CULTIVATING CHANGE
THROUGH
EMPOWERMENT
Researching ways to solve a foundational problem.
Our theory of change is exemplified in a soil-first analogy; after all, in nature, the soil must be tended before plants can grow.
In early childhood education, the “soil” includes both the people doing the work and the conditions in which the work is done. Educator depletion is driven by both the emotional demands of caregiving, and also by the financial instability embedded in the child care business model.
For that reason, Truth Education Foundation researches ways to integrate educator-first empowerment with a financial sustainability engine, ensuring that restoration is not temporary, but structurally supported. Healing cannot be sustained in systems that cannot afford to maintain it.
Research Initiative #1:
Educator-First Policy Research
Putting Educators at the Center of System Design
We research how educator-first policy design changes everything downstream.
This research is grounded in a simple but powerful premise:
Children thrive when the adults who care for them are supported, respected and resourced.
Truth Education Foundation studies how educator-first policies and practices impact:
Workforce stability and retention
Educator wellbeing, burnout reduction and professional growth
Classroom climate and emotional safety
Family trust and continuity of care
Community outcomes and economic stability
Our research proves that caring for educators is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s the starting point for sustainable early childhood systems.
Research Initiative #2:
Sustainability & Revenue Model
Designing Financial Models for Center Sustainability
High-quality child care cannot survive on tuition and subsidy alone.
Truth Education Foundation is researching and documenting a groundbreaking sustainability model that reframes child care centers as productive social infrastructure, not fragile cost centers.
By designing centers to maximize revenue and become social hubs:
Facilities can generate earned income beyond tuition
Educator compensation can be stabilized
Professional development and ownership pathways can be funded
Reliance on emergency philanthropy can decline over time
Through multipurpose community space and innovative partnerships, this model demonstrates that child care can become financially self-sustaining while deepening community integration.
This research is answering a question policymakers and funders are urgently asking: Can child care become economically stable by design?
Let’s build together.
Across the country, early childhood programs are collapsing under workforce burnout, unsustainable financial pressure, and widening racial inequities. Families struggle to find care. Educators leave the field. Communities lose critical infrastructure.
Truth Education Foundation conducts applied, real-world research inside functioning child care environments to prove what works, why it works and how it can be replicated at scale.
Early Results
We’ve partnered with a third party research firm to test our theory of change in a early childhood education center, and the results thus far have been impressive. Follow us to see how we’re expanding our research to include several other childcare facilities.
Hear it from educators working at the test site.
The ONLY thing missing isYOU!
Invest in the Research
Help us build PROOF.
Your investment fuels research exploring educator-first policies and financially viable ECE center models.
Be an important part of the solution.
Apply the Research
Put evidence into PRACTICE.
Ensure that what we’re learning doesn’t stay on paper; instead it moves into practice, policy and broader impact.
Reshape what early childhood education can be.
Activate the Research
Better YOUR learning center.
Take what’s proven to work and adopt it at your existing early childhood education facility or business.
Make your center the example others want to follow.