Grief almost upended her childcare business dream, but then Landy found a community to lean on.
With your help, Landy grew her childcare business and a connected with a community of support when she needed it the most.
Adversity can be lonely, even though many people face it again and again throughout life. With the support of others, those difficult moments become easier to endure, and they can build a community that helps overcome future challenges, too.
For Landy Pinon, that encouragement came from people who understood what she was going through.
“Even if you are having a really hard time, with help, with therapy, or with good tools and good people around, you can continue.” Landy is the founder of Cultiva Kids Childcare, which opened its second location in early 2026.
Always quick to share a smile, Landy recounts how Community Action’s Child Care Resource & Referral’s Focused Child Care Networks (FCCN)—a relationship-based support group of early learning and care professionals—gave her more than the tools for growing her business.
While Landy had worked closely with her quality improvement specialist, Alba to make her dream of a second Cultiva location a reality, the program became a lifeline during the devastating loss of her husband.
At the time of his death, Landy was operating a licensed childcare out of their home while working to launch the second location with the guidance of the FCCN. She wasn’t sure she could see it through while navigating profound grief, not only her own but that of her two sons, then a high schooler and a college junior. But Landy says she found purpose and healing by continuing to push forward, something she could only do with the support of Alba and her fellow childcare providers.
“For me, it was like a boost—like feeling that I could move forward with my projects, my work, and, at the same time, my healing,” she says.
Landy chose the name ‘Cultiva’ (to cultivate) because she wanted to create an environment where children feel secure, safe, and loved, “like little seeds that we help to grow and flourish.”
Both childcare locations are Spanish-language immersion and offer opportunities for the children to express themselves through art and enrichment activities. “I want to teach self-love,” Landy says. “We don't need to have something specific, be a certain color, or be from a certain country. Just being a human being, we are enough, and we have value.”
While it’s been rewarding to provide affordable childcare to her community, it’s also overwhelming. Community Action, and Alba in particular, have given Landy the tools to figure out all the details that come with being a small business owner. For Landy, that kind of support means even more because of where she started. “I feel like a lot of immigrant communities, not just Latinos, feel like nobody sees us. And at least having this program and people who believe in helping others, it's a big thing,” she says.
“Helping with childcare programs is like putting your love into the most important thing: our kids.” ”
She hopes to provide the same with Cultiva. “You do not imagine how much you can transform a life, not only by helping one person…you also open the way so that a person can be changing other lives.”
Landy’s goals are to continue to grow her business and to grow as a teaching professional. She is currently pursuing the next step on the Oregon Registry. Running two childcare locations, still raising one son at home, all while grieving is a lot to carry, and Landy doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Through it all, she keeps coming back to the lesson that the hardest season of her life taught her. “It’s about realizing that we aren't alone—and conveying that to others, too—so that you can achieve your goals and find the paths you need to move forward.”
While Landy came to Community Action to grow her childcare business, what she found was a network that offered that education and a circle of providers who became her community when she needed it the most.