Putting Early Childhood Educators First

Summary

No One Is Coming to Save Us: Episode Summary – "Putting Early Childhood Educators First"

Episode Release Date: September 26, 2024
Host: Gloria Rivera
Produced by: Lemonada Media in collaboration with Neighborhood Villages

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Putting Early Childhood Educators First," Gloria Rivera delves deep into America's pressing childcare crisis by highlighting innovative solutions that prioritize early childhood educators. The episode spotlights Rhiann Alvin, an early education and childcare expert who has transitioned from policy advocacy to hands-on leadership in the field.

Background: Rhiann Alvin and NAEYC

Rhiann Alvin brings decades of experience from her tenure at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a prominent professional association dedicated to early childhood educators. During her nine-year leadership at NAEYC, Rhiann played a pivotal role in doubling federal childcare development funding from $2.8 billion to $5.2 billion in 2018 and was instrumental during the pandemic, advocating for $50 billion in ARPA funding to stabilize the childcare sector.

Rhiann Alvin [04:40]: "NAEYC is the professional association for early childhood educators. NAEYC is to early childhood educators as the American Academy of Pediatrics is to pediatricians."

Despite her significant contributions, Rhiann grew increasingly frustrated with the systemic issues plaguing early childhood education, particularly the undervaluation of educators. This frustration catalyzed her decision to create a tangible solution: Bryn Mawr Early Education and Preschool.

The State of Early Childhood Education

Gloria sets the stage by emphasizing the critical role of early childhood educators in shaping young minds. However, the sector is marred by low wages, lack of benefits, and insufficient recognition, which hinder the ability to attract and retain quality educators.

Gloria Rivera [01:19]: "We talk a lot about valuing early childhood educators and how crucial it is to the healthy development of young children. This idea of taking care of the people, taking care of our children by investing in them, offering benefits and a livable wage. An idea that unfortunately isn't happening enough."

Bryn Mawr Early Education and Preschool

Founding and Locations

A year ago, Rhiann took a bold step by founding Bryn Mawr Early Education and Preschool, initially launching in Lorton, Virginia, followed by a second center in Washington, D.C. These centers aim to deliver high-quality care while ensuring educators feel valued and supported.

Rhiann Alvin [02:31]: "We've put so much energy and effort and dollars into the systems and structures around early childhood education. But the number one driver of whether or not we're going to deliver on the promise of quality is early childhood educators. Like period. Full stop."

Business Model and Partnerships

Bryn Mawr's innovative business model focuses on achieving economies of scale by operating multi-site programs. This approach allows for the distribution of administrative and operational costs across locations, making it financially viable to invest significantly in educator wages and benefits.

In Lorton, Virginia, Rhiann partnered with a developer and investors willing to accept lower returns to transform a century-old maximum-security prison into a vibrant preschool center. The D.C. location benefits from a contract with the State Department, which covers occupancy costs, enabling Bryn Mawr to allocate more funds towards employee benefits.

Rhiann Alvin [16:12]: "For Lorton, it was a developer. It was investors who are willing to have smaller returns than what typical private equity requires."

Operational Challenges and Solutions

Opening the first center in Lorton posed significant challenges, including renovating an old prison facility using historic blueprints and securing multi-million-dollar funding. Rhiann recounts the emotional and logistical hurdles she overcame, from acting as the receptionist to managing operations daily.

Rhiann Alvin [12:28]: "It is multi. Millions of dollars I had to raise for the Lorton site. Yeah."

The second center in D.C. was operational within a week after the previous provider vacated, thanks to a skilled team transition and the support of local partners.

Rhiann Alvin [13:17]: "We had one week to load and train our staff and then we started serving children again that following Monday."

Investment in Educators

At the heart of Bryn Mawr’s mission is the prioritization of early childhood educators. The organization offers:

• Competitive Wages: Aligning salaries with public school teachers to ensure educators are compensated fairly.

  Rhiann Alvin [18:53]: "I very first go in and see what the salary scales are for public school teachers. And then I say, okay, can I come close to matching that?"

