New Orleans has been selected as one of six cities to receive funding from JPMorgan Chase’s annual competition that seeks ideas to advance equity across the U.S.
Twelve local organizations will receive a total of $5 million over three years to support Black and Latinx women-led child care businesses, a news release said.
Child care center owners in the city are almost exclusively led by these women and lack access to capital to improve and expand their facilities, the release said. More than one-third of Louisiana child care business owners expect to close due to insufficient public subsidies, it said.
The “NOLA C.A.R.E.S.: Creating Access Resources and Equity” initiative will increase capital, provide training for careers in child care and develop a more equitable workforce, the release said. It will help at least 120 women receive a child development associate certification; establish a fund to make child care facilities that are low-cost or free more widely available; create a cohort of 20 local hospitality businesses to develop plans that help women of color advance into management positions; engage at least 500 women in research; and support public policy that supports low-cost facilities and increases public subsidies and worker compensation in New Orleans, the release said.
Project partners include Agenda for Children, Bancha Lenguas Language Justice Collective, Beloved Community, City of New Orleans Office of Youth and Families, Power Coalition for Equity & Justice, For Providers by Providers of Louisiana, Early Partners, Louisiana Department of Education, Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, Total Community Action, United Way of Southeast Louisiana and Windsor Court Hotel.
This is the second year that a New Orleans proposal has won in the competition. In 2020, JPMorgan Chase awarded $5 million to a collaborative led by the New Orleans Business Alliance to provide career pathways for people of color in the blue-green infrastructure industry.
The competition is part of is part of JPMorgan Chase’s $30 billion commitment to advance racial equity and builds on its $500 million, five-year initiative created in 2018 to spur equitable and inclusive economic growth in U.S. cities.
Originally written by City Business