Juleesa C. lives in Anchorage, Alaska, where she balances two full-time roles: single mom and family mentor. Her parenting journey began when she fostered a newborn boy, and later adopted him as her own. In those first fragile months, she was fortunate to rely on her mother for child care while she worked. Without that support, she would have had to take unpaid leave and drain her savings just to stay afloat.
When the Support Disappears
When Juleesa was fostering, she received child care assistance. But once the adoption was finalized, that support vanished, even though her income hadn’t changed. Suddenly, she was on her own. It took eight or nine calls before she finally found a provider willing to take her son. Today, he attends a home day care that is loving but not structured in a way that supports his developmental needs, including his speech delays.
As a family mentor, Juleesa hears stories just like her own every day. Families working hard to do everything right but still falling through the cracks. After losing her assistance, she leaned on savings and guidance from Thread, Alaska’s Child Care Resource and Referral agency, to find help. Yet most programs didn’t fit her schedule or her son’s age. Even Head Start was too expensive for full-day care. As he nears his third birthday and ages out of Alaska’s early intervention program, Juleesa is searching once again for a space that can nurture both his growth and her stability.
Turning Challenges Into Action
Families like hers don’t need luxury. They need real options, the kind that support working parents and children with diverse needs. Juleesa sees how lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care, paid leave, and mental health support affects not just individuals but entire communities. She’s juggling all of it while mentoring others doing the same, hoping that one day systems will catch up with what families truly need.
That is why Juleesa and her son Able traveled to Washington for Strolling Thunder, joining families from around the country to advocate for a better path forward. Through the Think Babies campaign from ZERO TO THREE, they are urging Congress to expand funding for child care, including the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Early Head Start, while defending essential supports like TANF, SSBG, and tax credits.