• Comprehensive Benefits: Including generous health insurance, matched retirement plans, and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).

• Work-Life Balance: Implementing a four 10-hour workday model to promote better work-life integration.

• Professional Development: Providing incentives for further education and career growth within the field.

Rhiann Alvin [09:33]: "We’re trying to pay wages and salaries that are like at least at the bottom of what early childhood educators going into the K12 system could make."

Student Diversity and Family Engagement

Bryn Mawr emphasizes inclusivity by enrolling children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The Lorton center, located along a heavily gentrified and immigrant-rich corridor, serves children ranging from those with childcare subsidies to full-fee-paying families. This diversity fosters social capital and creates a rich, inclusive learning environment.

Rhiann Alvin [22:45]: "I really wanted to try to make that happen. And I'm so proud of what we've been able to do with that. We take Virginia childcare subsidy. We have Department of Defense families that get childcare Aware of America money. We have full fee paying families. And then we also have a scholarship program through a very generous partner."

Validation and Success Indicators

Bryn Mawr’s success is reflected in the positive feedback from both families and staff. Rhiann shares an email from a satisfied parent whose son is thriving at Bryn Mawr, highlighting the exceptional environment and high standards of care.

Rhiann Alvin [27:29]: "We knew there was something special about Bryn Mawr, but it was lovely to hear from someone who was in and out of schools all across the area and I wanted to make sure you all received the feedback as well."

Additionally, internal surveys indicate a high sense of belonging among families, with an average score of 4.8 out of 5.

Rhiann Alvin [28:44]: "If your family feels a sense of belonging at Bryn Mawr, then we're doing something right."

Feedback from educators also underscores the supportive and nurturing work environment Bryn Mawr fosters, ensuring staff feel valued beyond their professional roles.

Educator Testimonial [29:34]: "This is the most amazing place I've ever worked. I've been in the field for decades. I will never work anywhere else. The people here are so caring."

Future Plans and Growing the Model

Looking ahead, Rhiann is focused on scaling Bryn Mawr while maintaining the integrity of its unique business model. She emphasizes the importance of not compromising on core values during expansion and seeks to replicate the success in diverse settings, including tribal lands and rural communities. The key challenges include maintaining operational excellence, securing sustainable funding, and continuing to attract and retain top-tier educators.

Rhiann Alvin [31:17]: "We have to be relentless about the operating model of Bryn Mawr and staying true to why we started, who we want to partner, and never compromise our ideals in how we do that."

Conclusion

Putting Early Childhood Educators First serves as a compelling narrative on how innovative business models and unwavering dedication can address systemic issues in early childhood education. By focusing on fair compensation, comprehensive benefits, and creating an inclusive environment, Bryn Mawr Early Education and Preschool exemplifies a feasible path towards valuing and empowering the educators who are foundational to nurturing America's youngest minds.

Gloria Rivera encapsulates the episode by emphasizing the necessity of such experiments in the childcare sector to foster environments where both children and educators can thrive.

Gloria Rivera [33:37]: "Rhiann has not figured it all out yet. Bryn Mawr with its business model and priorities is an experiment. But Rhiann is doing something. And as Bryn Mawr expands or as the model replicates, that's more children in high quality programs with staff who feel valued."

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Key Takeaways:

• Early childhood educators are pivotal to the quality of childcare and education but are often undervalued and underpaid.
• Innovative business models, like that of Bryn Mawr, can create sustainable ways to fairly compensate and invest in educators.
• Achieving economies of scale through multi-site operations and strategic partnerships is essential for financial viability.
• Diversity and inclusivity in student populations enhance social capital and educational outcomes.
• Continuous feedback from families and staff is crucial for validating and refining the childcare model.
• Scaling such models requires maintaining core values, securing sustainable funding, and adapting to varied community needs.

By spotlighting Rhiann Alvin's journey and Bryn Mawr's pioneering approach, the episode underscores the urgent need for systemic change in America's childcare landscape and offers a beacon of hope through actionable solutions.

