How Childcare Can Fight Poverty

Summary

Podcast Summary: "No One is Coming to Save Us"
Episode: How Childcare Can Fight Poverty
Release Date: August 22, 2024
Host: Gloria Rivera
Produced by: Lemonada Media & Neighborhood Villages

---

Introduction

In the episode titled “How Childcare Can Fight Poverty,” hosted by Gloria Rivera and produced by Lemonada Media in collaboration with Neighborhood Villages, the podcast delves deep into the critical role that quality childcare plays in combating poverty in America. This episode is part of Season 5, which explores fundamental issues such as economic mobility, mental health, housing, climate change, and the public school system, all through the lens of America’s childcare crisis.

The Link Between Childcare and Economic Mobility

Gloria Rivera opens the discussion by highlighting the stark reality that 15% of American children live in poverty, equivalent to 11 million children. She emphasizes that the early years (ages 0 to 5) are pivotal in shaping a child’s cognitive and emotional foundations. Economic instability during these formative years can trap children in a cycle of poverty that extends into adulthood.

Emily Santeo elaborates on the historical context, stating:

“Almost 65 years of presidents telling the American people that we need to invest in childcare and early education. And yet here we are, it's still 2024, and we're still fighting to make sure our kids' most basic needs are being met.”
[03:19]

Expert Insights: Professor Jorge Luis Garcia

To provide a robust foundation for the discussion, Gloria introduces Professor Jorge Luis Garcia, an esteemed expert in early education and economic mobility. Garcia collaborates with Nobel laureate James Heckman, known for groundbreaking research on the long-term economic impacts of quality childcare.

The Perry Preschool Project and the Carolina Abecedarian Project

Garcia discusses two seminal studies:

1. Perry Preschool Project (1962): Focused on providing high-quality preschool education to low-income, predominantly African American children.
2. Carolina Abecedarian Project (1972): Similar in intent, it aimed to assess the long-term benefits of early childhood education.

Both studies revealed that for every dollar invested in early education, there is a return of $7 to $14 in economic benefits. These benefits include higher graduation rates, reduced teen pregnancy, lower violent crime rates, increased tax contributions, and decreased reliance on social services.

“We have gone back to the subjects and asked them about their lives, their health, and even drew blood from them. The impacts are substantial and lasting.”
[07:25] Garcia
[09:09]

Three-Generation Impact

A pivotal finding from these studies is the three-generation impact. Not only do the direct participants benefit, but their children also experience improved outcomes, creating a ripple effect that extends beyond the initial investment.

“This three-generation impact is relatively new to the literature, showing that we impact not just one, but two generations.”
[09:09] Garcia

Real-World Application: Epiphany Early Learning Center

The episode transitions to a case study of the Epiphany Early Learning Center in Boston, a pioneering institution designed to help low-income families break the cycle of poverty through comprehensive early education.

Emily Santeo’s Testimony

Emily Santeo, the Director of Student Support at Epiphany, shares her personal journey and the transformative impact of early education:

“Emily grew up in a low-income household with immigrant parents from Cape Verde. Her early experiences at Epiphany instilled in her the belief that she could achieve greatness, which fuels her passion for helping others.”
[18:09]

Comprehensive Support at Epiphany

Epiphany’s approach extends beyond traditional childcare by offering:

• 12-hour school days providing extended flexibility for parents.
• Nutritious meals, mental health support, and housing assistance.
• Family navigators to assist with crisis management, transportation, and co-parenting.
• College savings accounts and access to a robust social network for long-term support.

“Everything at Epiphany is focused on getting these families what they need to thrive.”
[16:36] Rivera

Challenges Without Quality Childcare

The discussion highlights the dire consequences faced by families lacking access to quality childcare:

• Restricted opportunities for mothers: Inability to complete education or maintain steady employment.
• Instability for children: Lack of consistent caregiver relationships impairs emotional and cognitive development.
• Economic stagnation: Limited wage growth and increased dependence on social services.

“People don't have access to early education? Then the time of the mothers is going to be heavily restricted.”
[11:51] Garcia

Tailored Support for Diverse Families

Epiphany recognizes the diverse needs of the families it serves, including:

• Immigrant Families: Assistance with navigating the U.S. housing system and multilingual support.
• African American Families: Addressing intergenerational poverty and the complexities of voucher systems that can inadvertently hinder financial progression.

