A Child Care System IS POSSIBLE
This has been another extraordinary year of progress for Neighborhood Villages, our programs, and our partners, as we work together to demonstrate that an equitable, accessible, and high-quality early childhood education system is possible. None of this could have happened without the support of our incredible partners. Together, we are showing that a transformed child care system truly is possible.
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Thanks to you, we continue to meet the moment.
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“This year, Neighborhood Villages proved that a thoughtfully designed early education system can do more than educate — it can transform lives.
Whether through launching the largest educator apprenticeship in the state, delivering free tools such as high-quality curriculum and coaching, or offering holistic family and mental health supports, Neighborhood Villages upheld the principle that enriching lives starts from the earliest years and ripples outward through families and communities.”
DEBORAH ENOS
Vice President, Neighborhood Villages Board of Directors
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A High Quality System IS POSSIBLE
ADVANCING the Careers of Early Childhood Educators
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Registered Apprenticeship for Early Educators
This year, our program became the largest early childhood Registered Apprenticeship program in Massachusetts. 74% of participants have more senior roles than when they started their apprenticeships – demonstrating that Registered Apprenticeship is a pathway toward career growth and an investment in promoting talent retention and supporting high-quality early learning classrooms.
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Lead Teacher Program
We have supported 211 educators in earning their EEC Lead Teacher qualifications with Fisher College last year as part of the Good Jobs Challenge grant. Our team helped educators succeed by providing college navigation, technical assistance, and enrollment support, as well as tutoring and other wraparound services to support students’ academic and personal needs.
Teaching & Learning Through PLAY
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Playtopia
Neighborhood Villages hosted our inaugural Playtopia, powered by the LEGO Group, a unique early childhood education conference centered around play. Welcoming more than 250 professionals across New England — from classroom educators, to family child care providers, to coaches, to health specialists, and more — we explored the transformative power of play in early childhood development.
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Playful Learning Institute
Neighborhood Villages brought the Playful Learning Institute to 13 public school districts across the Commonwealth. This initiative is designed to provide resources, tools, and coaching to Pre-K through 3rd grade educators, to intentionally embed play into their existing instructional curriculum through six playful learning practices.
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“Learning Through Exploration" Across 50 States
In 2024, Neighborhood Villages launched Learning Through Exploration: A Play-Based Toddler Curriculum© — a first-of-its-kind play-based learning curriculum. In just one year, it has been downloaded more than 1,500 times across 50 states and in 19 countries!
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Professional Learning
Our expert Teaching and Learning team provided more than 300 hours of high- touch coaching to early educators and created a suite of free, publicly available webinars designed to enhance educators’ instructional skills. And in March, we hosted a Professional Development Day for 186 early educators at our partner programs.
A System that Supports Families and Communities IS POSSIBLE
Transforming Early Relational Health
When it comes to the healthy development of very young children, relationships with their adult caregivers are foundational. This year, Neighborhood Villages’ Early Relational Health (ERH) initiative placed ERH Specialists and Inclusion Specialists across a network of early education providers in high-poverty Boston neighborhoods and launched a professional development pathway to expand and deepen the foundation and practices of early relational health in early childhood classroom settings.
“The current state of early relational health in early education is, at best, fragmented. Our goal is to break down these silos and approach early education through a relational health lens, integrating mental wellness into all aspects of a child’s care and education.”
LISA GARCIA
Director of Early Relational Health, Neighborhood Villages
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“Working with Neighborhood Villages has allowed us to bring early relational health to the forefront of our work. Their investment in people and practice has strengthened how we connect with families, deepened our educators’ capacity to support children’s emotional growth, and built a model of care that truly centers relationships.”
MICHELE D’AMBROSIO
Director of Early Learning Programs, East Boston Social Centers
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Wrapping Around Children and Families
At Neighborhood Villages, our mission is to show how an early education system can offer not only excellence in education, but also whole-child, family-centered wraparound supports. That’s why we work to help make sure that families are able to access the material goods they need to thrive, from diapers to clothing to toys.
An Ecosystem of Support
Our Family Navigators have proven to be trusted partners to families in need, providing high-touch case-management services to mitigate crises and ensuring families can access social and health services in the early education and care settings where they and their children are daily. In FY25, Family Navigators provided 113 families with intensive case-management support to address crises or emergencies.
A Statewide System IS POSSIBLE
Driving Public Policy Change
We are fighting for the lasting policy changes we need to ensure that all children have access to early childhood education. This year, we helped secure $1.7 billion for early education in the Massachusetts FY26 state budget and advocated for expansion of public programs helping to fix the child care crisis.
Grounding Policy Solutions in Research & Data
Strong data is essential for crafting sustainable policy. At Neighborhood Villages, our research — informed not only by public data but also by evidence drawn directly from our direct service programs — is helping to drive lasting, evidence-based policy solutions.
No One is Coming to Save Us: Season 5!
Our nationally acclaimed podcast No One is Coming to Save Us returned for a fifth season, with a series of episodes that each dive into four fundamental demands for a child care system that meets the needs of all families — that it be guaranteed, high-quality, accessible, and supportive of children, families, and educators.
In the News
This year, Neighborhood Villages worked hard to keep the child care crisis at the forefront of public conversation, especially as the cost of living dramatically increased in Massachusetts and across the country. Neighborhood Villages continues to serve as a thought leader and to be a steady presence in local, national, and industry media.
In FY25, we had 58 total media placements, amounting to 1.5+ billion Unique Monthly Visitors (UMV).
Our Financials
Our Supporters & Partners
We are grateful to the individuals and institutions who generously supported our mission and programs this year.
View the list of supporters, staff, and Board of Directors here.