Transcript

[Gloria Rivera]

Calling all early Educators Neighborhood Villages, an innovative nonprofit organization working towards a transformed early childhood education system that meets the needs of all children, families and educators, invites you to learn about Learning Through Exploration, its new play based curriculum created specifically for toddlers and their caregivers, Learning Through Exploration offers an anti bias, Reggio inspired approach to teaching. This developmentally conscious curriculum provides toddlers with playful, engaging and joyful learning experiences. It also offers support for teachers as well as recommendations for activities and children's literature. The Best News it's free and available now on Neighborhood Villages website. Visit www.NeighborhoodVillages.org to download the curriculum. You'll also find free webinars and resources to get you started.

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[Gloria Rivera]

Hey everyone. 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. On this show, we talk a lot about valuing early childhood educators and how crucial it is to the healthy development of young children. This idea of taking care of the people, taking care of our children by investing in them, offering benefits and a livable wage. An idea that unfortunately isn't happening happening enough.

[Rhiann Alvin]

We've put so much energy and effort and dollars into the systems and structures around early childhood education. But the number one driver of whether or not we're going to deliver on the promise of quality is early childhood educators. Like period. Full stop.

[Gloria Rivera]

Today we're going to spotlight a preschool that values its early childhood educators and the founder who figured out how to do that through business, innovation and creative thinking.

[Rhiann Alvin]

We've got this marketplace that is broken and I do have two business degrees and I just started thinking, God, there's gotta be a better way to make the economics in this field work.

[Gloria Rivera]

I'm Gloria Rivera, and this is no One Is Coming to Save Us, a show about America's childcare crisis. In this bonus episode, we're talking to early education and childcare expert Rhian Alvin. After decades working in policy and advocacy, Rhian saw positive changes in the field, but was still really frustrated.

[Rhiann Alvin]

We've made so much progress in early childhood education in the last 25 years since we've had neuroscience, very compelling, irrefutable neuroscience behind kind of what we've all felt and known, that these first five years of life are important and yet most children are not in high quality settings and early childhood educators are kind of left behind.

[Gloria Rivera]

So she made a hard pivot. About a year ago, Rhiann opened Bryn Mawr Early Education and Preschool for children ages 6 weeks through 5 years old. The first center opened in Virginia, a second in Washington, D.C. this past July. And they're delivering on things that have been lacking in the field for so long. Quality care, a diverse student body, and staff that feel valued. Just prior to doing this, Riean spent almost a decade in Washington, D.C. leading an organization devoted to valuing early childhood educators. She was the CEO of the national association for the Education of Young Children. It's a big name, so it goes by its acronym, nacci.

[Rhiann Alvin]

NAEYC is the professional association for early childhood educators. NACC is to early childhood educators as the American Academy of Pediatrics is to pediatricians. And I wanted to be part of figuring out how do we invest in the early childhood education workforce and, you know, connect the fact that you've got this most profound period in developmental growth for young children and educators who are making poverty level wages and have no health insurance or retirement benefits. So during my time there, I spent an enormous amount of time on the Hill and working on federal policy.

[Gloria Rivera]

Through that work, Rhiann helped almost double federal childcare development funding from 2.8 billion to 5.2 billion dol in 2018. Rianne was also at the helm of the organization during the start and peak of the pandemic.

[Rhiann Alvin]

I mean, the childcare field imploded during COVID And I think NAEYC played a really important role with all of its polling data with the work we did to get $50 billion in ARPA funding. And it was just after kind of the COVID crisis kind of started to die down a little bit that I wrapped up my time at naeyc.

