Dive into the heart of America's childcare crisis with No One Is Coming to Save Us, hosted by veteran reporter Gloria Riviera. In Season 4, we’re peeling back the layers of our nation’s most pressing challenges - intergenerational poverty, homelessness, and climate change - to uncover their deep, often surprising connections with childcare. Each Thursday, join us as we unravel these complex issues, revealing how they intersect and impact the future of our children.
No One Is Coming To Save Us is produced with Neighborhood Villages, a systems change nonprofit that envisions a transformed, equitable early childhood education system that lifts up educators and sets every child and family up to thrive.
A request from the No One is Coming to Save Us team: Tell us what the childcare struggle looks like for you. Send us a voice message at speakpipe.com/noone. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Families across L.A. are struggling with the rising cost of childcare and how to access support programs. Meanwhile, childcare providers are grappling with their own challenges, including low wages and staff shortages. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks about how leaders in L.A. can invest in a more unified, affordable, and culturally affirming system of childcare. She is joined by Debra Colman, the Director of the L.A. County Office for the Advancement of Early Care and Education,...
A couple years ago, early education and childcare expert Rhian Allvin made a drastic change. After decades working in policy and advocacy, Rhian decided to start Brynmor Early Education and Preschool, which now has sites in Virginia and Washington, D.C. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks to Rhian about what it means to truly value early childhood educators, and how that leads to quality care, a diverse student body, and a more sustainable model for childcare. This episode is presen...
Does universal Pre-K guarantee school readiness? To answer that question the podcast is headed to Wisconsin! Land of freezing winters, dairy cows, and universal Pre-K. Back in the 1980s, Wisconsin made publicly funded preschool almost ubiquitous throughout the state. But they’re still suffering from a massive underinvestment in childcare and early education, as well as one of the worst racial achievement gaps in the country. Gloria talks to Angela Harris, elementary school teacher and chairwoman...
Climate change is not just an issue for our children’s children. We are already feeling its effects today. Gloria talks to two experts who lived through historic California wildfires and droughts in recent years. Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine, tells Gloria about how scorching heat waves and wildfire pollutants can trigger asthma in children. She also advises how parents and schools can be better prepared for increasingly hot days. Then, we h...
Did you know that families with young children are one of the most likely groups to experience homelessness? Being a new parent is hard enough – it’s nearly impossible when you don’t have stable housing. This week Gloria’s talking to Kate Barrand, who runs Horizons for Homeless Children, an organization in Boston providing quality childcare and early education to unhoused families. They’re doing incredible work, and Kate has some powerful insights into what it takes to help families find stabili...
There’s a mental health crisis in America. If we want to turn that around, we need to start from the very beginning of a person’s life. Gloria speaks to Terri Chebot, an infant mental health consultant, about the huge role that childcare providers play in children’s emotional and social growth. With so much on the line from the ages of 0-5, how caregivers handle a child’s emotions is everything. Then, we hear from Grace Blanco, the director of an early learning center in Newark, N.J.. Grace saw ...
On the first episode of Season 4, Gloria’s taking a look at how quality childcare and early education can help families break out of poverty, and what that means for our country’s future. First, Gloria hears from Professor Jorge Luís Garcia, an economist at Texas A&M University whose research shows that investing in young children pays dividends for decades. Then she connects with Emily Centeio, who grew up in a low-income immigrant household and now helps to run an early learning center, Ep...
What happens in the first six years of a child’s life can shape their entire future. This season, we’re back to uncover the links between childcare and some of the most pressing issues of our time, like intergenerational poverty, homelessness, and climate change. With powerful expert insights and compelling personal stories, we connect the dots between access to quality childcare and the promise of a brighter future. Season 4 premieres on August 22nd—don’t miss it! Special thanks to our partners...
When young adults leave the foster care system they’re left trying to find housing or employment on their own. Oftentimes, the thing they yearn for the most is family. In this special episode, Gloria chats with the Vice President of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Systems Innovation, Sandra Gasca, and CEO at Foster Forward , Lisa Guillette. Our guests discuss how they’re helping youth aging out of foster care age into an ecosystem of belonging. Whether it’s legally creating ‘soul’ fam...
