Carol Burnett

Executive Director, The Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative

“The Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative is a nonprofit and Ford grantee working to strengthen women’s economic security in Mississippi by making child care affordable for low-income working moms, ensuring people of all backgrounds can participate in the workforce, and generally expanding the social safety net for women. In our state, about 90% of the parents who are on the Child Care Assistance program are single parents—virtually all of whom are single moms. 

In 2023, after we worked with Accelerate Mississippi, the state’s workforce agency, and the state’s Early Childhood Advisory Council, the state ended its requirement that single parents officially seek child support through the state’s courts before they could qualify to get child care assistance. That rule created huge hurdles: Agencies don’t coordinate well, the application process is difficult and time-consuming, and it might be dangerous to have to engage with their children’s other parent. As a result, by the end of 2024, 17,000 children were able to get child care through the program. That means their parents have been able to work, get job training, go to school, and pursue opportunities that allow them to support their families. It makes good business sense to support affordable child care.

We operate a program called Employment Equity for Single Moms that helps single moms get child care so that they can get education and training for jobs that pay a living wage. Single moms work more than any other family type, but their poverty rate is the highest. They’re concentrated in very low-paying jobs. We’re working on an idea called ‘Earn and Learn,’ which gives a wage to a mom while she’s going through training to attain a certification, and we’ve piloted it with great results. This work makes a tangible difference in families’ lives and encourages other state workforce strategies that help single mothers.”

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