In her inauguration speech, State Senator Robyn Kennedy talked about the importance of investing in early childhood programs. She also appeared earlier this month on Strategies for Children’s 9:30 call as part of our “First Year Tour” meet-and-greet with newly elected legislators. Click on the white arrow below to hear her speech or read her tweet.
Archive for the ‘Child care’ Category
In quotes: Massachusetts State Senator Robyn Kennedy
Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Funding, MA Legislature, Strategies for Children, tagged #ChildCare, #mapoli on March 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »
In quotes: the Early Childhood Agenda
Posted in Child care, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #EarlyChildhoodAgenda on March 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »
This video features highlights and interviews from the official release of the Early Childhood Agenda at the State House in January.
As we’ve blogged, the agenda is “a unified plan that draws on many voices to improve early childhood programs in Massachusetts.”
There’s more to come: the many advocates and providers who support the Early Childhood Agenda will reconvene on March 29th. To join us, please RSVP for either the 10 a.m. or the 6 p.m. session (which will have Spanish interpretation). Check out our Agenda Events page for links and information.
To get involved with the implementation phase of the Early Childhood Agenda, email info@earlychildhoodagenda.org.
Our Advocacy Network in Action: Leea Cooley
Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Developmentally appropriate practice, Early educators, English language learners, Family child care, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Professional development & preparation, Social-emotional development, Standards and curriculum, Strategies for Children, tagged #Advocacy, #EarlyEducators, #FamilyChildCare on March 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Leea Cooley has been interested in working with children for a long time. As a child growing up in Indiana, she liked to play school. As a teenager living in Agawam, Mass., – where her family moved for her father’s career – she loved to babysit.
But it wasn’t until she was a newly divorced mother of two children talking to her divorce attorney that she thought about weaving her interest in children into a profession.
“My lawyer told me that she thought a good career for me would be family child care. She saw the way that I cared so much about children. So I pursued my license, and I got it. And my lawyer put her two children in my program. Along with my children, they were my first customers. And since then, I’ve been running my family child care business for 25 years right here in my house.”
It’s a career that has been full of joy, generosity, and hard work. And one that has led Cooley to join Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network, so she can formalize the work that she has been doing for parents for decades.
“One of the main lessons I’ve learned,” Cooley says, “is that parents need help. They need advice. They need guidance. They’re working full time jobs and then they’re going home and caring for their families, and they don’t always have time to access the information that they’d like to have.
“Over the years, my biggest aha moment is I need to be that resource for families.”
(more…)Advocacy call for videos about stabilization grants
Posted in Child care, Early educators, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #Advocacy, #ChildCare on March 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Please join an advocacy effort being led by the national nonprofit Child Care Aware of America by creating a 90-second video about the importance of stabilization grants.
Stabilization grants have had a powerful, positive impact on helping early childhood providers stay open during the pandemic.
But funding for these grants is going to expire later this year!
That’s why Child Care Aware is seeking “perspectives from more child care providers in every state. Can you submit a short video? Sharing your story can help leaders and policymakers hear about the challenges child care continues to face and the difference that additional funding can make for programs and families nationwide.”
Making a video is easy. You can click here to watch a sample video. Then click on the button marked “Start Your Video,” and you’ll see prompts about what to say. You’ll also have to grant the website permission to access your computer’s microphone and camera.
You can also click on the video above to watch highlights of other providers’ videos.
Please join this national effort by sharing your voice and your story.
The Early Childhood Agenda reconvenes on March 29th, please join us!
Posted in Child care, Early educators, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, tagged #EarlyChildhoodAgenda on March 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Please join us on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, for a reconvening of The Early Childhood Agenda community.
Reconnect and learn about new resources and tools, and hear from lead advocates as we move The Agenda forward together.
Register today to receive Zoom link:
Morning Session from 10am to 11:30am
Evening Session from 6:00pm to 7:30pm
Language translation will be provided for Spanish speakers. Habrá traducción al español.
Both sessions will be recorded and made available on our YouTube playlist.
For more information or assistance, contact: info@earlychildhoodagenda.org.
The power of advocacy
Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, tagged #InvestInChildCare, #mapoli, #MARunsOnChildCare on March 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children
Here’s a great example of the power of collective advocacy.
Last month, more than 180 organizations and 718 individuals all signed a letter that was sent to the Massachusetts Legislature. The letter’s request: please provide an additional $70 million to fund this fiscal year’s Commonwealth Cares for Children or C3 stabilization grants.
These grants were essential for helping child care providers stay open during the pandemic, and they have become critical for supporting program quality and workforce retention.
“Now is the time,” the letter adds, “to move from a temporary stabilization program to permanent direct-to-provider operational funding and take an essential next step in our efforts to establish a sustainable business model for early education and care.” The C3 grant program can pave “a pathway from stabilization to systems growth.
“The $70 million will bridge the gap between the end of the childcare stabilization grant program and position a permanently funded operational grant program for sustained support and success into the future.”
The advocacy letter featured the logo of the Early Childhood Agenda, a new effort in Massachusetts to build collective power for transformational change. Check out highlights from the release of the Agenda at the State House earlier this year.