“Most of our African American families are in a sort of voucher system that makes it very difficult to generate income because if you make more money, your rent goes up.”
[25:06] Garcia

Building Self-Worth and Community

A recurring theme is the importance of building self-worth among both children and parents. Emily Santeo emphasizes that fostering an environment where families feel they deserve support and believe in their own potential is crucial for sustained economic mobility.

“We are saying, you deserve our belief in you. We expect brilliance from you because you are capable of it.”
[32:09] Santeo

Conclusion: The Economic Imperative of Quality Childcare

Gloria Rivera concludes by reinforcing that investing in early childhood education is not only an emotional imperative but an economic necessity. Programs like Epiphany Early Learning Centers are essential for fostering a prosperous, equitable society where the cycle of poverty can be broken.

“If we want to live in a prosperous country, a country with less intergenerational poverty and more opportunity, we need to create more programs like Epiphany.”
[33:52] Rivera

Notable Quotes

• Professor Jorge Luis Garcia:
  “We have done a lot of work on two programs, especially the Perry Preschool Project and the Carolina Vecedarian Project.”
  [06:30]

• Emily Santeo:
  “We are saying, you deserve our belief in you. We expect brilliance from you because you are capable of it.”
  [32:09]

• Gloria Rivera:
  “Every child should have that kind of experience, especially kids living in poverty. And we can give them that. We have to.”
  [33:54]

Key Takeaways

• Economic Benefits: Quality childcare yields significant economic returns by enhancing education, reducing crime, and decreasing reliance on social services.
• Long-Term Impact: Investments in early childhood have lasting effects that span multiple generations.
• Comprehensive Support Systems: Effective childcare programs must address a variety of family needs, including housing, mental health, and financial stability.
• Tailored Approaches: Recognizing and catering to the diverse backgrounds of families is crucial for the success of childcare initiatives.
• Personal Empowerment: Building self-worth and providing consistent support empowers both children and parents to break free from the cycle of poverty.

Final Thoughts

The episode “How Childcare Can Fight Poverty” underscores the transformative power of early childhood education in fostering economic mobility and breaking generational cycles of poverty. Through expert insights, compelling personal stories, and the exemplary model of Epiphany Early Learning Center, the podcast makes a powerful case for investing in our youngest citizens to secure a prosperous future for all.

Transcript

[Gloria Rivera]

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[Emily Santeo]

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[Gloria Rivera]

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[Emily Santeo]

Hey everyone.

[Gloria Rivera]

First off, we want to thank you for listening to no One Is Coming to Save Us. And now we want to hear from you we what you've learned, what's sticking with you, what questions you still have, and what you're motivated to do as a result of listening. Right now, you can take our short survey to help us better understand the impact of our work. And even better, once you've completed the survey, you can enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card. The survey is short and sweet, I promise, and it will really help us keep bringing you content you love. Take the survey at Bit ly noonesurvey that's bit ly no onesurvey thanks again.

[Lemonada]

Lemonada.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

Poverty perpetuates itself.

[Lemonada]

Children are inheritors of poverty's curse and not its creators.

[Unknown Speaker]

We don't intend to lose generations of our children to this enemy of the human race. We know that the government cannot raise or love a child, but that is not what we're supposed to do. What the government is supposed to do is to help to create the conditions and give people the tools that will enable them to raise and love their children while successfully participating in the American workplace.

[Lemonada]

Every dollar we invest in high quality early childhood education can save more than $7 later on by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime.

[Emily Santeo]

We know this works.

[Unknown Speaker]

I was a single dad for five years raising two kids. I had a lot of help though. But middle class and working folks shouldn't have to pay more than 7% of their income to care for their young children. My plan would cut the cost of childcare in half for most families.

[Emily Santeo]

You just heard almost 65 years of presidents telling the American people that we need to invest in childcare and early education. And yet here we are, it's 2024 and we're still fighting to make sure our kids most basic needs are being met. All of these presidents proposed big, ambitious plans for making child care work. None of them have solved the fundamental problem. Quality childcare and early education in this country are too damn expensive. It is not pretty, and we are all paying the price for it. I'm Gloria Rivera, and this is no.

[Gloria Rivera]

One Is Coming to Save Us.

