New York first · Waitlist open everywhere
Three lives, one afternoon.
Braid matches retired New Yorkers with families who need care after school. One carer, two children, in the carer’s own home. It holds because all three strands are there — a child who is properly looked after, a parent who can keep working, and someone who is no longer alone on a Tuesday.
Two children. Never more.
A kitchen table instead of a room of thirty. The same face at the school gate every week, who knows what they are reading and who they fell out with.
Paid properly, or not at all.
$18 an hour as a real W-2 job — or a volunteered afternoon through our foundation. The benefits are identical either way.
A week that actually works.
Afternoons covered, food handled, and a cost that does not quietly consume one of your two salaries.
Four ways in
Whoever you are, the first step is the same: put your name down. We are pre-launch, so nothing here asks you for money or commits you to anything.
Work with us
For retired people who have worked with children — classroom teachers, substitutes, paraprofessionals, childcare workers, and those who simply raised a family well.
$18/hr, W-2, your own hoursVolunteer an afternoon
Through our foundation, for children whose families qualified for a State childcare voucher and are still waiting on a list that was never funded.
Same benefits as paid carersFind care for your family
Weekday afternoons, school holidays, and the occasional Saturday — with two carers covering your week so one appointment never collapses it.
Under $1,000/mo if your employer sponsorsPartner with us
Employers buying a block of places for staff, companies sponsoring the foundation, and unions or agencies who want to talk at the level of an agreement.
Sponsor, buy places, or build an agreementWhere we actually are
Braid is pre-launch. We have not hired a carer, taken a dollar from a family, or signed an agreement with anyone. That is deliberate — we would rather the people who will live inside this design it before it exists than review it after it does.
What we are building right now is the waitlist on both sides, in New York first. If you are somewhere else, put your name down anyway: where the lists get long is where we go next.
- — carers waiting
- — volunteers
- — families
- — children
- — partner organisations