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, you've just listed some pretty remarkable accomplishments for those nine years. So I'M curious, what happened during year nine? What, what made you think, hmm, okay, my work is done here. What do I do next? Because it sounds like things were going pretty well at naeyc, so why leave?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Yeah, I loved naeyc and I still love naeyc, and I'm a proud member of naeyc. But I guess it's got increasingly frustrating for me to just be marching on with this very decisive neuroscience and to know that we still only have 7% of childcare centers in the country that are NACC accredited and to know that over 50% of the early childhood education workforce qualifies for public health benefits and, you know, fewer than 15% have employer sponsored health insurance. And I mean, you can probably count on a couple hands, like, how many folks have any kind of retirement benefits. And so I just, it was my background, I do have two business degrees. And I just started thinking, God, there's gotta be a better way to make the economics in this field work and how is it that we can't solve this? And so for me, it was looking at the market in early childhood education and to say, I will always care deeply about policy and advocacy and will continue to advocate from my new vantage point. But it was really getting to me that we've got this marketplace that is broken and even, you know, we're always going to need more public dollars. But the market itself has choices to make in how it shows up for young children and for early childhood educators and for families and why aren't we doing better? And so I just started like weekends, just kind of running various profit and loss scenarios. And like, could you do this differently? Like, could this look different? I think one of the issues in early childhood education, in terms of the economics and the financing of early childhood education, is that 90% of the market are one site programs. And some of them are super high quality. Like, a lot of them are really high quality, a lot of them are not. But regardless of quality, even if you wanted to, it's really hard to make the math work because there's no economies of scale. You're not being able to spread your HR function out over multiple sites or spread your accounting function out over multiple sites. And so the fact that these are single site programs makes the math not impossible, but tricky.

[Gloria Rivera]

Most child care and preschool programs, whether it's in someone's house or in a center, have only one site. Programs with multiple locations are not the norm. And those programs come with their own unique challenges.

[Rhiann Alvin]

When you're that large, you also have investors that care about what your returns are. And if you're publicly traded, you have a marketplace that cares about what your returns are. And it's hard, not impossible, it is hard to get the kind of returns that those entities demand and still make the investments in the early childhood education workforce. So it's like, how do you do this differently and what's the sweet spot? And how do you build the economies of scale but invest back in your workforce? And so that's when I started really I was, I've got to try to do this. I have to try to do this. And so that was the birth of, of Bryn Mawr.

[Gloria Rivera]

Bryn Mawr has two sites. The first in Lorton, Virginia and the other in the heart of Washington D.C. the preschool stands out for a few reasons.

[Rhiann Alvin]

The two biggest pieces of the Bryn Mawr model are having children across socioeconomic spectrum who can afford child care, who have access to high quality. And then secondly, the investments we make in the workforce. So we're paying for really generous health insurance. We match a retirement plan, we have FSA accounts, we do four 10 hour days as part of our model we have really doubled down on. And it's an experiment like what we're hoping will attract and retain. We're trying to pay wages and salaries that are like at least at the bottom of what early childhood educators going into the K12 system could make.

[Gloria Rivera]

You opened its first location in 2023 and I'm curious what it was like for you to shift from all your years in policy work to running a preschool. And you know, I'm thinking, are you there seeing these kids come through the doors? I mean that's. Yeah, that's adorable. What was that like for you?

[Rhiann Alvin]

It's been humbling because it's really, really hard, Gloria. Yeah, but so I'm where I'm supposed to be and I'm loving it. And there's a part of me that has an operational brain. So being able to get in the weeds of the operations of an entity like this has been really exciting too. So yes, we opened our first center this last October and the first center is here in Northern Virginia and it was a hundred year old maximum security prison.

[Gloria Rivera]

Yeah, you heard that right. Riend's childcare center in Lorton is part of a development that was once an overcrowded prison. It was built in 1916 and the last prisoners were removed in 2001. Now it's a mix of single family homes, apartments, recreational facilities, facilities and Bryn More.

[Rhiann Alvin]

I have to tell you, from the day I left Nacy till when the Lorton location opened was about 18 months, which by all accounts was fast. Like it was. We had a cold, dark shell. It was an old prison from. Oh my gosh, we're using hundred year old blueprints. Is the plumbing going to be the way it says it's going to be when we break open the floors and all these things? I mean, still to this day I look back and I was like, oh wow, I'm glad that worked out because that was a super risky decision. And I'm just, I have, I had a lot of partners who were cheering me on and supporting me in so many ways. It was just everything from the ground up. So for the first six months of Bryn Mawr, in addition to doing all of the external work and that sort of thing, I literally opened up the center every morning and was the receptionist and the operations associate and very gladly turned that role over to one of our amazing team members who is now doing that. And then we opened our second center the first week of July. We began operations on July 5th at Diplotots in Washington D.C. i mean, these.