[Emily Santeo]

A show about the childcare crisis in America. So as we started planning out this new season, we decided to take a deeper look into five of the most fundamental issues facing our country and how they're impacted by child care, poverty, mental health, housing, climate change, and the public school system. You know, all those light, fun, whimsical topics that we like to specialize in. This week we're focusing on economic mobility, the American dream, the idea that no matter who you are, you can grow up to be economically successful. Of course, as we all know, it's Rarely that easy. 15% of American kids live in poverty. 15%. That's 11 million children, practically the population of Georgia. Poverty is tough on everyone, but it's particularly harmful to our youngest children. Those first five years that we've talked about so much on this show deeply impact the rest of a child's life. That is the time when kids cognitive and emotional foundations are laid out. If a family doesn't have economic stability in those first few years, it can take kids a lifetime to get out of poverty. It is a vicious cycle. But you know what makes a big difference? High quality childcare and early education. We have decades of data showing that every time we invest in our kids, it makes a huge difference for families in poverty and for our country as a whole. But you don't have to take my word for it because guess what? I brought along an expert.

[Gloria Rivera]

Hi there, Jorge, how are you?

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

Hey, how are you?

[Emily Santeo]

Where am I speaking to you now? Where are you now?

[Gloria Rivera]

Professor Jorge Luis Garcia is an expert.

[Emily Santeo]

On early education and economic mobility. Born and raised in Mexico, he's taught at universities in Illinois, South Carolina, California, and now Texas. He's best known for his work with James Heckman, a Nobel prize winning economist at the University of Chicago. Together they've conducted some foundational research on the long term economic effects of quality childcare.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

We have done a lot of work on two programs, especially the Perry Preschool Project and the Carolina Vecedarian Project.

[Emily Santeo]

The Perry Preschool Project and the Carolina Abecedarian Project. Perry and ABC for short. These two studies are the bedrock of modern early education research in the United States. Perry started in 1962 and ABC began in 1972. These studies asked a pretty simple question. Can preschool programs help families make it out of poverty? They recruited almost 250 kids, mostly African American, all from low income families, and gave them access to high quality preschool programs for free. And I do mean high quality. These programs included cutting edge curriculum design, home visits from school staff, all of the things that help children thrive. Millions of dollars were invested into these kids and we're still following up with them more than 50 years later.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

We have gone back to the subjects and asked them about the their lives, their life cycles, their health and so on. I mean, we have even drawn blood from them and so on. So the work has been very extensive. We know about their kids, their siblings and so on.

[Emily Santeo]

Now, if you're a nerd about early education, you've probably already heard of these studies, but I'm just learning about them now and the results are blowing my mind. Perry and ABC show that for every dollar we invest in into early education, we make between 7 and $14 back. Let me break that down for you. So when researchers invested money in these programs for low income families and removed the financial burden of childcare, they saw that these families started doing better economically, which means they paid more money in taxes and they were less likely to need social services like subsidized housing or healthcare, and they were less likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Poverty is expensive. So when we invest in our kids and they make it to the middle class, we see huge results. That is a bet I will make every time. Oh, and in case you need more convincing, you know the families who will benefit from these programs, their descendants have better lives too. Jorge calls it a 3 gen impact. When families have access to quality childcare, of course the parents and the kids benefit. But if you look at the latest data, it's clear that when those preschoolers grow up, their kids benefit too.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

This three generation impact that we found, that's actually relatively new to the literature. So before these works, we mainly were focused on, well, you give a bunch of kids this high quality early education program and you get to observe them when they're adults, you see their outcomes and you speculate that if they have good outcomes as adults, they're going to be relatively better parents. But then when we followed up the participants of the Bayer Preschool and the Carolina Vecedarian projects, we asked them about their kids when their kids were already older than 20. We could see outcomes in terms of how are they doing in terms of their health, their employment. We observed large gains in terms of, for example, their employment. Actually, the gains were almost identical to the gains that the participants, original participants received. That's great, because you were thinking that you were going to spend in a policy for one generation, but all of a sudden you impacted a second generation. So from a cost effectiveness perspective, that's great.

