indispensable part of the early care and education workforce because they primarily support the healthy development of infants and toddlers (Whitebook et al., 2018; Austin et. al, 2019). More than 7 million infants and toddlers are in home-based early childhood education programs in the United States (National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, 2020; Home Grown, 2020). Despite the fact that young children are educated and cared for in these settings at high rates, there has been a steady decline in licensed home-based early childhood education programs over the last decade (NCECQA, 2020; Reid et al., 2021; Bromer et al., 2021). In the District of Columbia, Black women who run licensed programs, comprise a large portion of the sector (My Child Care DC, n.d. DC Family Child Care Association, n.d.).Early childhood education philanthropic leaders have begun to intentionally invest in ways to sustain and improve the quality of the home-based early childhood education workforce, but have historically not centered the narratives and expertise of Black women. A Black Feminist adaption of the Plan-Do-Study-Act model (Collins, 1990; Taylor et al., 2014; Kashtan et al., 2020) was piloted to bridge this knowledge gap among early childhood education philanthropic leaders. In a professional development session, Black women, home-based early childhood educators’ counternatives were shared with early childhood education philanthropic leaders, which based on survey results, encouraged funders to continue to become more informed actors who make investments that rely on and center the expertise of Black women who are closest to the work.