The California Child Care Justice Network (CCJN) is a coordinated five-year initiative to advance child care justice in California. The Heising-Simons Foundation’s Education program formed the Network in 2025.
CCJN’s vision is to enable California’s early learning and care system to uplift children, families, and early childhood educators so that they all can thrive.
Grounded in this vision, CCJN members use complementary strategies such as community organizing, policy advocacy, applied research, policymaker accountability, and communications and narrative change to grow the base of support for child care reform in California, and to strengthen alignment across organizations anchored in the lived experience of those most impacted by our child care system—parents and providers.
We believe a broad, coordinated, and diverse network of local, regional, and state partners working toward common goals identified by parents and providers will improve California’s child care system.
Our goals are to:
Child care justice is a vision and practice that:
Child care justice signals the Education program’s commitment to power‑building, to standing with communities historically pushed to the margins, and to forging stronger alliances with allied movements. To achieve child care justice in California, we must create the conditions in which providers are resourced so that children flourish, families are strengthened, and communities across California thrive—now and for generations to come.
The Foundation’s Education program sees child care justice as the pathway to a California where every child, family, and early educator can thrive. At the moment, child care in California faces serious threats—higher costs for families, fear in our communities, and a weaker system overall. Now is the time to unite and protect hard-won progress, while building the vision and infrastructure for a stronger child care system tomorrow.
The Heising-Simons Foundation is now accepting applications from eligible groups and projects to join the California Child Care Justice Network. Applicants must have a physical address in California to apply. As long as you are a fiscally sponsored project with an address in California, your fiscal sponsor does not need an address in California to apply.
Applications are due by June 18, 2026, at 11am Pacific Time.
For more information on eligibility and review criteria, application process, timeline, and how to apply, visit the application guidelines.
A copy of the review sheet that will be used to score applications can be found here.
Questions? Email [email protected] from May 11 to June 12, 2026. We will respond to all questions by email and will update the FAQ document on a rolling basis.