[Emily Santeo]

I just want to underscore how wild that is. The money put into these programs in the 60s and 70s is still paying off now, more than 50 years later. And more recent research is just as clear that quality childcare can make all the difference in the like the Infant Health and Development Program.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

This program started in 1985. And the important part of this new work that I'm putting out is that no one has had documented the longer term impacts of that program. Now we don't have data all the way to age 40 or 50 as we do with ABC and Perry, but we have data up to age 18, which is very telling of what the subjects are doing and are about to do, because we know teenage pregnancy, we know early life involvement with the criminal justice system, we know whether they took the SAT or the ACT to go to college, and so on. The nice part about this experiment is that it was not only implemented in one place, it was implemented in eight different places of the U.S. we see that across the board. The impacts persist up to age 18, which is something that's relatively new to this literature.

[Emily Santeo]

So. So let me ask you about what happens when you see families who just can't afford quality early childcare. They can't do it.

[Gloria Rivera]

What does their life look like when.

[Jorge Luis Garcia]

People don't have access to early education? Then the time of the mothers is going to be heavily restricted. So some of the mothers are not going to be able to either finish their studies or integrate into the labor force. And we know that if you're not able to stick to your job, then your wage growth possibilities are not there. Right. And then the other thing, the other aspect we saw is that the same kid would come with different adults in different days. And that's not great for kids because they don't recognize who is the person in charge of their lives. And this instability in their lives is not good for them. Now, if we offer an alternative in which A counterfactual to all this instability is quality education and development. When compared to the control group that receive nothing, their earnings are substantially different, their health is substantially different, their involvement with crime is substantially different, and so on.

[Emily Santeo]

Okay, so here's where we are. The data couldn't be more clear. Quality childcare and early education make a huge difference for families in poverty. But what does that actually look like on a day to day basis? After the break, we're going to zoom in on one of the most incredible early education centers I've ever heard of. A school specifically set up to help families escape poverty. We'll be back in a minute.

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[Reshma Sajani]

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[Emily Santeo]

That is the sound of the ribbon cutting ceremony in 2018 at the Epiphany Early Learning center in Boston, an early education center set up specifically to help low income families make it out of poverty. It is a special, special place.

[Gloria Rivera]

Our hopes for the families we serve are boundless.

[Lemonada]

Stability in housing, food security, alleviated stress.

[Gloria Rivera]

Health and wellness, academic and career services, and a strong sense of community and belonging. This is a second home. Epiphany was founded as a middle school for low income kids back in 1998. And over the years, the Epiphany team came to see that they could make an even bigger impact by helping kids before they got to kindergarten. Since they opened the doors to their early learning center five years ago, they've created one of the most impressive early education programs I've ever heard of. They enroll Kids ages 0 to 5, and I really do mean 0 to 5. Kids are signed up for the program before they're even born, and they stay in it right up until kindergarten.

[Emily Santeo]

Imagine all the obstacles a young family has to get out of poverty. Childcare is too expensive for one. But not at Epiphany. Their programs are funded entirely by grants and donations. They are free to families. Childcare as it is doesn't give parents enough time to even get to work. A lot of programs only include five or six hours of childcare a day. And in some places you have to pay by the minute. Beyond that, not an Epiphany. They have a 12 hour school day, so your kids get a lot of support and parents have a lot more flexibility. Oh, and they'll feed your kid two great healthy meals while they're at it. They have counselors, housing resources, family navigators. I could go on and on and on. Everything at Epiphany is focused on getting these families what they need to thrive.

[Gloria Rivera]

And it's run by some remarkable people. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. We're so pleased and it's so nice to see you.

[Lemonada]

Yes, thank you for having me. It's nice to see you too.

[Gloria Rivera]

Ah, thank you. Well, just know that Emily Santeo is the director of student support at Epiphany. She's at the center of everything Epiphany does. She's like a concierge, making sure the families have everything they need to succeed. She's been there since the very beginning of the Early Learning center when they decided early education was their next big priority.

[Lemonada]

So while the middle school was running, I would go out and do these home visits as I would meet families and there was often siblings at home, you know, maybe in front of the TV, tablets, on parents phones, and you know, fast forward 10 years, these kids would end up at epiphany and we were seeing kids coming in with just some lagging skills and just all this development and research was coming out on the importance of zero to five, specifically zero to three and brain development, how much of our brain develops in the early connections. But just the idea of going younger was really exciting because you would see it, you would see it impact the parents and how limiting it could be for them in terms of them being at home all day and not having support with the child's development as well as the child. Just feeling it made me think about my experience in school that first day when I was 5 years old and I was so nervous to go.