Gloria is live at CareFest in Los Angeles, presented by Caring Across Generations, to bring you a conversation among leading care advocates about the potential of the care agenda to unite a divided nation. She is joined by Lisa Hamilton Daly, the Executive Vice President of Programming for Hallmark Media; Mónica Ramirez, an attorney, author, and founder of Justice for Migrant Women; and Jenn Stowe, the Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. They talk about changing the nar...
Keri Rodrigues's son was suspended 36 times while he was in kindergarten. She felt abandoned by school officials and like the teachers hated her child. So she went into mama bear mode, organized local parents, and changed the local school system. Now, as President of the National Parents Union, she’s organizing parents across the country to help improve their local schools and make schools more equitable for all. Show Notes Presented by Neighborhood Villages . Neighborhood Villages is a Massachu...
The tour makes a virtual stop in Richmond, where host Gloria Riviera learns how the community has built a public-private partnership to help subsidize a mixed-delivery model of care that helps families find programs tailored to their specific needs. This week we meet Cheryl Morman, a family child care provider and president of the Virginia Alliance for Family Child Care Association; J David Young, executive director of FRIENDS Association for Children; and Jodi Roberts, the director of early chi...
Literacy advocates are asking us all to face an uncomfortable reality: For decades, we’ve done a poor job of teaching children how to read in this country, and the widening gap in literacy is most apparent among our Black, Latino and Native American young people. The good news is that we now know many the sources of our problems with literacy instruction, and advocates have both the policy solutions and new curricula to tackle the issue head on. Gloria speaks with panelists Jamila Newman of TNTP...
As we conclude our national tour, host Gloria Riviera and our partner Latoya Gayle reflect on the lessons learned from advocates and caretakers we met across the U.S. They chat about the inspiration they are taking away from this journey after meeting so many people working to make a difference in the lives of families everywhere. Later in the episode, Gloria and Latoya discuss how you take the lessons learned and get involved in your community, and walk through exactly what to say when you call...
The tour stops in Denver to learn how advocates are advancing universal pre-k and how they’re working to fill the rest of the child care and early childhood education puzzle so children have robust support from ages birth to five. We meet panelists Natriece Bryant, public private partnership director for the Colorado Department of Personnel & Administration; Lorena Garcia, representative for the 35th District in the Colorado House of Representatives and the executive director for Colorado St...
Throughout the tour, New Mexico has been held up as the shining example of communities coming together to energize voters and pass funding for early child care. For over a decade, organizers worked tirelessly to pass a constitutional amendment which increased funding for early childhood education. This week, we meet panelists Trisha Moquino, founder of Keres Children’s Learning Center , a not-for-profit educational organization that supports Cochiti Pueblo families; Elizabeth Groginsky, cabinet ...
The tour makes a virtual stop in Texas to learn how child care and early childhood education advocates are working with business leaders and elected officials across the political spectrum to expand care options for families. We meet panelists Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes, the representative for District 2 on the Austin City Council; Natalie Boyle, founder and CEO of Mommies in Need; and Sarah Baray, chief executive officer of Pre-K 4 SA, San Antonio’s award-winning early learning program. The ...
The tour stops in Detroit to highlight how advocates are expanding quality child care and education options for Michigan families; and how they’re advancing historic state investments in child care by promoting early childhood education as a public good, not a private benefit. We meet panelists Denise Smith, the implementation director for Hope Starts Here, a coalition and framework to transform early childhood education and services in Detroit; Danielle Atkinson, founder of Mothering Justice, a...
The tour makes a virtual stop in Birmingham, where host Gloria Riviera learns how local advocates successfully lobbied lawmakers to make a historic investment in funding for both voluntary pre-k as well as initiatives that bolster the quality of early childhood education. This week we meet Catrice Pruitt, the director of programs at Childcare Resources, and Allison Muhlendorf, the executive director of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance, both of whom are leaders in movements to increase acces...
