As a former elementary school teacher of 30 years, Karen Kreigsman is no stranger to spending her days with young children. Even in retirement, that hasn’t changed much.
“Two years after I retired, my first grandson was born, and there were limited infant spots available in daycare, so I volunteered to keep him,” Kreigsman recalled. “Two years later, another baby was born, followed by a third. I wasn’t working, I was available and I was grateful to be in a position to help.”
Today, Kreigsman provides Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) childcare for her three grandchildren, ages three, five and six, from her Transylvania County home while her daughter and son-in-law work. Their days begin with nature walks, followed by trips to the library or park. After lunch and rest time comes reading, arts and crafts, STEM activities, board games and plenty of outdoor play before the day winds down at dinnertime.
FFN providers offer license-exempt, home-based childcare for children of family members, friends and neighbors. FFN care is especially common in rural regions where licensed childcare centers are few and far between. With unique benefits to parents such as affordability, cultural familiarity and flexibility for those who may work long or nontraditional hours, the number of children being cared for in FFN settings across North Carolina is estimated to be close to 300,000 each day.
A Childcare Desert
In Western North Carolina, childcare can be hard to find.
“More kids are being born in our community every year than there are open spots at daycare centers,” said Chelsea Stewart, children and family programs manager at Smart Start of Transylvania County (SSTC). “FFN care really covers this gap. Over 64% of kids in North Carolina ages 0 to 6 are cared for in this capacity alone.”
Across the state, the strain on families is well-documented. In the NC Chamber’s 2024 Untapped Potential in NC Report, 35% of parents who experienced work disruptions because of childcare issues said they ultimately left the workforce. To help address these challenges, Dogwood Health Trust has invested more than $38 million in early care and education partners, including $12.6 million to strengthen the early care workforce, expand access to quality childcare and improve working conditions across the industry.
FFN care is one important part of that solution. Since 2023, Dogwood has awarded Smart Start of Transylvania County two grants totaling $700,000 to strengthen and connect FFN providers through a formal network and broader advocacy efforts.
Connecting Caregivers
Despite the critical role FFN providers play, many face financial strain, limited benefits, regulatory barriers and little access to professional development or early childhood resources.
SSTC’s FFN Network was created to help fill those gaps through classes, workshops and regular gatherings tailored specifically for home-based caregivers. Transylvania County’s network currently serves about 60 providers who care for 180 children aged six and under on a daily basis.
Even as a longtime educator, Kreigsman said the network has helped her stay current on the latest resources and connected to other FFN providers.
“At the beginning, it felt a bit like my home was an under-equipped daycare,” she laughed. “I raised three children of my own, but since they’re all grown up, I didn’t have a lot of things on hand. Learning through this network, getting ideas, connecting to resources and discovering things you can do with the kids has given me an invaluable support system.”
The Dogwood grant also enables active FFN Network members to earn incentives that offset the costs of items such as educational supplies, groceries and field trips. Stewart said the network is gaining both traction and credibility as a sought-after resource in the community.
“We try to provide a professional early childhood education atmosphere for our FFN network, and I’ve worked really hard building trust with them and centering their provider voice so they can tell me what they need,” Stewart said. “It’s such a wonderful thing to get to work with these families.”
Studying the Sector
SSTC also used its grant funding to better understand FFN care across Western North Carolina through its recently published Regional Research Project.
“Initially, conducting this research was somewhat of a pipe dream for us,” said Eileen Mouyard, SSTC executive director. She added that the formal study helped to better gauge the realities of FFN care across the region while strengthening family leadership and engagement.
“These are FFN providers. We need to look at them differently through the lens of significant childcare providers, not just primary parental or kinship care,” Mouyard said. “That mindset shift and narrative change is important to the future of FFN care.”
SSTC’s report showed that FFN childcare providers are motivated by a blend of personal, familial and financial factors, offering care that is deeply relational, flexible and highly valued by families. Investing in FFN care strengthens not only child development and family stability but also community resilience, highlighting the essential role they play in Western North Carolina.
“This research was necessary because FFN has been historically unrecognized and unregulated in our state,” remarked Aiyanna Lollis, SSTC’s director of communications and advocacy. “There just wasn’t a lot of data to help educate people about it in our region.”
As communities across Western North Carolina pursue solutions to the childcare crisis, FFN care is proving to be more than a stopgap. Mouyard asserts that it provides a critical component of the early childhood landscape; one that has long existed, but is only now beginning to receive the recognition, resources and support it deserves.
“This is something that is really working for us here in Transylvania County,” Mouyard reflected. “We’re developing a model that can be replicated by peers within their communities. And it goes back to an ethos we’ve always had about meeting families exactly where they are.”