[Emily Santeo]

Emily understands these families experiences on a really deep level. She grew up in a low income household with parents who immigrated here from Cape Verde off the coast of Western Africa.

[Lemonada]

Both my parents immigrated here in the 70s, late 70s. They were both teenagers. The families knew of each other. They have some really funny stories of how they just grew up from different backgrounds, but the same island in Cape Verde and Fogo.

[Emily Santeo]

They didn't actually meet until they got to Boston. But you know the story, boy meets girl, they fall in love, buy a house and have five beautiful daughters. But that doesn't mean it was easy.

[Lemonada]

At the time my mom stayed home with us. But then I remember going to school and I did not speak English yet, so it was a hard place to navigate. And my father, he worked a lot, so he would work double shifts at work as well as during. Seasonally, he would pick up other jobs. So the winter season he would work with an uncle who had an oil company and he would go out and work with him. He would do winter shoveling, anything just to sort of generate any extra income.

[Gloria Rivera]

So while Emily's dad was out finding jobs to keep the family afloat, her mom was making most of the educational decisions. There's a reason Emily ended up working at Epiphany 25 years ago. Her mom told her she got a spot in their middle school.

[Lemonada]

I remember being told it was a 12 hour school day and losing my mind. I was like, what do you mean? It's like your school's gonna be from 8 to 8. And it was like, well, school all day. And she explained, no, well there's like schooling in the morning. You'll have time to do your homework, you'll have dinner there as well. I was really sad about it. I wanted to have dinner with family. I wanted to come home.

[Gloria Rivera]

Adjusting to life at Epiphany was tough, but Emily got a lot out of the experience.

[Lemonada]

It was the first time though that teachers around me made it aware that I could do the work and that I was a hard worker and that I could be challenged and that I was unique. And seeing that they knew it was important for us to be engaged in the work that we were doing and building our own self intrinsic motivation. Because eventually by eighth grade, I wanted to get good grades, I wanted to feel included, I wanted to be a part of Epiphany and that all stemmed from that. I was trying to self isolate but they would not let me.

[Gloria Rivera]

That's why Emily is so passionate about the work that's happening at Epiphany. It made a huge difference in her life. But again, Emily didn't get to epiphany until she was 11. And she knew that if they started with even younger kids, they'd have a bigger impact.

[Lemonada]

What if I already had that foundation of having peer relationships and having connections outside of the home at an earlier age, K1 would have been a piece of cake. Economic mobility is generational. I feel I've seen being here for these 15 years, well, longer. I've worked here for 15 years, but I've been a part of the community for 25, a long time. And I think it's just seeing that. And I see the graduates from the middle school every day. I see graduates from the ELC coming back and talking to, you know, I still talk to their parents. And so I'm really excited to see the outcomes of what this is going to look like when our 6 year olds are 18.

[Emily Santeo]

We're going to take a short break. When we come back, we'll hear more about how Epiphany directly impacts the economic status and the lives of the families they serve.

[Reshma Sajani]

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So join Teach for America, a bold group of change makers working to ensure all kids get the education they need to succeed. And Ripple, a tech company creating greater economic opportunity through transformative crypto and blockchain enterprise solutions in celebrating teachers. Because teachers don't just impact what children learn. It's the little things teachers do every day that create a chain of possibilities that go far beyond the classroom. That's the TFA Ripple effect and we can't thank teachers enough. So celebrate that teacher who juggles lessons, laughter and lost homework. When you donate to Teach for America Today, Ripple will partner to match your gift. Visit teachforamerica.org/r I P P L E to give. Because for our teachers, a little thanks. Can add up to a lot.

[Julia Louis-Dreyfus]

Hi, I'm Emily Deschanel.

[Gloria Rivera]

And I'm Carla Gallo. And we're here to bring you Boneheads, the official Bones Rewatch podcast. That's right, we're watching all the episodes of Bones, starting with episode one, and we are the right people to do it.

[Julia Louis-Dreyfus]

I played Dr. Temperance Bredon and I.

[Gloria Rivera]

Met Carla 16 years ago on set. I played Daisy Wick.

[Julia Louis-Dreyfus]

Tune in every Wednesday to hear all.

[Gloria Rivera]

Our behind the scenes stories, conversations with cast and crew, and our favorite moments. Boneheads from Lemonada Media is out wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. One of the most incredible things about Epiphany is that they don't just serve one group of people. And all of the groups they serve have different needs. An immigrant family newly arrived in the US Needs different kinds of support from an African American family that's dealt with centuries of systemic racism. Emily told us more about how Epiphany tailors their work to meet the needs of every individual family.

