With half of childcare programs in New York State on the brink of permanent closure, early care and education providers’ role as advocates has never been more important.
Local leaders recently formed the Brooklyn Coalition for Early Childhood Programs to demand that Congress provide the necessary funding for child care centers, home based providers, and family child care homes to safely reopen and operate. Here is their campaign video:
Raising New York is a statewide coalition of parents, early childhood education, civil rights, business and health organizations with a focus on racial and economic equity. Their June brief Addressing New York State’s Childcare Crisis calls for the state to strategically invest the more than $134 million in existing and currently available federal CARES Act funding to rebuild, sustain, and strengthen the state’s child care system.
One of the goals of the workforce’s advocacy efforts is to make sure the childcare system that is rebuilt is stronger and more equitable than the one that we left in March. Now is the time to use the pandemic as a portal to reimagine systems of care for everyone – especially those farthest from opportunity. Our workforce has the skills and imagination to create communities that are healthy from the ground up. Leaders, teachers and providers are advocating for the funding to get to work.