[Gloria Rivera]

Are not small things. I mean, can we talk about how much you did have to raise for the Lorton site? Is that like public knowledge?

[Rhiann Alvin]

It is not, but it is, it is multi. Millions of dollars I had to raise for the Lorton site. Yeah.

[Gloria Rivera]

Okay, but now you know, now you know what it, what it costs. Right? Like that's a helpful piece of information.

[Rhiann Alvin]

Right, right, right. Well, so, so a year and a half, Blood, sweat and tears. The first summer I was really trying to raise the money in the capital. Oh my gosh. Like, I'll never forget that summer. My husband calls it the Valley of Sorrows because I was like, I just, I'm not going to find this money. What was I thinking? Like, why did I think I could do this? Like, ugh. And so it has been such a personal, emotional journey as well, doing this.

[Gloria Rivera]

And then you have the Washington D.C. location to open. I mean, what, what was that like? Was it as rough as opening the.

[Rhiann Alvin]

First one with Diplotots? The previous provider moved out on a Friday. We had one week to load and train our staff and then we started serving children again that following Monday. So it was literally a week transition with about a two month Runway working with the board to get licensed by D.C. and all of the things and so monumental difference in time. We were so fortunate. You know, we brought most of the team from the previous provider. We got resumes and letters of reference and interviews. They just had a stellar team and so we brought a lot of them over with us and so it couldn't have been two more polar opposite experiences.

[Gloria Rivera]

Both experiences involved finding unique partners. That's part of Bryn Mawr's business model. We'll hear more on that after the break.

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[Gloria Rivera]

Part of Bryn Mawr's business model involves finding intriguing partners.

[Rhiann Alvin]

For Lorton, it was a developer. It was investors who are willing to have smaller returns than what typical private equity requires.

[Gloria Rivera]

In D.C. it's the federal government. Through a contract with the State Department, the federal government pays the occupancy costs of Diplotots, Bryn Mawr's second location that allows Rhiann to put funding she'd otherwise pay for rent towards employee benefits.

[Rhiann Alvin]

Being able to partner with the federal government in the space and the materials and the equipment allows you to be able to have margins to reinvest in the workforce, which is like I would love to, we're, I mean we are not profitable yet. We are getting close to being profitable, but I would love to implement profit sharing when we are part of. This is an experiment in business models that reinvest in the people who are making the business work in the first place.

[Gloria Rivera]

You know, you said that you're able to and you do say it's an experiment. But I mean 401k, I mean all these benefits that you're able to offer your workforce, that's your decision. You're able to do that because it's a legit business. And, and why do we not have that in so many other early education centers?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Yeah, I do think there's a few things. In some instances the model in childcare is solid enough that it really generally is a choice by the ownership on where are you going to put the margins, where are you going to invest the margins and what does that look like? And so there are instances where it's a choice. There are instances where with the current financing model in childcare, it's not a choice that particularly in states where they've not invested more in childcare subsidy, where they've not increased subsidy rates or where families in general are poor, it is hard to get the margins to invest in the actual benefits that it requires to attract and retain employees. And so one of the things I want to look at over time is how do you scale this in unsuspecting places? Like how do you scale this near tribal lands? How do you scale it in rural communities? What kind of partners do you need? And I think that's part of the experiment. I mean my first two centers are in really dense urban settings which there's an abundance of partnerships if you go after it. And there's wealth in these areas too. And so you can make trade offs and offsets in what you're investing by also charging. You know, it's not for those families that it's for full fee paying. It's not inexpensive to do this. And so I do think it's both a matter of choice and, and just the foundational, the fundamental economics of child care in some instances are what hold us back.

