About Us

Thank you to our Seed Funders:

Jacques M Littlefield Foundation

And to our Planning Partners:

Build Up formed in response to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation's 2016 Child Care and Preschool Task Force, a multi-sector group that recommended solutions to the child care shortage and identified a need for a coordinated, cross-agency approach, supported by paid staff, to work on closing the gap. Build Up has the following goals, mapped to the Task Force’s recommendations:

  1. Work across sectors to reuse/re-designate existing space to increase the number of early learning spaces.
  2. Work with cities and county on policies and incentives to prioritize child care in future developments.
  3. Engage large employers to create child care facilities for employees.
  4. Generate revenue for facility development, and assist providers in drawing down existing funds.

Leadership for the initiative is being provided by: First 5 San Mateo County, the Child Care Coordinating Council, the County of San Mateo, the San Mateo County Office of Education and the Center for Early Learning at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Build Up utilizes paid staff, volunteer community advocates, and a high-level, cross-sector Advisory Body to work with cities, developers, employers, school districts, and faith-based organizations to increase child care.

Assemblymember Kevin Mullin serves as the honorary chair for the Advisory Body, and he recorded these opening remarks for the kick-off Advisory Body meeting in January 2018.

The following document outlines the initiative's organizational structure and Advisory Body.

Build_Up_Org_Structure_6.pdf

In less than a year, Build Up Partners have been involved in new pipeline projects totaling more than 850 new child care spaces. The following timeline shows recent developments and accomplishments.

Build_Up_Timeline_05-02-18.pdf

The Build Up initiative is proceeding in three phases:

  1. Planning , 2017: Identifying funders.
  2. Start Up, 2017 - 2018: Ramping up staff to grow initiative by: Tracking and supporting new real estate and child care development; communicating needs assessment findings and Task Force recommendations to a wide audience; identifying resources for building facilities; and expanding partners and allies from other sectors.
  3. Sustaining, 2019 and beyond: Demonstrate results by: Increasing the number of child care spaces; improving city and county policies for child care development; generating sustainable funding for creation and renovation of facilities; ensuring a meaningful role for Advisory Body and Lead Partners/Funders; Integrating with quality improvement efforts to raise the quality of early learning programs.

Build Up has developed the following set of three-year start up goals and action steps:

Build_Up_Goals_Action_Steps.docx