This summer, parents stitched together child care to give their kids a 'space for Black joy'

Dr. Kai Smith runs GRAAFICS, Gang Diversion, Reentry And Absent Fathers Intervention Centers, a program he founded to give young men and women an outlet to avoid criminal behavior. The program includes training courses in behavior modification and focuses especially on early prevention of violent behaviors in children through meaningful mentorship.

When Washington state introduced higher standards for child care, many feared that home-based centers, including those run by women from Somalia, would close. But a group spearheaded by nonprofit Voices of Tomorrow arranged for training and materials in East African languages, helping a stunning 94 percent of providers to acquire the necessary license and to keep their centers - vital especially for low-income, immigrant families - open for business.

In Rochester, NY, the Center for Teen Empowerment, a nonprofit that trains youth in community organizing, personal development, and anti-violence, is working to bring kids off the street and into safety. The program, which started in Boston, is centered on four ideas: jobs (paying the youth hired as organizers), teamwork, agency (letting them build their own activist agendas), and peer influence. While hard to evaluate because of its situational, qualitative nature, city officials, including law enforcement, point to the program as a factor in the decrease in violence across the city.

A New South Wales nursing home is running a childcare facility from its dementia wing. Patients show fewer symptoms and enjoy the children's presence. Evidence shows that intergenerational care for young children can reduce delinquency later in life. Researchers are looking into ways to expand the program.

Lansing, Michigan built an ecosystem of community violence intervention programs (anchored by Advance Peace and the Lansing Empowerment Network) that reduced shootings by 38% between 2022 and 2025. Their relationship-based outreach, mentorship, and victim support continue to prove effective despite federal funding cuts.

Small Midwest towns are converting homes and commercial spaces into clusters of small, fully-equipped childcare facilities that house multiple independent family childcare providers under one roof. Using blended funding from federal dollars, state grants, and local development funds, communities build or renovate spaces that comply with less restrictive family childcare licensing, providing care for small, mixed-age groups of children while sharing resources like substitute teachers, administrative support, and retention bonuses, all in an effort to close childcare gaps.

Frustrated by the lack of childcare funding and access, one woman created a documentary showcasing the issue. It received widespread attention throughout the state, leading to a state representative sponsoring a $7 million bill to increase childcare funding and provider wages and to expand access to subsidies for middle-income families. It also led the governor to create the Alaska Child Care Task Force to oversee state licensing regulations to make the process of becoming a licensed childcare provider and opening a facility more accessible.

The basketball academy in Queens teaches basketball and English language skills to Spanish-speaking immigrant children. The academy helps youth navigate culture shock, bullying and the lack of community they may feel when they first arrive in the country, while ensuring they still maintain a sense of their parents’ language and culture.

There are thousands of children caught in the midst of the migrant crisis, and many of them end up without their parents or with a relative. To avoid placing migrant children in facilities that would be unable to give them specialized care, people are stepping up to serve as foster parents for the time being. The foster parents support the children's emotional well being and sense of self, and now foster aunts—forming a relationship without taking over care—are also emerging. These initiatives help ease the process of starting over in a new place, especially for children.

For people addicted to opioids, the battle isn't always just quitting the drug use but also navigating the other areas in their life that led to the drug use in the first place. To address this, a community in Washington uses youth drug prevention science that is based around teaching protective factors such as enhanced communication and ways to decrease isolation.