Nurturing Homes Initiative

Challenges

• Research suggests that children who do not receive quality childcare in their early years suffer lifetime earnings and social disadvantages.
• Kids Count (2024) data indicate that 30% of children ages 3 and 4 are not enrolled in licensed childcare facilities and often rely on family, friend, and neighbor care that is likely to be unlicensed by the state.
• Home-based care providers often have few resources from which to obtain quality curricula and technical assistance.

Extension Response

The Mississippi Nurturing Homes Initiative (NHI) provides intensive coaching and developmentally appropriate curricula to family home childcare providers with the goal of increasing the quality of care and teacher-child interactions.

• An accurate count of the number of unlicensed, home-based childcare providers does not exist; however, 89 providers have completed the NHI program and 122 providers are actively enrolled.
• NHI personnel have delivered approximately 1,100 hours of technical assistance on 15 different topics to almost 600 providers.
• In FY2025, nine Extension agents worked with the NHI program to train home-based childcare providers in all 82 Mississippi counties.
• Mobile units are employed to increase the availability of learning materials and books for providers.
• NHI provides access to the Child Development Associate credentialing program. This nationally recognized certification enhances competencies, elevates standards of care, and promotes a culture of continuous learning and professional development.

Economic Impacts

• Given that there are few curricula and training alternatives, we estimate that the NHI program has increased the lifetime earnings potential of one-fourth of the preschool child population by 50%. This represents an estimated lifetime earnings increase of $22 million.
• Lifetime earnings increases for each cohort of students impacted by the program could result in an estimated additional 113 jobs in Mississippi’s economy, earning $4.9 million.
• This increase in earnings could also increase value-added in the state by $10.5 million and total output by $18.5 million.

M2480-28 (01-26)

Jamila Taylor, Executive Director, Early Childhood Extension Programs