SPOTLIGHT: Frenchy Davis and Nancy Rogers of Foundation Builders Academy, Rocky Mount, NC

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FRENCHY DAVIS Frenchy Davis, CEO of Foundation Builders Academy and the Building Equity in Early Childhood Systems (BEECS) project, is a native of Rocky Mount. He grew up in the Weeks Armstrong Projects and started attending the Boys & Girls Club when he was 8 years old, where he enjoyed playing basketball, ping pong, and swimming. Frenchy is a graduate of Shaw University with a degree in Sociology. His passion for fighting inequities and bringing change in the ECE workforce originated from some of the disadvantages he witnessed and experienced at an early age. Frenchy believes that all children deserve the same quality of education regardless of social, economic, or ethnic background.

NANCY ROGERS Nancy Rogers is Project Coordinator at Foundation Builders Academy. Nancy is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and a graduate of Kingsborough Community College, with a degree in Liberal Arts. She is a mother of six and a grandmother of 12.  Her passion is derived from some of the cultural biases she faced when she relocated. Nancy is an avid advocate for early childhood education as she recognizes and has on hands experience of the benefits.

Describe what led to the establishment of Foundation Builders Academy?

Frenchy worked arduously to bring about change in the community and in May 2017, opened Foundation Builders Academy Child Care Development Center, a child care development center that believes in high quality education for our youngest constituents - our children. We strive to build a foundation by giving children the tools they need to succeed in life by teaching cultural diversity and assisting the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development of each child. We aim to provide a safe, supportive, and nurturing environment where all children can express their creativity freely. We promise to partner with each family in the highest standards for their child’s education.

Describe your work with the Building Equity in Early Childhood Systems (BEECS) project. What are the goals of this project?

Data shows that in North Carolina, African-American and brown populations living in rural areas with higher poverty levels often suffer the worst health and education outcomes. We also know that the people most impacted by poor outcomes are not always included in creating solutions to these problems. The child care and early childhood education policies and priorities are shaped by a history of systemic and structural racism. The results create major racial disparities in children’s access to quality care that meets cultural and linguistic needs and enables parents to work. Our goal with the Building Equity in Early Childhood Systems (BEECS) project is to bring about change that would address and minimize these inequities. Some of these issues are livable wages for our educators, health benefits, affordable high-quality education for our community, and language barriers due to lack of investment in the growing Latino and bilingual households. 

What have you seen as a result of implementing the BEECS project?

Through BEECS, we have created partnerships across North Carolina that advocate for the education and well-being of our ECE sector. We have forged ahead with some amazing advocacy champions and been able to learn and collaborate as an entity with the mission of providing access to high-quality and affordable early childhood education, livable wages for our early childhood educators, and supporting the mental health and wellness of our teachers and parents.

How do you anticipate apprenticeships benefiting Foundation Builders Academy and other local providers?

Apprenticeship programs serve in such a unique and much-needed way of helping recruit, enroll, and support our future ECE workforce. It helps with incentivizing and furthering education, provides tools, resources, and a model to achieving and molding high-quality educators. In a sector where ECE is not at the forefront, we are grateful that Building Bright Futures is making ECE a priority.