Despite the prevalence of family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) child care (NSECE, 2015), relatively little is known about the characteristics of this type of care, quality of care, and the features of effective quality improvement initiatives for FFN care providers. In general, the early childhood field has remained relatively silent about FFN child care in policy and research discourses surrounding child well-being and quality initiatives (Shivers, 2012; Whitebook et al., 2004).
The overall goal of the analysis described in this brief, Brief #2 in a series of four, was to explore and document the characteristics of an increasingly larger segment of child care providers in this country, Latina Family, Friend, and Neighbor providers, and to document and describe features of the child care they provide. This large sample was obtained by collecting data from providers involved in a 14-week training-support group intervention known as the Arizona Kith and Kin Project.
The Arizona Kith and Kin Project is a program of the Association for Supportive Child Care (ASCC), a nonprofit child care agency that was founded in 1976 to improve the quality of care for Arizona children. The program was established in 1999 to provide ongoing early childhood training and support to family, friend, and neighbor caregivers.
The goals of the program are to (1) improve the quality of child care through training; (2) increase caregivers’ knowledge and understanding of early child development; and (3) increase caregivers’ knowledge and understanding of health and safety issues to provide a safer child care environment. The Arizona Kith and Kin Project provides a 14-week, two-hour support group training series for Spanish and English speaking and refugee caregivers, with most training-support sessions offered in Spanish. The training-support sessions are held at various community partner locations that are embedded in the daily lives and neighborhoods where FFN providers live and work. The evaluation for the Arizona Kith and Kin Project was an extensive four (4) year project conducted by the Indigo Cultural Center and included data and measures not necessarily included in the present brief.
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