[Gloria Rivera]

Can you tell me in Virginia, when you opened that first center, how did you go about making the decision about what you would pay the employees?

[Rhiann Alvin]

In every jurisdiction I've looked at, I very first go in and see what the salary scales are for public school teachers. And then I say, okay, can I come close to matching that? Is there a way to come close to matching that? And so that was my own personal benchmark. And then I you back into, okay, so then what do you have to charge? How big does it have to be? Like, I don't see how you make this work with like a Center under 9,000 square feet. I think you have to have enough children in the center that again, economies of scale is key to this. I mean, in opening diplotots, I now can, you know, split my marketing costs between two centers, I can split my accounting costs between two centers, I can split my HR costs between two centers. And I'm oversimplifying it. But in essence, you start to build economies of scale, which is very difficult to do. Again, because most centers are single site, one site programs.

[Gloria Rivera]

Right.

[Rhiann Alvin]

It's hard to get the margins to then pay, match 401k plans.

[Gloria Rivera]

Okay, so when you look at what you are going to pay your staff, to me it seems like you're saying you're reversing engineering, how it's been done and you're looking at prioritizing the margins for that purpose.

[Rhiann Alvin]

That's exactly right. That's exactly right. It is reverse engineering. It's like you start with, what do you want the floor of quality to be? How do you get there? What do you have to invest to get there? How do you set up pay and compensation and benefit structures? And then back into, who do you need at the table to be able to raise the kind of money you need to get that done?

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, Rhiannon, it's radical. It's radical because it starts by putting the worker first, the provider first.

[Rhiann Alvin]

I'm laughing that you say that because during my Valley of Sorrows when I was raising money, that dark, dark place, right, And I heard myself pitching this idea to people, I would get off the phone and be like, they're probably thinking, like, why is this any different? Like, okay, she wants high quality and she wants to pay the workforce well. Like, why is this magical? Why is this a unicorn thing? And I would hear myself describing this and I would, you know, think, yeah, what is the unicorn thing? And so I appreciate you say that, but it's sad that we're in a place that this is so upending and transformational and isn't the norm. Like, if everybody in the marketplace starts to do it this way, like, Bryn Moore doesn't need to grow a ton, you know, So I just it's, it's unfortunate that this is a model that is disruptive because it shouldn't have to be, right? It shouldn't have to be.

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, of course what Rhiann is doing at Bryn Mawr shouldn't be considered disruptive, but the reality is it's not the norm. Far too many childcare providers make poverty wages. The idea of professional wages, benefits and incentives for further education, that that is what makes staff members feel valued. And when you feel valued, it helps you do your best work. Bryn Mawr currently employs about 60 staff members at both sites. That number will grow when they're fully staffed. And Bryn Mawr has the capacity to serve 262 students, the majority at Lorton. Nearly half the kids at Lorton receive a subsidy or some kind of tuition assistance. I'm curious what it looks like in each classroom. Who are the students? How do you find them? How do they find you?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Yeah, it's a great question and I would say the source of sleepless nights too. Gloria, quite frankly, if I was like, if I could think of the things like what keeps you up or what kept me up at 2am I've been sleeping better these days because it is not for the faint of heart, but the children. That was the other reason I picked that space because it's along the I95 corridor and it's a place where there is a lot of gentrification. There's also a lot of new immigrant families. There is a lot of multi generational families that have been in that area and there's a lot of military families. And while I am an enormous fan of Head Start, I absolutely am. I also thinking, if at all possible from a policy perspective, it's really good to have kids from across socioeconomic means in a classroom together. It builds social capital. I think it's good for everybody. And so I really wanted to try to make that happen. And I'm so proud of what we've been able to do with that. We take Virginia childcare subsidy. We have Department of Defense families that get childcare Aware of America money. We have full fee paying families. And then we also have a scholarship program through a very generous partner. I literally have children who live in deep poverty to children whose families are paying more than college tuition for their infants to be at Bryn Mawr. And so the classrooms, they're so joyful and they have so much life and energy in them. And we do a lot of family engagement events to really intentional bring families together. And we've very intentionally sought after and hired a workforce that represents that same level of diversity as the children who are in the classroom.

