Black Women Family Childcare Providers' Role as Community Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Invited Roundtable: Graduate Student Research

Abstract

The “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19) created a nationwide public health crisis in which Black men and women suffered higher contraction rates and mortality rates than any other racial/ethnic population within the United States (Carpenter, 2020; Williams, 2020). A major factor in this disproportionate impact was that workers from low-income Communities of Color were most likely to be part of the COVID-19 “essential” workforce—the laborers deemed necessary for basic societal functioning (Ray, 2020). While low-income, Black working-class communities continued to provide essential services, many Black women FCCPs remained open, risking their own health and well-being to care for the community’s children.

Author

• Crystasany Renee Turner, Erikson Institute