What is the Thriving Providers Project?
United Way has partnered with Home Grown and Trying Together to launch the Thriving Providers Project, a guaranteed income pilot program, in our region.
- Home Grown is a national collaborative of funders committed to improving the quality of and access to home-based child care.
- Additional states participating in the Thriving Providers Project include California, Washington, Connecticut, North Carolina and Colorado. More information about the project is available at thrivingproviders.org.
- Trying Together is a Pittsburgh-based organization that supports high-quality care and education for young children.
Trying Together has helped United Way identify 25 home-based child care providers who will receive payments of $250 twice a month for 18 months, beginning in July 2025.
- Providers are based in communities in Allegheny County where access to food, child care and transportation are limited.
- Providers will be offered other resources through United Way, such as Free Tax Prep services, financial planning and digital skills training.
- The Stanford Center on Early Childhood will be collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data to assess the program impact.
Why guaranteed income payments to providers?
The goal of the program is to demonstrate how stabilizing the economic well-being of home-based child care providers helps children and the community thrive.
- Home-based child care is the backbone of our community and economy.
- Nationally, home-based is the most prevalent child care placement for infants and toddlers: 30% attend home-based child care as their primary care arrangement compared to just 12% in centers.
- Home-based child care is the preferred setting for Black and Latino families, rural families, and families with nontraditional and unpredictable work schedules.
- These providers face additional financial difficulties.
- Most family, friend and neighbor caregivers, when they are paid, earn $7,420 annually for offering care and 40% rely on at least one other job besides child care to make ends meet.
- Newly licensed family child care providers on average work 56 hours a week and earn $29,377 a year; 30% rely on at least one other job.
- Public child care support, including subsidies, grants and food reimbursements, is often inaccessible to home-based providers. When caregivers have greater financial stability, they can devote more of their time and attention to providing child care that supports parents and guardians who work nontraditional hours.
- When caregivers have greater financial stability, they can devote more of their time and attention to providing child care that supports parents and guardians who work nontraditional hours.
- Spending data collected from other guaranteed income pilots across the U.S. shows that the largest share of program participants’ expenditures goes towards meeting basic needs.
- When financial stressors are reduced, caregivers are less likely to experience burnout and are more likely to seek other support such as health care, mental health resources and healthy food.
Project outcomes are intended to inform policy changes that reinforce the valued contributions of home-based child care providers and adequately compensate them for the work they do.