About Us
Powered by the Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach, an independent nonprofit launched in 2017 to support education throughout the Greater Long Beach area, the Long Beach Early Learning Hub is a collaborative effort to increase access to childcare, stabilize the childcare industry, and support the local economy by changing the system in which families access childcare through the development of a centralized enrollment system and universal childcare application.
The Hub Concept
The Hub is a result of decades of strong partnership in the Long Beach Early Care and Education (ECE) sector. The concept for the Hub emerged in the 2018 Long Beach Early Childhood Education Strategic Plan and is being brought to fruition through a partnership with the Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach, the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, and the Long Beach ECE Committee (LBECE).
The Hub is designed to be a public/private partnership garnering support from private philanthropy, the nonprofit sector, the business community (including individual childcare providers), and public/civic partners (such as current investments through the City of Long Beach Recovery Act and LBUSD).
The Hub streamlines the childcare enrollment process, connects families to tuition support, improves ECE data tracking, and provide resources while alleviating administrative burdens put on childcare providers. It will also provide a mechanism for employers to invest in the childcare needs of their employees as a means to assist with business retention and growth.
Ultimately, the Hub facilitates greater availability of early learning and childcare options and allow more families to participate in the workforce, ensuring a strong economy and promoting positive long-term health and educational outcomes for children.
Overview & History
For decades, a broad-based, cross-sector collaborative comprised of early learning and childcare programs, educators, advocates, parents, the Long Beach Unified School District, special education, health and mental health professionals, along with businesses, City officials, and philanthropic organizations, have been gathering to support the childcare sector and early childhood education (ECE) through the Long Beach ECE Committee (LBECE).
These efforts were catalyzed to new levels in 2015 when the City hired an ECE Coordinator, which has grown into a dedicated ECE Department housed in the Department of Health and Human Services. (Long Beach has one of only three city-run health departments in California).
In addition, Long Beach has a strong network of family childcare providers, multiple active private foundations, two institutes of higher education (Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach) offering both early education programs for families and several ECE related degree paths, and countless other private and public early education facilities serving young children and their families. Long Beach is truly a unique and special place.
The Long Beach Early Childhood Strategic Plan
Building upon collaborations and a long history of ECE plans, the 2018 Long Beach ECE Strategic Plan was developed. The Plan is centered on equity, data-driven, and informed by the community. Development included 33 focus groups and interviews, including parents (parents of children with special needs, Spanish and Khmer speaking parents, African American parents, the LGBTQIA+ community, fathers, foster parents, and parents living in Central, West, and North Long Beach, some of our city’s historically under-resourced communities), ECE providers, community partners (library, police, pediatricians), and Elected Officials. This collaborative network worked together to highlight the resource-scarce environments in which the ECE sector often operates and elevate the expertise and solutions held by people with firsthand experiences working with young children, families, and childcare providers.
The ECE Strategic Plan provides a road map for continued success and demonstrates the establishment of shared goals across our community. It is through this planning process the concept for the Long Beach Early Learning Hub was born (Goal 2, objective 1).
A few short years after the Strategic Plan launch, the Covid-19 pandemic turned our education and childcare worlds upside down. While childcare was deemed essential, providers struggled to keep their doors open and families struggled to connect with available services. As our city grappled with the recovery, leaders made the bold choice to invest in early childhood education through the development of a new centralized enrollment Hub…
Check out the press release: City of Long Beach announces investment in Early Learning Hub.
To learn more, please watch the video or view plan.
Our People
Our team is comprised of members of the Mayor’s Fund for Education working in collaboration with our early learning partners.
The Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach’s Early Learning Team
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Karissa Selvester
Executive Director
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Whitney Leathers
Chief Impact Officer
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Yesenia A. Hernandez
Early Learning Program Coordinator
Long Beach Early Learning Hub Advisory Committee
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Jennifer Allen
Executive Director
Long Beach Day Nursery -
Pamela Austin
Executive Director
Children Today -
Michelle Byerly
Executive Director
The NonProfit Partnership -
Elisa Coburn
Preschool Director
Un Mundo de Amigos Preschool -
Dora Jacildo
Executive Director
Child Lane -
Joelle Landazabal
Program Administrator III
Children’s Home Society -
Mary Lopez
Family Child Care Network Manager
Child Lane -
Alejandra Moses
Early Childhood Education Coordinator
Long Beach Health & Human Services -
Michelle Ramirez
Director of Program, Community Relations
Little Owl School -
Karissa Selvester
Executive Director
Mayor’s Fund for Education -
Sarah Soriano
Executive Director
Young Horizons -
Cindy Young
Senior Director; Early Childhood Education and Expanded Learning
Long Beach Unified School District
Hub Supporters
Our Partners
