Child Care Worker Organizing

The Black, Brown and immigrant women who comprise the large part of the child care workforce in New York do some of the most important work around – educating and caring for children as young as 6 weeks of age. Their work has been undervalued and underpaid for generations, with many providers who provide state-subsidized care earning less than the minimum wage even though their main source of income is the government! In 2025, The Action Lab began working with our anchor partner Early Childhood Educators On The Move, a network of thousands of NYC home-based child care providers, and identified that a lack of deep, statewide, coordinated organizing infrastructure to win equitable, universal child care in New York State.

In the first months of our collaboration on the issue, we facilitated strategy development for leading child care advocates across the state, produced compelling online and offline communications, and helped to mobilize over 400 providers on the steps of City Hall for a Day Without Child Care. Our support of these providers and advocacy groups underscored the urgent crisis of state funding for child care subsidies and helped to secure $750 million in funding at the state and city levels to supplement federal subsidy funding.

New York’s child care system is still in crisis, though, jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of workers and the tens of thousands of low-income children. The Action Lab is committed to a long-term power-building effort of child care providers across the state so that New York can be a leader to the nation in how to implement universal child care that does not leave workers behind.