[Lemonada]

One of the things that we're definitely seeing, and, you know, I don't know what to attribute this to, and maybe it's sort of the migrant history, but in our Latin families as well as, like Cape Verdean families, Haitian families, they usually need sort of supports around housing.

[Gloria Rivera]

Navigating the complexities of the US Housing system is hard for everyone, but it's especially tough if you're new here and you don't speak the language. So Epiphany works to plug that gap. Not only do they help with housing, they also have plenty of multilingual folks on staff to help families get their needs met. On the other hand, a lot of African American families experience intergenerational poverty, so they often already know how to get help with housing. But that kind of help can also make it more difficult to escape poverty.

[Lemonada]

Most of our African American families are in a sort of voucher system that makes it very difficult to generate income because if you make more money, your rent goes up. So that's something that we see impacting families whose housing is linked to their income.

[Gloria Rivera]

Emily's talking about one of the most difficult catch 22s for families escaping poverty. If you're living in poverty, you can get vouchers to help with your housing costs, but if you get a better job, the government might say, hey, you don't need that support anymore and. And you end up paying more for rent. So bizarrely, you can end up worse off financially by getting a better job. Oh, Emily, how? Look at me. You've told me like five seconds of this and I can barely stand it. How do you keep going when these stories keep coming and coming and coming?

[Lemonada]

Yeah, it is, it can be really frustrating and it really is sort of looking at the uniqueness of every family and we really are focusing on the children and really instilling and pouring and focusing on our youth.

[Gloria Rivera]

And the work that you're intentionally focusing on is the work of economic mobility?

[Lemonada]

Yes.

[Emily Santeo]

Okay, so what does that look like?

[Gloria Rivera]

What kind of supports are you offering to these parents?

[Lemonada]

There's an array of programs which has shifted as we've seen our community change. You know, the pandemic shifted a lot in our culture and we provide a clinician who is trained in early childhood relationships, mental health, supports for parents. We also have a family navigator that's there for any sort of crisis management that may come up. A lot of it is around housing, co parenting supports, transportation. But an array of things.

[Emily Santeo]

Yeah, also among that array of things, families get resources for health care, food insecurity and a college Savings account with $3,000 in it. Graduates from Epiphany become part of a social network that follows them well into adulthood. And Epiphany has shared their model with other schools around the country.

[Gloria Rivera]

Do you have conversations with your colleagues about a specific goal of moving families out of poverty by the time the child is ready to go to kindergarten?

[Lemonada]

So when we built the program, that was our goal and that was our intent. And then the pandemic happened and then we started really realizing that there's so many systems sort of pushing back at us that we realized it wasn't going to be a, you know, sort of five years. We got this. What we're seeing in five years is that there's just a level of awareness within our families around us, giving them the foundation and understanding what they need to do to then, you know, kind of continue to grow in economic mobility. I did have a family where there was a mother who wanted to pursue a career that at the time she couldn't. But once the children got older and things had shifted, was able to work more improvements in her co parenting relationship. And you know, fast track a year she's going to get her bachelor's. She's very excited about sort of taking classes full time. And there's this foundation of I can do this and also just building. One of the big things that I see too is like building like our self worth. I see that grow here when people come in. And if you were able to even see the space, it Is phenomenal and beautiful. And sometimes parents are shocked when they come in here. We really want to build that. We deserve this. Our children deserve this, and you deserve this.

[Emily Santeo]

Yeah.

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, what I love about what you've just said is that throughout this conversation, you've talked about building self worth first within yourself and then within the students. And now you're talking about building self worth within the parents.

[Lemonada]

Right.

[Gloria Rivera]

Do you see your own family's story reflected in the family's you're serving and have served over the last 15 years?

