They Were One Disaster from Losing It All. Now Disasters Keep Coming.

I wrote an article featuring two home-based child care providers who lost their homes in the January 2025 Los Angeles (LA) County wildfires. Their experiences helped demonstrate the narrative’s statement, “Chasing the American Dream has become a nightmare. For most people and families, working hard and saving isn’t enough anymore.” In this case, “nightmare” was literal. Both providers lost their homes and businesses in one natural disaster.

The piece shows how the two providers are still struggling to rebuild after losing everything. Their challenges mirror a national crisis, where child care providers everywhere are facing their own versions of disaster. This piece offers a counter-narrative of hope. Rather than accepting disaster as normal, the story reframes the American Dream around community care and support. As the narrative statement says, “Such community-based support does not have to be solely in times of emergency. It can be the way we do things every day.”

The piece concludes with a charge: “Let’s Create More Ways to Reach the American Dream.”

Sample Reader Comment

• “I’m struck by how some communities face disaster after disaster, and each one both drains their existing wealth and makes it harder to build back new wealth. How can anyone pursue the American dream or a better life with this kind of instability? … Community support is everything when that wealth isn’t there.”