Internship Location: Chapel Hill NC
Organization Type: Nonprofit
Policy Areas: Social Welfare
As an Early Childhood Policy Intern at Child Care Services Association (CCSA), I worked on early care and education and early childhood homelessness policy at the state and national level. CCSA primarily focuses on early care and education policy, specifically working on child care affordability, and compensation and professional development for child care workers. Early childhood homelessness is also woven into their work and is a passion of CCSA’s president, Marsha Basloe. During my summer internship, I conducted an impact study of CCSA’s COVID-19 Relief Fund grant. Child care programs applied for grants in summer 2020. In summer 2021, I interviewed grant recipients about the grant’s impact, how their child care programs are faring one year after applying for funds, and grantees’ plans moving forward. I synthesized the interview data and wrote a report that was distributed to CCSA’s listserv and grant funders (linked here). The bulk of my internship was spent working on early childhood homelessness. Under the guidance of CCSA’s president, I conducted a comparative analysis of how housing programs and policies and early childhood programs and policies support young children experiencing homelessness. This work also involved reviewing literature on the impact of homelessness on young children and the causes of child homelessness. I reviewed federal services and funding streams to support young children experiencing homelessness. Improving my research and report writing skills, developing my understanding of federal housing policy, and learning about early childhood policy in North Carolina were key learning themes of my internship.