Graue and her colleagues are collaborating on a project titled, “We Care for Dane Kids.”

Last April, Schmidt Futures, a venture facility for public benefit founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, awarded UW–Madison $1.5 million to produce innovative ideas over two rounds of competition for increasing the net income of 10,000 Dane County families by 10 percent. The project is known as DreamUp Wisconsin, and is part of Schmidt Futures’ Alliance for the American Dream.

The university solicited proposals requiring partnerships between the campus and community. After review by a 12-person committee made up of community leaders and university faculty and staff, three finalists were chosen to pitch their ideas in Phoenix on Jan. 29.

Graue is the Sorenson Professor with the School of Education’s No. 1-ranked Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and the director of the newly launched Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (CRECE). The initiative she is involved with will utilize a multi-pronged approach to transforming the early childhood and after school care sectors that would supplement income for workers and child care costs, reduce operating expenses for facilities, and create a child care benefit program.

Child care and out-of-school time care is expensive and hard to find, but absolutely essential to how our county’s economy functions. Despite the critical role this sector plays in our community, the workers who do this work still don’t earn enough. This team is looking to find ambitious solutions to the dramatic under-investment in child care and out-of-school time.

In addition to Graue and the UW–Madison School of Education, the team working on this project also includes people from the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association, Reach Dane, the UW–Madison School of Social Work, the City of Madison, and Madison Out-of-School Time

In the national competition, Schmidt Futures has committed to further support the efforts of at least one team from each of the four partnering universities: UW–Madison, the Ohio State University, Arizona State University, and the University of Utah. The winners will be given the chance to further develop their plans and compete for funding to support a full-scale implementation in summer 2019. A second round of competition will take place beginning in early 2019.

DreamUp Wisconsin will host a showcase later this winter to celebrate advancing teams and promote the range of high-quality proposals in this year’s challenge, with the goal of securing alternative funding and resources for those ideas.

To learn more, check out this University Communication’s news release.

Learn more about DreamUp Wisconsin, the Alliance for the American Dream and Schmidt Futures.