Economic Stability

Use the key issues below as a guide to find related data, research or other resources in your work:

Key Issue 1: The decades-long failure to invest in critical health care, child care, economic supports and other services that parents and our nation’s youngest children need to survive and develop into healthy, thriving adults is not just holding back America’s economic potential. It is creating more sickness, poverty and inequality.
Key Issue 2: When all families and children have equitable access to resources like housing, it not only lifts the whole economy, but guarantees stronger, healthier and more resilient communities for generations to come.
Key Issue 3: Families are the foundation of a thriving country and economy, and they need our help. By addressing the root causes of family economic insecurity, and ensuring that every family with young children can afford the basic necessities of food, health care, housing and transportation, we lay the foundation for future success.

Materials from the following partners were used in the development of the guiding message points in this chapter:

Key Issue 1: Importance of investment in support services

Key Issue 1: The decades-long failure to invest in critical health care, child care, economic supports and other services that parents and our nation’s youngest children need to survive and develop into healthy, thriving adults is not just holding back America’s economic potential. It is creating more sickness, poverty and inequality.

The PN-3 period is the most crucial for children’s development. Their rapidly developing brain and biological systems are deeply impacted by their early experiences. Investments in services—from health care and nutrition to social, economic and child care supports—that bolster this rapid period of brain development will not only help create future health, well-being and learning, but will also have widespread ripple effects on our economy and communities.

Strong communities start with strong families. Investing in young children’s health and care pays off for all of us. Babies grow up healthier. Parents have more opportunities to work. Communities are more connected, and our economy gets stronger. For every dollar spent on high-quality programs that support young children from birth, there is a 13% annual return in economic benefits in areas such as reduced health care costs and less crime. Countries that fail to invest in the well-being of women and children in the first 1,000 days (pregnancy through the baby’s second birthday) lose billions of dollars to lower economic productivity and higher health costs. Investing in families is an investment in our communities and our future.

If we do not make large-scale investments in infrastructure to support parents and our youngest children during this stage of development, we will not spur an equitable and lasting economic recovery or address the health crisis and racial inequalities that today threaten our nation’s future.

Key Issue 2: Equitable access is essential

Key Issue 2: When all families and children have equitable access to resources like housing, it not only lifts the whole economy, but guarantees stronger, healthier and more resilient communities for generations to come.

Social and economic disparities force millions of renters and their families to make tough choices between paying the rent and paying for heating, food and other essentials. According to a 2023 Census Pulse survey, over 5.2 million U.S. households—with over 5.7 million children in those households—were behind on rent. People of color, Indigenous peoples and people with lower incomes continuously bear the brunt of this stress. The percentage of renters considered to be cost-burdened has risen in recent years, paying as much as 50% or more of their annual income on rent. When families are forced to allocate the majority of their income to housing, they have less money to spend on other critical needs such as food, transportation and child care.

We have seen that change is possible–and now needs to be sustained. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) provided a robust, comprehensive package of relief measures to reduce housing instability, homelessness and other hardship for families with young children in communities across the country. This funding proved that we can find ways to prioritize building accessible and available infrastructure.

Key Issue 3: Families are the foundation of a thriving country and economy

Key Issue 3: Families are the foundation of a thriving country and economy, and they need our help. By addressing the root causes of family economic insecurity, and ensuring that every family with young children can afford the basic necessities of food, health care, housing and transportation, we lay the foundation for future success.

Families need a range of equitable policies that ensure they can support their young children and access safe and stable housing, nutritious food, clothing and books, along with high-quality child care, early education, mental health and health care.

People live in economic insecurity when systems fail them and they are denied that access. Generations of inequitable policies mean that Black families are three times as likely to be affected by poverty compared to White families. Latinx families are twice as likely to experience poverty. This makes it even more challenging to meet the most basic of needs. When families are forced into situations that cause high levels of uncertainty, there’s increased emotional distress among both parents and children.

This has a cascading, generational impact on our society. The pandemic resulted in large losses in earnings for families and a serious loss in productivity for our economy. Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other families of color were hit particularly hard by the pandemic. And while some of those numbers are back to pre-pandemic levels, the gains have not been spread evenly. Policies like the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, paid family leave and access to affordable health care are proven methods for reducing poverty.

Data/Proof Points

Housing Matters' Pregnant and Homeless: How Unstable Housing Affects Maternal Health Outcomes: Research shows that pregnancy can increase a person’s risk of homelessness, and pregnant women face greater health risks while unstably housed. Although pregnant women experiencing homelessness are covered under Medicaid, their unique health needs and patterns of health care use are not well understood. To help fill this knowledge gap, this study analyzed differences in the mental and physical health conditions and use of health care among women who entered emergency shelters during or shortly after pregnancy, compared with a similar group who did not enter the shelter system.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: When crafting messaging and policies surrounding PN-3, it's important not to forget about the social determinants like housing. Research like this can create greater awareness on how to improve maternal health outcomes.

