Funding the weavers of caregiver community

One of the big threads running through my work – and life, actually – these days is community. Why it matters, where to find it, how to create it, making the case for investing in it.

So I was delighted to be invited by Janet Southern McCormick and Ilana Cope at Nesta Challenge Works to write a short piece reflecting on the 22 finalists in the Good Start Challenge, a €2.6 million global challenge to advance innovative solutions to improve the wellbeing of parents and other caregivers of young children in disadvantaged circumstances.

We didn't evolve to raise children alone, as I learned from my conversation with Dr. Nikhil Chaudhary at the 2024 Start with Children in Bratislava.

And so it struck me how many of the Good Start finalists are working on building community among caregivers.

Especially among those experiencing the greatest isolation: young mothers who’ve had to drop out of school, displaced families living far from their communities of origin, families affected by mental illness, disability or climate change, or fathers excluded by caregiving norms. 

Not relationships as a means to an end – as we so often see – but as a valued outcome in and of itself.

From weekly gatherings for adolescent mothers in the Philippines and families in Uganda, to a Brazilian app that connects parents so they can exchange childcare, to community-run solar-powered kiosks on the conflict-affected Turkana-Ethiopia border – these initiatives aren't choosing between providing services or building community.

They’re recognizing that community is the service.

Read my post about these community-building finalists here and see the full list from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, the Philippines, and Indonesia here,

The Good Start Challenge was initiated by the Van Leer Foundation, co-funded by FEMSA Foundation, Fundaçao Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, and the LEGO Foundation.