[Lemonada]

Yes, definitely. There's. There's one family mom and dad reminds me of my parents. And what's so beautiful to me is thinking about how it's just the way that my parents are sort of told, like, you know, dad works, mom can do all the school stuff, and when he first used to come in, he kind of just would stay outside. And we're like, no, come in and come into the classroom, talk to the teachers. And really nervous about his language skills and was like, nope. We have Spanish speaking teachers. And this family reminds me of my family and even how they like family plans too, around, like, the idea of community and relationships for them as they didn't really have that, you know, because of when they came to this country. It was like the way that the mother picked the school was so intentional in working with me, and she's so independent, but at the same time was like, hey, Emily, I just need a little insight, a little help and her reflective capacity and how she parents with her children. And it's just really beautiful to see that. I was like, these kids are gonna be phenomenal. And she knows that and he knows that. And it's just beautiful to see that this early. You know, they pick up and they know that their child is loved. They know that they always can come back. It's. Yeah, it reminds me of my family quite a bit.

[Gloria Rivera]

My last question. Three words to describe yourself when you walk through the doors at epiphany, and three words to describe yourself. Now.

[Lemonada]

That'S a good one. So when I walk through the doors of epiphany as a fifth grader.

[Gloria Rivera]

Yeah.

[Lemonada]

Okay. Nervous, insecure, confused.

[Gloria Rivera]

Okay.

[Lemonada]

Walking through the door now would say fulfilled, confident, and growing.

[Gloria Rivera]

Wow, look at you. That's pretty good. It was so nice to talk to you.

[Lemonada]

Thank you so much. It's great to talk to you too.

[Emily Santeo]

Emily and her colleagues aren't just saying, we won't give up on you. And they're not just saying, we believe in you. They are saying, you deserve our belief in you. They're saying, we expect brilliance from you because you are capable of it. And that can make such a massive difference, especially in those crucial early years.

[Gloria Rivera]

We can all agree it makes sense on an emotional level to invest in our kids. I mean, we hear it so much, it's a cliche almost, right? Children are the future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Those are the song lyrics, right? But it's true. And guess what? It's not happening across the board. Children are the future. And that's not just true in a nebulous wishy washy Kumbaya kind of way. It's true economically. If we want to live in a prosperous country, a country where everyone has what they need, a country with less intergenerational poverty and more opportunity, we need to create more programs like Epiphanies. Sometimes it feels like Groundhog Day around here. We have to keep explaining how important early education is over and over again. I know preschool makes a difference because I've seen it happen. My own kids came home from preschool every day, ecstatic. Well, most days. But really, they had this constant elation that they had learned what they learned. Mom, did you know that?

[Emily Santeo]

Two, two, four.

[Gloria Rivera]

And so does three plus one. Boom. Mind explosion. And it made me so happy to see it happen. Every child should have that kind of experience, especially kids living in poverty. And we can give them that. We can. We have to.

[Emily Santeo]

We'll see you next week for our.

[Gloria Rivera]

Episode on Early Childhood Mental Health.

[Emily Santeo]

Until then, hang in there.

[Gloria Rivera]

You can do this. There's more. No One Is Coming to Save Us with Lemonada. Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like unheard clips from our interviews. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts. No One Is Coming to Save Us is a Lemonada original produced with Neighborhood Villages. I'm your host, Gloria Rivera. Crystal Genesis is our senior producer. Tony Williams and Tiffany Bowie are our producers. Additional editing on this episode by Rachel Pilgrim. Tony Williams and Johnny Vince Evans are our audio engineers. Our music is by Hannis Brown. Jackie Danziger is our VP of narrative content. Executive producers are Stephanie Little's Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer, along with me, Gloria Rivera. The series is presented by Imaginable Futures, the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott foundation, the Baynham Family foundation, and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. If you like the show and you believe what we're doing is important, please help others find us by leaving us a rating and writing a review. And most importantly, tell your friends. Follow no One Is Coming to Save Us. Wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, so join Teach for America, a group of changemakers working toward educational excellence for all kids, and Ripple, a tech company creating greater economic opportunity through transformative crypto and blockchain enterprise solutions. In celebrating teachers for the little things they do that create possibilities that go far beyond the classroom, you can celebrate your favorite teachers with a gift that helps them create their biggest ripple effect for America's kids. Give [e-mail] ripple and ripple will partner to match your gift.

[Carla Gallo]

Hey, I'm Reshma Sajani, founder of Girls who Code and Moms First. I consider myself a pretty successful adult woman. So why is it that in midlife as I'm about to turn 50, I feel so stuck? Join me as I try to find the answer on my so Called Midlife from lemonada Media. I talk to experts and extraordinary guests about divorce, exercise, menopause, sex, drugs, and more to understand what we're going through and how to make the most of it. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.