The Couch Family Foundation Names Inaugural Executive Director
Sara Vecchiotti Joins the Foundation to Grow ECE Strategy Statewide
Hanover NH, April 6, 2023 – The Couch Family Foundation has selected Sara Vecchiotti, Ph.D., Esq. as their inaugural Executive Director to lead the Foundation and help grow its early care and education strategy statewide. Vecchiotti begins the position April 10, after serving eight years with the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) in New York, most recently as its vice president. Her responsibilities included research, program and grant development and monitoring, and communication strategies.
Prior to FCD, Vecchiotti was COO at Lutheran Social Services of New York overseeing all social service programs including early care and education (ECE), special education, child welfare, immigration services, homeless housing, among other issues. She also worked with NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services, Division of Child Care, and Head Start – where she helped transform early care and education systems and improve the quality of care for the city’s young children.
“What makes Sara ideal for this role at this pivotal moment in the Foundation’s history is her previous work at national, state, and municipal levels to develop and scale early care and education systems,” states Couch Family Foundation Co-Founder and Trustee, Barbara Couch. “Sara’s leadership experience in philanthropy, grantmaking, government, and as a direct social service provider offers her the capacity to link research, policy, practice, and advocacy to shape the early care and education landscape across the state, while supporting the Foundation’s ongoing community grantmaking throughout the Upper Valley.”
Richard and Barbara Couch are the founders and long-time leaders of Hypertherm, a manufacturer and global distributor of innovative industrial cutting products and software. The company is based in New Hampshire’s Upper Valley and is now a 100% employee-owned company with a highly regarded reputation for its corporate culture and social responsibility.
Since 2002, the Couch Family Foundation has partnered with organizations serving the Upper Valley Region of New Hampshire and Vermont to improve children’s health and well-being, early learning and development, family resiliency, and community vibrancy.
“Over the past three years, the Early Care and Education Association has grown to be a network of over 150 licensed childcare centers and family childcare providers in the Greater Upper Valley Region with the sustained and generous support of the Couch Family Foundation,” notes association Executive Director, Amy Brooks. “The Foundation gave us the space and time to build trust and empower providers to lead this work in bold and innovative directions to advance advocacy and strategic supports for quality improvement, business sustainability, and the recruitment, development, and retention of the early educator workforce.” Brooks continues, “The Foundation has truly been a lifeline for providers during a challenging time and we are excited to continue our partnership in ways that have real impact for children and families.”
Sustained and intentional investments in the early childhood education and care sector works. Between 2017 and 2021 the Upper Valley was able to maintain its licensed childcare capacity despite an 11 percent decline in the number of licensed providers (family-based childcare providers closed at twice the rate as center-based providers). Overall, providers in the Upper Valley were more stable during that period than providers in either state outside of the Upper Valley.
But the scarcity of quality affordable childcare for young children is clearly a crisis in New Hampshire and across the country. Childcare costs are expensive, with the median per-child cost for full-time early childhood education ranging between $10,000 and $14,000 a year, depending on a child’s age.
Many families with two children are consuming upwards of one-third their household income on childcare. Because of the high costs of operating a childcare business, however, parent tuitions are often subsidized by early educators who are among the lowest paid workers in the labor force.
In New Hampshire the average early educator earns less than $25,000 per year, forcing many to rely on government benefits to access food, housing, and health care for their families. This is fueling a statewide staffing shortage that further constrains access to childcare for working parents.
Of the more than 75,000 children under age six in New Hampshire, about 54,000 live in households where all available parents work. About 40 percent (21,000) of those children who may need care are unable to access one of the 33,000 licensed childcare slots for children under age six in the state.
Those who need care the most are often the least able to access care. Unmet childcare needs are highest across Coos, Sullivan, and Cheshire counties, areas with the lowest estimated median household incomes in the state.
The high cost and limited access to childcare has a disproportionate impact on working women. Labor force participation among young women ages 25 to 34 has declined by 10 percent since the beginning of the pandemic at a time when the state has about 6,000 fewer workers than its pre-pandemic levels. By some estimates, increasing labor force participation among women could add an additional $1 billion annually to New Hampshire’s GDP.
“It’s an inequitable system that isn’t working for anyone – parents, providers or businesses – and most importantly, our children,” Barbara Couch said.
Building on the Foundation’s momentum in the Upper Valley, encouraged by the crucial work happening across the state and the nation, and energized by insights gathered from early childhood experts, partners, providers, communities, and families, the Foundation stands ready to deepen their impact statewide. Couch states, “We believe that the most direct path to a future where all of New Hampshire’s children thrive – no matter their place, race, or socio-economic status – is to invest in early care and education, and to center equity at its heart.”
Achieving the Foundation’s vision for New Hampshire will require a tailored, responsive, and multisystemic approach. Vecchiotti states, “The role provides a singular opportunity to work together to promote healthy, enriching early childhood development for all children in the state that I love. Building and scaling high-quality early education and care responsive to racially, ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse children and their families, and meeting the needs of children, especially those in families with low incomes, enhances the well-being of New Hampshire’s young children.
About The Couch Family Foundation
The Couch Family Foundation invests in, supports, and advocates for equitable early care and education, so that all of New Hampshire’s children have equal opportunities to thrive. Informed by community-centric research, inspired by the relationships we build across the full spectrum of the state’s children’s early care and education sector, the Couch Family Foundation funds innovative, scalable community programs, and advocates for access now – and equity always.