Photo: Joshua Franzos
Jessica Sager &
Janna Wagner
Economy
29th Heinz Awards - 2024
Jessica Sager, J.D., andJanna Wagner are founders of All Our Kin, a nonprofit dedicated to training, supporting and sustaining family child care educators. All Our Kin provides home-based providers with the resources and community connections to create quality early childhood environments and run successful small businesses.
Galvanized by the stringent conditions imposed on working parents by welfare reform in the ‘90s, Ms. Sager and Ms. Wagner founded All Our Kin as a lab school to equip mothers to open licensed programs in their homes, allowing them to care for their own children and contribute to their communities. Home-based child care is a vital service, offering flexible, accessible care that is often culturally and linguistically responsive. Most importantly, quality early care plays a critical role in early childhood development.
Today, All Our Kin is a national network offering comprehensive direct support, including licensing assistance, business courses, and educational training and coaching in English and Spanish. It also advocates for fair compensation and ensures family care educators are at the forefront of policy discussions – advocacy that is critical given that nationally, family child care educators earn $29,377 annually (roughly $10 an hour). Studies show that within one year of completing All Our Kin’s licensing or business programs, most providers increase earnings by $5,000 or more.
Independent analyses show that All Our Kin’s work contributes to the creation of thriving, neighborhood-based, early learning environments. All Our Kin-trained providers generate high scores on assessments, which correlates strongly with positive outcomes in terms of children’s cognitive, social and emotional skill development and attitudes toward learning.
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Photo: Joshua Franzos
“All Our Kin is so much more than a business model. Numbers don’t drive our economy – people do. When we provide quality child care to families in their own communities, when we make sure educators have the tools to run a business, and when we advocate for those educators to get a living wage, everyone wins. Children are supported, parents can work and the economy thrives.”
— Jessica Sager
“From birth to 3 years old, children’s brains develop at an unbelievable rate. Understanding how to make the most of these rich opportunities requires dedication and expertise. Whether it's through educational coaching, training on social-emotional development or preparing for national accreditation, All Our Kin supports home-based educators who want to see young children develop and thrive.”
— Janna Wagner
Links
Videos
Jessica Sager & Janna Wagner, empowering home-based child care educators
All Our Kin: Who We Are
Childcare in America
From the Heinz Awards
Press Release
PITTSBURGH, September 17, 2024— The Heinz Family Foundation today named Aisha Nyandoro, Ph.D., Founding CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, and Jessica Sager, J.D., and Janna Wagner, Co-Founders of All Our Kin, recipients of the prestigious 29th Heinz Award in the Economy category.
Read MorePress Release
From Redefining Black Modernism and Championing Citizen Science to Empowering Women to Achieve Economic Stability and Address the Impacts of Climate Change, 2024 Heinz Awards Recipients Are Creating World-Changing Impact
PITTSBURGH, September 17, 2024 —The Heinz Family Foundation today announced the recipients of the 29th Heinz Awards, which will present unrestricted cash awards totaling $1.5 million to nine Americans for outstanding contributions in the categories of theArts, theEconomyand theEnvironment. Two Awards are given per category. As part of the accolade, each recipient or recipient pair receives an unrestricted cash prize of $250,000.