BOLD GOAL: affordable, quality care for ALL VA families by 2030
Advocacy is becoming our middle name here at Common Ground and we need you to add your voice too! Quality care and early childhood education, like the kind that you receive for your children, shouldn’t be a privilege for only those who can afford it (or even just barely afford it!), it should be a right, granted to all children. Quality early childhood programs support a strong economy in
It’s EASY, just click the link below!
What it is: The Virginia Promise Partnership is a coalition of leading organizations who believe all children deserve a strong start and a promising future, beginning with access to quality child care.With this vision in mind, they have established a bold goal—ensuring all Virginia families have access to affordable quality child care by 2030. The Virginia Promise Partnership seeks to achieve this goal by pushing for the long-term policies and resources needed to give all of our children access to the programs they need to realize their full potential.
What you can do: Sign the promise for the Bold Goal at https://www.vapromisepartnership.com/ as an individual or as an organization!
After signing on as a Promise Maker, they will:
• Keep you informed of Virginia Promise Partnership efforts
• Extend invitations to Virginia Promise Partnership events
• Feature your company / organization logo
on the Virginia Promise Partnership website
and material
• Promote your company / organization through social
media as a leader in standing up for Virginia’s children
and families
Here is a link for a one pager with more information: MORE INFO
An Opportunity for Parents to Get Involved
We received the following request, passed along through NVAEYC, as an opportunity for parents of young children to get involved. If you would like to participate, please use the form under the request:
I’m reaching out to see if you can help VECF build a parent advisory group that will advise the Virginia Promise Partnership and its bold goal of ensuring access to quality, affordable child care for all families in Virginia by 2030.
We are committed to ensuring that parents of young children, birth through five, from diverse geographic, socioeconomic, racial, and linguistic backgrounds have the opportunity to inform this important work. And, while we have been grateful to have received nominations from some parts of the state, we want to be sure that parents in the communities you serve also have a voice.
The ask: To participate in an advisory group which would entail a commitment of an average one two-hour Zoom meeting a month (schedule to be determined) to help inform and shape policy decisions and development as we push for an equitable, accessible child care system for all Virginia parents. VECF would provide appropriate compensation for their time and contributions.
Can you think of a parent or two that you would recommend for this important task? If possible, it would be super helpful to have the following information about each recommended parent to make sure we are meeting our diversity goals: name, email address, region/community, race/ethnicity, home language, and number and age range of children/grandchildren. We’d love to have a list from which we can reach out to a selection of parents by April 16.
Feel free to send your suggestions my way! I have also copied Kathy Glazer on this email in case you have questions she could answer about this request. We’re hoping to get this group of parents together in the next couple weeks, so we would very much appreciate receiving your suggestions soon.
Thanks so much!
Alyson
________________________________________________
Alyson Williams, Ed.D.
Community Liaison for Mixed Delivery Grants
Virginia Early Childhood Foundation
1703 North Parham Road, Suite 110
Richmond, Virginia 23229
alyson@vecf.org
804.358.8323 ext. 103 (While our office is currenty virtual, this number will forward to my cell phone.)
VECF is redoubling our efforts to listen, learn, and act with intentionality to dispel racial injustice and economic disparity, internally and in all aspects of our work building equitable and durable early childhood systems. We ask that our partners and investors hold us accountable for these commitments.
Common Ground adds our voice!
For those of you who haven’t figured this our yet, I am a very passionate person that loves to share information! It was that drive that caused me to join Beautycounter - a personal care product company with a social mission to make all personal care products safer (see more here) - in 2014. I was excited that it was more than a business, more than a job, it was a chance to add my voice to something that I believed in, and really begin to affect change in Washington! 7 years in, I’m still more excited about the mission than selling the products (as amazing as they are!).
I bring that up, because my experience lobbying for legislation in the personal care product industry, has opened up a door with NAEYC to lobby for legislation to support child care.
I was chosen out of hundreds of applicants to be a part of the NVAEYC 2021 Advocacy Leadership Training Program. With this came a registration to the 2021 NAEYC Public Policy Forum this past weekend.
I am excited to announce that I will be representing Common Ground at three meetings this week with our federal leaders - Representative, Gerry Connolly, Senator Mark Warner and Senator Tim Kaine - to advocate for NAEYC’s three key messages:
Funding child care is money well spent.
Relief and recovery investments in child care are needed.
It’s time to sustainably and substantially invest in early childhood education and educators as part of America’s core infrastructure.
NAEYC is asking for bipartisan support of the American Rescue Plan, the covid relief bill that includes $39B in support for child care, and that our senators co-sponsor the Child Care for Working Families Act in 2021.
The pandemic highlighted the fact that child care has been underfunded. It’s time to not only get us through the pandemic, but use it as a launching pad to create the early childhood education that is necessary for the future of our county.
You may be wondering, what kind of investment do we need?
After doing some research, it seems that number comes in between $140-200B annually.
That funding will work to ensure that everyone has access to quality early childhood educational experiences by investing in the backbone of the industry - the early childhood educator. Teachers in early childhood are professional educators. However, they are not paid professional salaries.
While Common Ground already compensates our teachers above the benchmark for their positions in the industry and provides benefits that generally aren’t available in the child care industry, its an uphill battle, with parents shouldering the cost burden of quality care and education without federal funding.
I look forward to sharing more of the advocacy work that I am doing on behalf of Common Ground - as well as sharing future successes with our community!
-Miss Liz