February 8, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
NEW BOOKS
Investing in Low-Wage Workers: Lessons from Family Child Care in Rhode Island, by Anne Roder and Dorie Seavey, studies the Day Care Justice Co-op, an advocacy organization for family day-care providers. Founded in 1999 and led by a multiracial group of low-income women, the organization fought to improve the income, benefits, visibility, and programs of state-contracted child-care providers working out of their homes. The group was able to influence Rhode Island’s state government, raising the net income of its members 123 percent during the period studied and reducing the poverty rate among co-op members from 44 percent to 15 percent. The report studies the co-op’s context, successes, failures, members, expenses, and other details, and concludes by distilling important lessons about low-wage employment from the organization’s efforts.
Publisher: Public/Private Ventures, 2000 Market Street, Suite 600, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103; (215) 557-4400; fax (215) 557-4469; http://www.ppv.org; 48 pages; available free for download on the organization’s Web site.