NCIT's case for Investing in Prenatal to Age Three: This comprehensive two-pager makes an evidence-based case for greater investment in PN-3. Using research and other proof points, this case study argues that with increased support in their earliest years, infants will grow into healthy kids who are confident, empathetic and ready for school and life—and our communities, workforce and economy will become stronger and more productive.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: This is a simple and easy tool that highlights how healthy beginnings, supported families, and high-quality child care and early learning are the three main ingredients to supporting healthy development by age three. It can be used as a brief explainer and overview on the brain science behind PN-3 investment for a range of audiences from advocates outside the community to policymakers.
RAPID-EC Survey Project's data on how The Child Tax Credit Is Buffering Families from Financial Hardship: December 2021 data from RAPID-EC shows how households with young children have used the expanded Child Tax Credit payments to meet their basic needs and pay for other essentials, like unpaid bills and child care. Findings show that households who have received the monthly CTC payments report less financial hardship than those who did not get the payments.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: As we continue to advocate for extended child tax credits, data such as this from RAPID-EC can be used to demonstrate the benefits of federal investment in social programs to promote the health and well-being of children and their families.

ZERO TO THREE and NCIT's Economic Security Message Brief: This brief is meant to serve as a source of research-tested messaging and broad policy guidance to help members craft messages and materials to speak with policymakers and other stakeholders about the need and opportunities for enacting policies that support families’ economic security.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: The language can serve as a way to (1) introduce economic security within the frame of prenatal-to-three policies, (2) show why families need support to improve their economic security, (3) provide recommendations to improve the economic security of families in your communities and (4) drive policy change by using message-tested calls to action.

ZERO TO THREE and NCIT's Paid Family and Medical Leave Message Brief: This brief is meant as a source of research-tested messaging and broad policy guidance to help members create messages and materials to speak with policymakers and other stakeholders about the need and opportunities for enacting paid family and medical leave policies.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: The language can serve as a way to (1) introduce paid family and medical leave within the framework of prenatal-to-three priorities, (2) show why families need access to paid family and medical leave, and (3) provide recommendations to enact or improve paid family and medical leave policies in your communities.

Baby’s First Years Study: Baby’s First Years is a groundbreaking study of the causal impact of monthly, unconditional cash gifts to low-income mothers and their children in the first four years of a child’s life. The study provided poor mothers with cash stipends for the first year of their children’s lives, and results show that the additional aid appears to have changed the babies’ brain activity in ways associated with stronger cognitive development—a finding with potential implications for safety-net policy.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: When making the economic argument for greater investment in PN-3 infrastructure, the Collaborative can use this study as proof that social safety-net policies such as the Child Tax Credit positively affect the lives of children and families.
National Women’s Law Center’s (NWLC) Transformative Public Investments in Child Care and Pre-Kindergarten Will Dramatically Cut Costs for Families: NWLC, along with its partners at The Century Foundation, Center for American Progress and Child Care Aware of America, developed a fact sheet that collects and shows research on how transformative public investments would greatly cut costs for families and boost economic security.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: This fact sheet provides evidence to support the following conclusions:
  - (1) Transformative investments in child care and pre-kindergarten as a public good will reduce costs for families.
  - (2) Families are struggling to afford child care.
  - (3) Even as parents struggle to afford child care, cost is subsidized by the low wages of early educators.
  - (4) The cost of child care has been rising faster than inflation for years and will continue to rise unless there is public investment.
  - (5) Child care is essential for families to maintain job security and for family incomes to rise.
  - (6) A robust national investment in affordable high-quality child care and universal pre-kindergarten will raise family incomes, greatly reduce costs, and strengthen family economic security and our economy overall.
RAPID’s report on How Child Tax Credit Payments Affected the Lives of Families with Young Children: From July to December 2021, millions of American families received monthly payments through an expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC). Throughout that period, this RAPID survey collected data from nearly 4,000 families with young children on their experiences with the CTC. RAPID now looks back at these stories to explore families’ experiences with the monthly CTC payments before, during and after their distributions.
- How to use + resources to boost your message: This report can provide valuable, qualitative proof points in making the economic argument for greater investment in child care. Additionally, the section where parents are quoted on how the CTC helped them can be powerful when crafting messaging around this issue.

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