November 9, 2026 | Issue #45 | | Support of the Monday Morning Update | | For 2026 please consider a donation to help support delivery of the Monday Morning Update to your email every week by 5:30 am. Our distribution of this update is over 12,000 and growing. Your consideration is greatly appreciated. Thank you! | |
Hively Celebrates 50 Years of Community Impact
Since its founding in 1976, Hively has grown into a comprehensive support network for early childhood care providers and families throughout Alameda County, ensuring every child has access to the resources they need to thrive. Hively provides child care referrals and subsidies, training and resources for child care providers, mental health support, and essential supplies like diapers, children’s clothes and pantry staples available at the organization’s family resource centers and the Hive on Wheels, a mobile resource van.
| | Click the video above to learn about Hively's legacy in Alameda County. | | |
Led by CEO Mary Hekl since 2022, Hively has grown significantly over the past four years, innovating to develop services and programs that meet the community’s shifting needs. Hively's leadership team also includes sector leader Mona Shirk, Chief Program Officer with nearly 20 years of experience and Elaine Lenore, Chief Financial Officer, who has played a key role in Hively's growth. Hively’s staff of over 50% bilingual professionals serves the region’s diverse community with dignity, care, and compassion.
In the last year alone, Hively supported over 10,000 people across all of its programs and services, providing subsidies for 3,842 children, over $43 million in payments to child care providers, and 7,801.5 hours of therapy and case management. This year, Hively is celebrating its 50th anniversary and five decades of community impact.
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The Election Is Over. The Struggle for Working Families Is Not.
By Denyne Micheletti
CEO, Thriving Families CA Foundation
The ballots have been cast, and the 2026 election has delivered a powerful reminder: Americans are deeply concerned about their economic security, the rising cost of living, and whether elected leaders understand the daily struggles of working families.
With the election of Xavier Becerra as California's next Governor, our state enters a new chapter of leadership at a time when families are struggling to keep pace with rising costs. The opportunity before Governor-elect Becerra and the Legislature is not simply to make new commitments, but to finally deliver on promises already made.
Few promises are more consequential than ensuring families can access affordable child care and that providers are paid rates reflecting the true cost of delivering quality care.
Across California, parents face impossible choices. They weigh child care expenses against rent, groceries, transportation, and health care. Some reduce their working hours, decline employment opportunities, or leave the workforce altogether because they cannot find or afford dependable care.
For families living paycheck to paycheck, child care is not a luxury. It is the foundation of economic stability.
Yet California continues to confront a troubling contradiction. Families desperately need child care, providers struggle to remain financially viable, and hundreds of millions of dollars intended to support child care have reportedly gone unspent.
This is not simply a funding challenge. It is a systems challenge that demands meaningful reform.
California has repeatedly committed to expanding child care access and transforming reimbursement rates to reflect the actual cost of providing care. The passage of the True Cost of Childcare Act represents an important step toward that commitment. But legislation and promises alone do not pay providers, stabilize programs, or create additional child care opportunities for families.
Providers cannot be expected to deliver quality care, compensate their workforce fairly, meet increasing regulatory requirements, and keep their doors open when reimbursement rates fail to reflect their actual operating costs.
Equally important, increasing reimbursement rates without expanding access leaves too many families behind.
California must pursue both priorities together: pay providers what it truly costs to provide care and ensure substantially more families can actually receive it.
That requires protecting existing child care investments, immediately redirecting unspent funding to unmet needs, removing unnecessary administrative barriers, and strengthening the community-based organizations that connect families with services.
It also requires acknowledging that child care does not exist in isolation. Families struggling with housing instability, food insecurity, transportation challenges, and rising health care costs need coordinated support systems that
recognize the interconnected realities of their lives.
Governor-elect Becerra brings extensive experience in public service and health and human services leadership. His administration will have an opportunity to translate California's longstanding commitments into measurable outcomes: sustainable provider reimbursement, more children served, fewer families waiting, and a system that responds to need rather than administrative limitations.
At a time of federal funding uncertainty and competing state budget pressures, the temptation may be to delay difficult decisions. But working families cannot afford another cycle of promises without implementation.
The measure of California's commitment to children and families should not be how much funding is announced, but how many families actually receive care and whether providers can sustainably deliver it.
The election is over. The responsibility to govern has begun.
Now is the time to turn promises into progress, investments into access, and California's commitment to working families into a reality they can finally experience.
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Candidates Who Engaged With TFC And Were Elected
Congratulations to the winning candidates who took the time to engage with the Thriving Families CA Foundation during this election cycle! We want to thank you for participating in our candidate survey or attending a community site visit. We appreciate your willingness to learn more about the issues impacting California’s economy and your commitment to engaging with the local organizations and their communities. We wish you success in your new roles and look forward to continued conversations about strengthening support for California's working families!
Stay tuned for future updates as ballots continue to be counted.
Candidate site visits facilitated by TFC Foundation are nonpartisan and do not constitute an endorsement of any candidate.
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Thank You to Our Generous 2024-25 Thriving Families CA Foundation Champions!
Thank you to the following Champions who stepped up in 2024-25, with funding to enhance our ability to serve the field. These agencies have made it possible for TFC to support our field with more tailored support of individual organizations, ability to pay for legal, advocacy and social media supports, enhanced regional trainings, improving data collection, and more.
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