Connecting Childcare with Employment Equity for Single Moms

Posted by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity on December 20, 2022

In this Spotlight Exclusive, Carol Burnett, founder and executive director of the Mississippi Low Income Childcare Initiative, discusses a new program designed to help single moms attain high-wage employment with equitable access to childcare. The Employment Equity for Singles Moms initiative, with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, works with an extensive network of childcare centers to recruit single moms onto the Child Care Assistance program while identifying higher-paying occupations in her part of the state. Burnett notes that although they can find childcare slots, many centers they work with are “under-enrolled by 30% because parents are waiting to get onto the state’s Child Assistance Program so they can afford the fee.” Therefore, the program’s priority is to get moms onto the state’s program and then work towards utilizing education and training resources to help single moms compete for higher-paying opportunities. “Single moms work as much or more than any other demographic in Mississippi,” Burnett says. “It’s just that women are stuck in low paying jobs.”

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