The first step to advocating for early childhood education [Webinar]

In this webinar we were joined by Cindy Lehnhoff, director of the National Childcare Association! Cindy joined us to discuss advocacy in the early learning space and why your voices as early learning professionals matter now more than ever. We explored the newly proposed legislation surrounding childcare, what the 3 C’s of advocacy are, and how we can use them to support us. Finally we gained actionable strategies for how to take that first step towards advocacy. If you are an advocate for early childhood education but do not know how to get started, this is the webinar for you!

🎤Our Special Guests:

Cindy Lehnhoff – Director of the National Childcare Association!

Cindy Lehnhoff is the director of the National Childcare Association. The NCCA’s mission is to promote the success of licensed providers in quality early care and education, including the provision of professional development, advocacy, and community engagement. They believe every child deserves early care and education at the highest standards and educate and advocate for sustainable policies and practices that are beneficial to young children. NCCA represents quality, licensed providers as critical partners in the delivery of high-quality, affordable child care.

🧪Key Learning Outcomes from Cindy!

• Before COVID, 51 % of all children aged 0-6 live in a child care desert and 25 million school-aged children did not have access to quality before and after school care due to availability and affordability
• There are three types of advocacy: Self advocacy, individual advocacy and systems advocacy.
• Our focus as child care providers and educators is on systems advocacy. Systems advocacy is about changing policies, laws or rules that impact how people live their lives.
• Educators need to be advocates as the best experts for the early learning field. Our child care infrastructure is broken, yet is is essential that we have a responsibility to come together and speak in a unified voice to those that have the power to make it more equitable, accessible and affordable.
• The three C’s of advocacy: Collaborate, connect and communicate.
• As early learning professionals it is our job to ensure child care is respected, ask for changes that will support equity, accessibility and affordability and require plans that execute a sustainable high quality early care and education programs.
• Federal legislative update: A revamped childcare and early learning reconciliation proposal has just been introduced on Capitol Hill, that would add $72 billion over 6 years to the Child Care Development Block Grant.

✨Resources

• [Website] – National Child Care Association
• [Instagram] – @ncca_advocacy
• [Webinar] – Expert Panel: The state of childcare in 2022

📅What’s Next on HiMama Helps?

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