[Gloria Rivera]

When we come back, Rhian tells us how she knows she's doing something right.

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[Rhiann Alvin]

Hi, I'm Emily Deschanel.

[Gloria Rivera]

And I'm Carla Gallo. And we're here to bring you Boneheads.

[Rhiann Alvin]

The official Bones Rewatch podcast.

[Gloria Rivera]

That's right, we're watching all the episodes of Bones, starting with episode one and we are the right people to do it.

[Rhiann Alvin]

I play Dr. Temperance Bredon and I met Carla 16 years ago on set.

[Gloria Rivera]

I played Daisy Wick.

[Rhiann Alvin]

Tune in every Wednesday to hear all our behind the scenes stories, conversations with cast and crew, and our favorite moments.

[Gloria Rivera]

Boneheads from Lemonada Media is out wherever you get your podcasts. It sounds to me like Bryn Mawr seems to be addressing some of the frustrations that you experienced watching childcare and how it operated in the country, the undervalued workforce, the lack of quality care. How did you figure that out?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Let me be super clear. I can't confirm that. Nine months in I figured it out. I would say this is a really important experiment in this field that I'm compelled to do that. I'm hoping we get largely right and we'll see. I am really proud of the team that we've been able to build and seeing them gel together, seeing them work with children and families. Our director of people and culture, she is amazing at hiring folks, but it is like finding a needle in the haystack. Like even with the benefits and four 10 hour days and salaries that are competitive, it's a tough market because, you know, it's not as enticing as other markets. And so it's hard work and our team does an amazing job.

[Gloria Rivera]

Thank you for saying no. I haven't figured it out. I would be worried if we were talking to you and you were telling me that you've solved the childcare crisis. We are in process. We are in the process of solving it.

[Rhiann Alvin]

That's right.

[Gloria Rivera]

And you are very much entrenched in that. Are there things that you have seen at Bryn Mawr that tell you you're doing something right?

[Rhiann Alvin]

There are. And I want to read to you an email I got from a family. Hang on one second.

[Gloria Rivera]

Oh my gosh. Yay. We're having a reading listeners.

[Rhiann Alvin]

So let me just make sure. Okay, so this is from a mom. I just wanted to drop you both a quick note to thank you for everything and especially thank you for the environment you've created at Brynmore. We are so happy that our son is thriving. And while it kills me sometimes, haha, it's awesome to see how much he hates leaving school and how excited he is to go in the morning. The real reason I wanted to send you a note is because our speech pathologist joined our son in class yesterday and texted us after singing your praises. She said Bryn Mawr is absolutely top tier. One of the best daycares I've been in in a long time. From the teachers to the facilities. It's pretty amazing. We knew there was something special about Bryn Mawr, but it was lovely to hear from someone who was in and out of schools all across the area and I wanted to make sure you all received the feedback as well.

[Gloria Rivera]

Rhian, you did that. Your team did that. I know. That's so amazing.

[Rhiann Alvin]

It's our team. It's our team.

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, that's incredible to hear from an outside source.

[Rhiann Alvin]

Yeah.

[Gloria Rivera]

I will tell you the affirmation, right?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Absolutely. We are doing every six months we do a family experience survey and we did our first one in February. I asked seven questions on a Likert scale from one to five. And the very first question I ask is, does your family feel a sense of belonging at Bryn Mawr? And we received 4.8 on average out of 5 that our family feels a sense of belonging at Bryn Mawr. And to me, in any situation, having a sense of belonging is the most important feeling a human being can have. If it's a 6 month old or a 50 year old or an 80 year old. Like if you feel like you belong, then we're doing something right.

[Gloria Rivera]

Are there any in person moments of connection that you carry with you that also tell you you are doing something right?

