School Readiness for All Report Released

Colorado’s Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) Care Learning Community has released a new report highlighting the contributions and landscape of Colorado’s FFN care providers. In 2011, Colorado had enough licensed child care to care for only 43 percent of children under age 6 who have all parents in the workforce; the other 57 percent of children are cared for by a family member, friend or neighbor while their parents are at work. To better understand both the contributions to children’s school readiness FFN providers make to the young children in their care as well as the challenges they face to ensure the care they provide is high quality, the FFN Learning Community convened eight community conversations with FFN providers in locations across Colorado beginning in the fall of 2012. School Readiness for All: The Contribution of Family, Friend and Neighbor Care in Colorado captures those conversations, discusses how FFN care fits within the broader early childhood landscape and makes recommendations for additional research and next steps.

About Beza Taddess

Beza Taddess is the Communications Director at the Colorado Children's Campaign. In this role, she manages our communications team in advancing and supporting the Children’s Campaign’s work through digital and traditional communications strategies. Beza strives to apply inclusive and innovative communications protocols to ensure all people are seen and heard. She joined the Children’s Campaign as part of the Public Interest Fellowship Program in 2015 after graduating with a degree in Sociology from Colorado College. She received her master’s degree from University of Colorado Denver in May of 2021.