Alliance Election - November
We had anticipated our Alliance officer and steering committee elections taking place at our October meeting, but many of our regular attendees were not there or had to leave early, due to another meeting. We accepted names for several members to be considered. We anticipate electing new officers and steering committee members at our November. If you plan to vote, please make sure you have paid your membership dues to the Alliance. If you're not sure if your membership has been paid, please contact Merrill ([email protected]) or Jessica ([email protected]) to check.
National Advocates Propose Principles for Investing in High-Quality Child Care
In the past week, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has released a set of principles for investing in high-quality, affordable child care. NWLC partnered with 28 other national groups, in order to take advantage of the current momentum surrounding child care to:
- Frame the issue for new & existing policymakers in an easy
-to-understand and concise format; - Emphasize the need for public investments in child care; and
- Make clear that child care investments should address all pieces of the child care puzzle: quality, access, affordability, and the workforce.
The document is seen as a "roadmap" for policymakers.
Also last week, NWLC, along with CAP, CLASP, AFT, SEIU, Community Change, and MomsRising released a report making a case for investing in high-quality, affordable child care. The report goes into detail as to why the nation's leaders must prioritize solutions that make quality child care affordable and accessible to all families.
Federal Office of Child Care Seeks Comments
The federal Office of Child Care has issued a notice seeking comments by December 2, 2019 on how to expand access to high-quality, affordable child care. As you craft your comments, please keep these two key messages in mind:
We need public investments to achieve the goal of expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care. Child care costs are straining families’ budgets, and workers and providers make so little that they struggle to support their own families. We need public investments to fill the gap between what families can afford to pay and what workers need to make to support themselves and provide the high-quality care children need. (In short- it’s all about the money!)
Regulations, such as ratios, class sizes, and teacher qualifications are essential for the health and safety of children in care and for ensuring the experiences are high-quality. (Again, to do this well and equitably requires more resources!).
CT-AIMH to Host "Raising of America" Film Series Events
Starting Monday, October 21, the CT Association for Infant Mental Health (CT-AIMH) will host showings of "Raising of America," a five-part series, changing the conversation on early childhood. Ideally, by attending all three showings, you will see all five parts to the series. The showings take place October 21, November 18, and December 9, at the Connecticut Women's Consortium, Hamden Center II, 2321 Whitney Avenue, Suite 401, Hamden. Coffee and a light breakfast will be available. For more information or to register, click HERE.
DLL and Head Start: Framing Bilingualism as an Asset
New America takes a closer look at at how children who are dual language learners (DLL) may benefit even more than their peers from taking part in Head Start programs. To read the full blog post, click HERE.
CT-AIMH 2019 Fall Conference
The CT Association for Infant Mental Health (CT-AIMH) will hold its fall conference on November 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Woodwinds in North Branford. This year's conference topic is, "Embedding the Diversity-Informed Tenets into Your Work with Infants, Children and Families." Please register by November 1. Registration can be found HERE.
Support for the Alliance comes from of our members and our funders: Alliance for Early Success, Children's Fund of Connecticut, Connecticut Community Foundation, CT Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, a project of CT Council of Philanthropy; Community Foundation of Greater New Britain; Community Foundation for Greater New Haven; Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; and the Partnership for America's Children.