All Brittany Mann thinks about when she’s at work is her infant daughter, Aahliyah. While Mann works 12-hour shifts as a security guard at a women’s homeless shelter in lower Manhattan, Aahliyah is at a home-based day care back in the Bronx, where they live. Sometimes, Mann needs to stay longer to cover when other guards are late or call in sick. More than half of her weekly salary goes to day care.
As a single mother, Mann wishes she could instead be with her daughter every day. “I’m worried about COVID, but I have to work,” she says.
Nine months into the pandemic, the child care crisis continues to leave parents stressed and exhausted. Yet essential workers—hospital staff, home health aides, bank tellers, grocery store workers, security personnel, and more—have to keep showing up. Overwhelmingly, they are mothers of color from the very communities the pandemic has hit the hardest. Every choice then demands sacrificing health or financial survival.
Care work activist Jaime-Jin Lewis wasted no time launching a series of rapid response efforts. Lewis is the founder of Wiggle Room, an initiative that builds tech-powered child care solutions for low-wage hourly workers. In March, when New York City issued a shelter-in-place order, Lewis launched Workers Need Childcare within days to help essential workers navigate the maze of affordable, safe child care options.