[Rhiann Alvin]

Oh, yeah. I was touring, a couple of guests we had and I always take them and introduce them to our educators. And one of our infant educators, unprompted, she just said, I just want you to know, this is the most amazing place I've ever worked. I've been in the field for decades. I will never work anywhere else. The people here are so caring. They know me personally, they love me, they know my family, and they care about who I am as a human being, not just if I show up to take care of kids.

[Gloria Rivera]

Yeah. I love that your story of affirmation is about an employee. Right. Because we've had a lot of lovely conversations about these incredible young people, young little humans that are in these early education centers. But it's lovely to hear that you've created a space where your workforce feels seen and cared for. Right. And I would, unfortunately or fortunately, I think it's both. It's a both. And put that in the radical category. Right.

[Rhiann Alvin]

I will say whenever we do, I do an onboarding with a new team, which is all the time right now, because we're hiring, hiring, hiring. I always say, like, like the model at Bryn Mawr is super simple. And it is about children, it's about families, and it's about early childhood educators. Our children loved and thriving and safe and healthy and getting what they need in a high quality early childhood environment, including experiencing joy. Our families feeling like they have peace of mind when they drop their children off here and they can go to work with peace of mind. And they feel like partners to us and they know their children, their well being are our primary concern. And three, our educators that centering early childhood educators, they're all super important. But I feel like the one this field has not paid nearly enough attention to since the beginning of time is educators. And it can be an afterthought. And we have got to flip the script on that. Like, we have to flip the script on that.

[Gloria Rivera]

I know you've said it's early days yet, but do you think about what's next? Are you actively looking to open more sites and where would that be and what challenges? Now that you've been through two very different openings of two different centers, what do you think the biggest challenges would be as you look to grow?

[Rhiann Alvin]

I think about what's next all the time. That is how my brain works. But I have to say to you, part of my thinking about what's next is not just growth. It's about knowing that we have to be relentless about the operating model of Bryn Mawr and staying true to why we started, who we want to partner, partner with. And never compromise our ideals in how we do that. Because if growth at any moment is about compromising why we exist or we're letting the details go because we want to grow quickly, then we will have failed. And so, yes, thinking about what next is really important. But it's as much about, okay, did every team member this month get a note on their birthday? Who had a birthday? Did we celebrate accomplishments? Are we paying attention to the details about how, how we're communicating with families? Did every child who's transitioning from a toddler room to a preschool room, did we do that with patience and love and have the family involved and how we do the transition? So I feel like those operating details really matter and you can grow and keep those in place, but it's hard to do well. And so there have been a couple of opportunities that I have. It's been kind of, of painful, but that I've said no to because I'm like, okay, this is exciting, but it's going to make us go sideways on what our plan is and we don't want to do that. And so I am definitely not in the camp of growth at all costs. But also, yeah, if we believe in what we're doing, we want as many children and educators as possible to experience that. So do we want to grow? Yes, absolutely.

[Gloria Rivera]

I'd love to. To see Bryn Mawr grow. Like Rhiann says, she hasn't figured it all out yet. Bryn Mawr with its business model and priorities is an experiment. But Rian is doing something. And as Bryn Mawr expands or as the model replicates, that's more children in high quality programs with staff who feel valued. We need more experiments and solutions like this in the child care and early education field. More staff getting paid professional wages and receiving benefits who are offered incentives to continue their path in early childhood education. As the industry struggles to retain quality staff, we need investments in these educators so it makes sense for them to stay in the industry and in their jobs. Because the more educators who stay, the better it will be for children to thrive in the earliest stages of life. 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 Lemonade original produced with Neighborhood Villages. I'm your host, Gloria Rivera. Muna Danish is our senior producer. Lisa Fu and Hannah Boomershine are our producers. Bobby Woody is our audio engineer. Our music is by Hannis Brown Jackie DanZiger is our VP of Narrative Content. Executive producers are Stephanie Whittles Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer, along with me, Gloria Rivera. This 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, 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. Until then, hang in there. You can do this. This episode is presented by the J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott foundation and the Baynham Family Foundation.

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[Rhiann Alvin]

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.