The tour stops in our nation's capital to speak with local advocates about lessons learned from their successful, years-long campaign to pass universal pre-k in D.C.; how cities can better retain early childhood educators; and how to garner lawmaker support for improving child care. We meet panelists Marica Cox Mitchell, vice president of early childhood at the Bainum Family Foundation; Beatriz “BB” Otero, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy; and LaShada Ham-Campbell, foun...
This week Gloria Riviera is live at KDOL-TV with a trio of women who are fighting against racial inequities facing families in Oakland. They shine a light on how the struggle for racial justice and access to early childhood development go hand-in-hand. We meet panelists Clarissa Doutherd, executive director of Parent Voices Oakland; LaWanda Wesley, director of government relations of early learning at the Child Care Resource Center; and Myeisha Jones, a parent of two beautiful children and a pre...
On the first stop of the national tour, host Gloria Riviera is live in Tulsa to speak with members of a coalition that is supporting both families and childhood educators while working to stamp out Oklahoma’s expansive child care desert. We meet panelists Cindy Decker, executive director of Tulsa Educare, an early childcare provider in Tulsa; Jackie Evans, owner of Aunt Jackie’s Family Childcare Home, one of six family child care programs in Tulsa Educare’s Partnerships program; and Jennifer Kir...
We’re back for Season 3, and this year, host Gloria Riviera is setting out across the U.S. to meet the people who are fixing the child care crisis. A lot has happened since Season 2, and in this episode, Latoya Gayle from Neighborhood Villages updates us about what we’ve been missing, including President Biden’s recent executive order on child care and what it means for you. Plus, Gloria and Latoya preview some state-level legislative reforms on child care we’ll learn more about throughout the s...
America’s child care system is broken and still, more than three years after the pandemic began, No One Is Coming To Save Us. That’s why Gloria Riviera is setting out this season to tour the country and meet the people who are doing the work to fix things themselves. With live and virtual events recorded in cities across America, find out how we’re going to come together and make things better. Season 3 of No One Is Coming To Save Us: coming June 22 wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio...
Join veteran reporter Gloria Riviera as she sets out across America to find out who’s working on fixing the country’s broken child care system. See the show live in Detroit, Washington, D.C., Tulsa, and more. Find all the details and learn how to get free tickets HERE . And if you can’t make it, No One Is Coming to Save Us returns with new episodes in June. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
“The state of child care in America right now is hopeful.” While affordable, accessible, high-quality child care remains out of reach for millions of families across the country, Lauren Kennedy and Sarah Muncey, founders and co-presidents of Neighborhood Villages, see sparks of positive change in the year ahead. They talk Gloria through some of the big child care wins from the past year, explain why the Child Tax Credit was a total game-changer, and lay out why the next phase of this movement wi...
What happens when a child care center supports not only its children, but its staff, its families, and its community, too? Gloria finds out from Jamal Berry, the newly-appointed President and CEO of Educare DC, an early learning program that provides free, high-quality child care to low-income families. Jamal tells Gloria how they’re closing the achievement gap using a holistic, two-generation approach, and what is possible with good funding, passionate people at the helm, and devoted folks at a...
Hundreds of thousands of young people in this country live in poverty or are homeless. Many thousands more face uncertain futures, and even abuse, while navigating (or languishing in) the foster care system. In A Place Called Home , author and child welfare advocate David Ambroz chronicles his life growing up homeless in New York City. He tells Gloria about his experience in foster care, the work he’s done to make the system safer for LGBTQ+ youth, and what action is still needed to begin solvin...
How do you find a job when you have no child care? How do you find an apartment with no job? How do you pull off Christmas when you’re stressed about making next month’s rent? Sa’iyda Shabazz has done it all. The writer and mother joins Gloria to tell her about how she made it all work – balancing single motherhood, unemployment, housing insecurity, and a lack of child care – in a new city far away from her support system. Plus, Sa’iyda talks about why she’s pushing back against the narrative of...
