How might we leverage creativity to mobilize a movement of childcare providers?

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Words by Hitesh Singhal , Belinda Jivapong , David Dawkins

Visuals by David Dawkins , Hitesh Singhal

This month, our team worked with the Care Economy Organizing Project (CEO Project) on a power-building campaign to mobilize childcare providers to join the CEO Project’s organizing base. The CEO Project, a grassroots initiative in Ohio, is led by dedicated childcare providers driving change through state action.?

Across the state, women—predominantly Black women—make up 95% of the childcare workforce, earning an average of just $13.15 an hour. The majority do not have access to benefits like healthcare, retirement plans, or paid leave.

These are the women on the frontlines of early learning and development. They’re providing essential care, detecting burgeoning developmental issues, and supporting families through challenging times—they’re raising Ohio’s future.?

While underpaid, undervalued, and overworked, many remain on the fringes of organizing efforts. Our challenge was to explore how design might inspire uninvolved providers to recognize the value of organizing and motivate them to join the movement.?

Initial Insights

In the first week of the sprint, we facilitated a co-creation workshop with leaders of The CEO Project, where we envisioned childcare shifting from its current state to a liberatory, abundant, and collective future. Together, we brainstormed initial campaign directions and messages, which we were able to test with providers outside of the organizing space.

While leaders and members of the CEO Project are already convinced of the power of organizing—we found that providers who weren’t involved with the organization did not share the same conviction. In our 1:1 and group interviews, they expressed a sense of powerlessness due to the lack of recognition of their work.

“I’m just a childcare provider, what can I do?” – Uninvolved childcare provider

This learning was critical in shaping our campaign strategy. To galvanize providers unengaged in organizing efforts, we decided to center the stories and lives of Ohio’s childcare providers and the successes they have achieved as a community through the CEO project.

A few key elements of our campaign included a template explainer for simplifying complex topics such as policy shifts and budget changes, a series of leader stories showcasing the impactful experiences of the CEO project's leaders, and roadmaps to organizing.

Testing Prototypes

When we tested prototypes with providers previously unengaged in organizing, the leader stories resonated most deeply with them. While they loved seeing power-building resources they could easily understand—such as the policy explainers and organizing 101’s—seeing women who resembled them and shared similar challenges portrayed in a high-quality campaign was the most impactful.

The stories of empowered providers making an impact in their community were new to many, prompting some providers to wonder if the women featured in our campaign were real or fictional.

We realized that to feel compelled to join a movement, one must believe their life is worthy of a movement. Seeing the stories of women with similar struggles amplified in a fresh, bold public messaging campaign was a reminder that they deserved better and had the power to demand more.

We look forward to sharing how the Care Economy Project rolls out these tools soon!?

This project is a part of our Reimagine Childcare program—a multi-year effort in partnership with the RWJF to build system change in childcare across the country. Our Ohio campaign was also supported by the Ohio Organizing Collaborative .