This Inglewood parent co-op is reimagining childcare

On a sunny Friday afternoon at Blair Hills Park in Culver City, toddlers darted across a basketball court, waving colorful bold scarves and dancing to a children’s song.

They ended the activity with a resounding chant: “My feelings matter! Yes, they do!”

For these children, it’s a typical Friday. For the parents, it’s the village they created — a parent co-op where families take care of their kids together.

“ I'm gonna be quite honest, I thought it was the crunchiest thing ever,” said dad Cy Merriex-Isaacs. When he and his wife, Justice Isaacs, heard about the co-op, they were at a crossroads. The father of a 3-year-old daughter had been laid off from his job and became a stay-at-home dad while Isaacs continued working. The cost of childcare was a major part of that decision.

So, they wanted to build a parent community that they could find support in. “ ... That's when we realized there are a bunch of Black and brown folks who are looking for the same thing,” Merriex-Isaacs said.

Jade Smith was one of those parents. As a single mom raising a toddler, she was desperately craving support.

She put a callout to a WhatsApp group, made up of those she met at the local library and Mommy and Me yoga classes she taught, inviting families to essentially start a parent co-op.

Twelve families immediately said yes, and it has has nearly tripled since last year — officially becoming Earthseed Village, an Inglewood-based non-profit organization.

It was important for Smith to create a space where families like hers could access childcare without breaking the bank — and above all, where their children could be around trusted adults.

Children are dancing at Blair Hills Park as part of Earthseed Village's enrichment program.

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Earthseed Village stops short of traditional childcare. However, this tight-knit community has also naturally led to help with childcare and a network of support beyond that. The co-op is a combination of parent-led enrichment classes for children and adults, a homeschool collective that includes families with older school-age children and a built-in network for shared parenting.

Smith said she’s been able to rely on other parents in the group to take care of her son when she needs help. “Before this, I was exhausted all the time, I was in survival mode, and now my son has other adults that he can rely on, that I can rely on,” said Smith.

As the cost of child care is outpacing inflation, at times running higher than college tuition, these Southern California families have found an alternative way to look at childcare.

"We're really having to reimagine what childcare looks like because it's so expensive. It's becoming really inaccessible,” said Smith.

Parents build a program that works for them

Parent co-ops aren’t new — there are approximately 300 in California, according to E. Kim Coontz, the executive director of the California Center for Cooperative Development. Their hallmark attribute is giving parents and caregivers full autonomy to operate and design a program that fits their needs and share responsibility, Coontz said.

They all look different. Some are more informal babysitting arrangements between families, while others are fully structured educational programs that families run together, down to the administration, curriculum and policies. Most of them are generally lower cost than traditional private child care.

Earthseed Village’s weekly programming doesn’t exactly emulate traditional drop-off childcare. Parents must stay with their children during the gatherings, although sometimes extended family or nannies will accompany the children. (It recently opened a tuition-based nature school that does allow parents to drop off their children, but it’s separate from the co-op.)

Families who come to the program might be single parents, stay-at-home parents, or those who work remotely or hybrid.

Above all, Smith said it aims to be a “holistic learning community” where children and parents can explore, learn and grow together. She stressed that the goal is to prioritize the well-being of the entire family. In practice, it’s most evident during their outing at Blair Hills Park.

Koquis Moore leads the parents in the adult dance session, also known as the "hot mama dance."

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Koquis Moore, also known as Mama Koquis, leads the empowerment dances. After the children finished their program, she taught the mothers a dance class that Ekene Anene, mom to three daughters under the age of 7, dubbed the “Hot Mama Dance.”

The kids gallivanted around the playground supervised while the moms laughed and memorized their moves under the afternoon sun to Kanye West’s high-tempo song, “The New Workout Plan.”

As much as the co-op provides a safe space for kids to have fun, it tries to do the same for their parents.

How their parent co-op works

Earthseed Village has an expectation that everyone chips in one way or another and that families attend at least one weekly event.

Each family fills out a survey indicating how they’d like to contribute to the collective. Parents can host an activity for both the kids and adults, provide administrative support, or donate materials.

Their contributions shape the weekly programming, including yoga and sound baths on Mondays, math and movement on Tuesdays, and empowerment dances on Fridays. Past events included sewing, photography, and cooking classes. Most sessions take place at parks and public spaces.

There's a membership fee, ranging from $35-$55 per month, which pays for administrative support.

Parents and children are participating at Earthseed Village's dance session.

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Coontz of the California Center for Cooperative Development emphasized the high quality of care that parent co-ops can also provide within the childcare ecosystem. “I think a lot of times we discount what parents are capable of doing,” she said.

The co-op is made up of diverse families mainly based in Inglewood and South L.A., although some come from as far as the Valley, Silver Lake, Torrance and Compton.

“I've seen a lot of co-ops and alternative learning educational models, but they don't tend to reflect diversity or multicultural backgrounds,” Smith said. “That was a big driving force of why I wanted to create [this] group, 'cause I just wasn't seeing it ... I want my son to be in spaces that he sees himself in.”

The 'hidden' support the group offers

Cy Merriex and his wife were one of the original members of Earthseed Village. They became friends with Jade Smith after meeting her at the local library.

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Merriex-Isaacs, Earthseed Village’s “kid wrangler,” never expected to be part of a parent co-op.

He said it's the “hidden” support they provide one another — families picking each other up from the airport, giving someone soup when their family is sick or something as simple as sharing a loaf of bread.

It’s a “We got you” mentality that makes it a village, he said.

Allison Williams leads the Earthseed Village's storytimes on Wednesdays.

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Alison Williams, a teacher by trade, struggled to balance work and home life as a new parent. She decided to become a stay-at-home mom while her husband worked.

She heard about Earthseed Village through parent friends.

Williams grew up in a co-op, and her mom often talked to her about the importance of parent involvement and community.

Since joining in January, Williams said she’s appreciated being surrounded by parents who are in the same chapter as her, from potty training and sleep struggles to getting their children to eat their vegetables.

“It's definitely a partnership, and it allows you to have both some autonomy and voice but also don't have to take on all of the responsibility. It's a way of finding like-minded folks and then trusting that together you can figure out and create the kind of village that you want for your kids," said Williams.

Founder Jade Smith said she hopes the collective helps make the day-to-day of raising a family a little bit easier.

“As a single mom, creating community has been literally a lifeline for me,” Smith said. But she believes it’s bigger than her own family. “It just feels like we're creating a legacy.”

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