Now, we are happy to say that the advocacy letter was received, and its message was heard!
(more…)In quotes: Governor Maura Healey makes the case for her budget proposal
Posted in Business and economy, Child care, Cost and affordability, MA governor, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, tagged #InvestInChildCare, #mapoli, #MARunsOnChildCare on March 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »
“A day after unveiling her $55.5 billion state budget, Gov. Maura Healey is on the road trying to garner support for her plan. She made a pitch Thursday morning to 800 members of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
“ ‘We know some of the challenges that we’re confronting right now: an unprecedented housing crisis, skyrocketing costs for quality child-care, companies unable to find workers with the skills they need to grow,’ Healey said. ‘The good news is we can, working together, fix that.’ ”
“Healey said her budget, along with a $750 million tax reform bill she proposed earlier this week, would help to stop the exodus of workers from the state. Since the pandemic, more than 110,000 people have left Massachusetts to find work in states with a lower cost of living, according to Internal Revenue Service data obtained by The Boston Globe.”
“ ‘No one is going to compete harder as your governor than me. I promise you,’ Healey told Chamber of Commerce members.”
— “Healey pitches her budget and tax reform plans to Boston’s business community,” Steve Brown, WBUR, March 2, 2023
Governor Healey’s first budget proposal has good news for early education and care
Posted in Child care, Funding, MA governor, MA Legislature, MA state budget, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged #earlyed, #ece, #InvestInChildCare, #mapoli on March 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, Governor Maura Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll kicked off the Massachusetts budget season by releasing their $55.5 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2024, which includes good news for early education and care.
“Our FY24 budget is what Massachusetts needs to meet this moment and build a strong economy, livable communities and a sustainable future,” Governor Healey said in a statement. “Combined with our tax relief proposal, we will set Massachusetts up for success by lowering costs, growing our competitiveness, and delivering on the promise of our people.” Earlier this week we highlighted the Child and Family Tax Credit in Healey’s proposal, which would provide $600 per eligible dependent.
For early education and care, the Healey-Driscoll budget proposal includes:
• $475 million to continue the state’s C3 operational grants
• $25 million for financial assistance for low-income families
• $30 million for Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative
• $20 million for child care resource and referral services
• $20 million in rate increases for subsidized child care providers
• $5 million for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation Services, and
• $5 million for comprehensive strategic analysis to build on the work completed through the Special Legislative Early Education and Care Economic Review Commission
(more…)The second year of the Advocacy Network: introducing a new group of leaders
Posted in Child care, Early educators, Funding, Massachusetts Cities and Towns, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, Strategies for Children, tagged #Advocacy, #EarlyEducators, #ece on February 16, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Advocacy Network Year 2 Cohort
Last year, Strategies for Children launched the Advocacy Network for Early Education and Care, a program for educators and leaders in the early childhood field who wanted to expand their impact. Seven advocates completed the first cohort, and are having a positive advocacy impact on their programs, communities, and state.
Now we’re excited about the second year of the program and how a new group of leaders will expand advocacy in their communities.
“This program is all about the advocacy journey,” Titus DosRemedios, deputy director of Strategies for Children, says. “Last year’s participants went on a journey with us and with each other. They stepped out of their comfort zone, met knew people, learned about policy and ‘Advocacy 101,’ and took new strides in their professional development. They had the chance to speak on panels, serve on committees, write and share testimonies, appear in the news media and on social media, and develop advocacy projects for their programs, classrooms, and communities. This created a powerful ripple effect for the early childhood community, one that we know will continue with cohort 2 and 3.”
This year’s cohort 2 participants are:
(more…)The National Early Care and Education Workforce Center – a federal effort deployed by local and national leaders
Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, Professional development & preparation, tagged #ece, #ECEWorkforce on February 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Photo: Huong Vu for Strategies for Children
Earlier this month, federal officials announced that they are creating the new and promising National Early Care and Education Workforce Center (the ECE Workforce Center). It’s a national effort to rebuild the workforce that includes local leaders here in Boston.
Launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with $30 million in funding, the new center will address an old problem: even before the pandemic, the early childhood workforce was plagued with low pay and high turnover rates. This situation has grown worse during the pandemic.
“We know it is hard for families to find quality early childhood programs. One of the reasons is that programs are having trouble recruiting and retaining early educators,” January Contreras says. Contreras is the assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, part of HHS. “We cannot continue to expect early educators to remain in these critical roles only to earn poverty wages.”
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra adds, “HHS is honored to launch this first-of-its-kind research and technical assistance center to support the essential early childhood workforce who partner with families every day to ensure young children have what they need to thrive.”
The new ECE Workforce Center will help by addressing recruitment and retention. The center’s work will include the input of early educators and be carried out over the next five years by six partner organizations. They are:
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Eye on Early Education is a blog of Strategies for Children, an organization that works to ensure that Massachusetts invests the resources needed for all children, from birth to age five, to access high-quality early education programs that prepare them for success in school and life. The blogger, Alyssa Haywoode, comes to Eye on Early Education after a career in journalism. -
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