Written by Eboni Delaney, Director of Communications and Movement Building In recognition of Veterans Day, NAFCC shares the story of Beth Hart, a U.S. Army veteran, former family child care educator, and current Chair of the NAFCC Accreditation Council. “My eldest two children would cry when they saw my husband and me in our uniforms…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building For nearly four decades, Benu Chhabra has dedicated her life to children, families, and the family child care profession. As the owner of Benu’s Preschool, founder of Bay Area Professional Family Child Care Network (BAPFCCN), and a leader at the local, state, and national levels,…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building For Kathryn Baker, family child care began with family. After graduating from Marshall University with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Kathryn began managing a retail store. Meanwhile, her husband had started caring for friends’ children while their parents worked. What began as helping a few…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building When Chantal and Harold Hinds first learned they were pregnant, one of the first pieces of advice they received was a recommendation for a family child care program. “After the congratulations, it was, you have to take your baby to our child care provider.” The…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building When asked why she chose family child care, Lenise Parker answers without hesitation: “Family child care chose me.” It is a response that defines her entire approach to the field, blending her deep-seated commitment, community support, and an intuitive understanding of what families need. Long…
Written By Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building When Angelique Speight-Marshall became a mother in 1992, she did not set out to start a business. She set out to care for her daughter. “I was a new mother raising a daughter with special needs,” she recalls. “Finding child care that truly understood her…
Eboni Delaney, Director of Policy and Movement Building Svitlana Uniyat arrived in the United States from Ukraine in 1999 with a lifelong commitment to education. In Ukraine, she worked across elementary, middle, high school, and college settings, with experience in education, psychology, and social work. After immigrating to the U.S. and becoming a mother, she…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Interim Director of Policy and Movement Building, NAFCC “I want to know what I can do to get more Indiana family child care educators involved.” For the past seven years, Deondra Stewart has provided steady and reliable care to children and families in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She operates a family child…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Interim Director of Policy and Movement Building, NAFCC “We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For” When Trina D. Averette says, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” the words don’t come from a place of theory — they rise from lived experience. For nearly three decades, Trina has opened…
Written by Eboni Delaney, Interim Director of Policy and Movement Building “I realized I was more than a daycare. I was an educator, a social worker, and an advocate.” When you meet Olga Grays, you quickly understand her story is about more than opening a child care program. It is about resilience, community, and leadership.…