Parent Voices and the California Child Development Corps are mobilizing parents and early care and education teachers to prevent cuts in child care funding in this year’s state budget.

Child care and other family programs “are where [policy makers] always cut—unless we do something about it,” says Becky Moralez, Parent Leader of the Butte-Chico County Parent Voices chapter.

“Teachers and parents need to [organize around] what’s important to them—and getting to know fellow teachers or parents is a first step. The two groups have lots in common—and in the end, available, quality child care is in [everyone’s] interest,” adds Sara Hicks-Kilday, Working for Quality Child Care’s Public Policy Officer and support staff to the Corps. “It’s important to bring their stories to legislators—teachers and parents are both visiting legislators and going to hearings.”

The Corps and Parent Voices each provide leadership training to help teachers and parents get ready for budget activism. Two participants, taking these trainings for the first time, are organizing visits with their legislators to make sure the voices of teachers and parents are heard in the upcoming budget process.

The biggest need is child care

“Parents are struggling. Some of our [Parent Voices] parents are on CalWORKs and others are battling homelessness,” says Moralez, who is also a Chico mom of two daughters, 6 year-old Daleighney and 4 year-old Coralye.

“The biggest need for parents in Butte County is child care,” she says. “If families could get child care, they could go back to school. Education is the key, but you can’t go to school—or to work—if you can’t pay for child care. [And] child care is expensive.”

“I got involved with Parent Voices as soon as I learned about [the organization],” she adds. “I wasn’t aware our voices [could] be heard and they were working on issues that affected me personally.”

This January, Moralez will attend Parent Voices’ Knowledge is Power training (see box) for the first time. She is also “trying to get more parents in Butte County involved so we can have more parent leaders,” she adds.

Connected by the fact we work with children

“I wanted to know if [providers] in other areas were facing the same issues we were facing in San Diego,” says long-time family child care provider Linda Hartung. She went to the Corps’ Annual Leadership Retreat in October—she joined the Corps and now plans to coordinate visits by legislators to local family child care programs.

“Networking was the most useful [part of the retreat],” says Hartung, who is owner of the Country Sunshine Child Care in Ramona and Vice President of the San Diego Family Child Care Association. “Sometimes providers have questions [and] providers in different places have different resources.”

Her favorite part of the retreat, she says, was a “really cool ice breaker where they threw a ball of yarn across the room and you had to say why you were there and what you hoped to gain. “It brought home that we were connected by the fact we work with children.

Since I got back, I’ve been working on getting center-based providers more involved. They’re facing many of the same issues we are,” she adds.

We need to tell legislators our stories

Moralez is coordinating visits by parents to the offices of local legislators. “We need to stand in front of legislators and tell them our stories, then they’ll think about us when they’re making these decisions,” she says. “The most important part of my story is that I’m in recovery. There’s a whole stigma that goes along with that, and not a lot of hope [unless] you qualify for services. I was raised poor and didn’t think I could go to college, but now a masters degree is in my future.”

“We need to bring legislators pictures of our children, to give them a visual,” she adds. “Let them see our kids benefit from child care. We have the power to use our voices to make a difference, even though it’s hard work. It’s really empowering.”

Bringing legislators to early care and education programs

Hartung plans to bring San Diego legislators to visit local family care programs because family child care providers can find it hard to go to legislative offices during their work day. “We’re going to invite legislators to our programs to make [them] more aware of what’s going on in our community,” she adds.

Hartung will coordinate the visits to coincide with Providers’ Appreciation Week in May—and also to make sure legislators are thinking about early care and education when the Governor issues his May budget revise. “We’re reaching out to providers with any links to legislators and we’re hoping to get the media out.

“[Legislators] are making decisions and holding the purse strings,” she adds. “If you get them involved they’re more apt to listen to you. It becomes real to them. Parents need quality programs for their children and working parents need to have their children in child care. If they don’t understand what [providers and parents] go through, they’re not going to make the right decisions.”

Parent Voices 

Knowledge is Power! advocacy training:

Find out about the state budget process and how you can develop ideas and skills for advocacy. Attend one of trainings:

Jan. 23: Stockton, Feb. 13: Bay Area, Feb. 27: Fresno.

Parent Voices contacts:

Statewide: Mary Ignatius, 415-882-0234. mignatius@rrnetwork.org

Alameda (Hayward): Jennifer Greppi, 510-584-3115,
jenniferf@4c-alameda.org

Alameda (Oakland): Janet Zamudio, 510-658-7353,
janet@bananasinc.org

Amador: Amy Jones, 209-223-1624 x109, ajones@hrcccr.org

Butte: Jane Haberman, 530-895-1677,
jhaberman@valleyoakchildren.org

Calaveras: Cheryl Berg, 209-754-1075, ext. 115, cberg@hrcccr.org

Contra Costa: Candy Duperroir, 925-778-4739, candy@cocokids.org

El Dorado: Heather Della Ripa, 530-541-5848, hscfcslt@pacbell.net

Fresno: Lourdes Hernandez, 559-456-1100, louh@cvcsn.org

Los Angeles: Dawn Lovelace, 323-421-2602,
DLovelace@crystalstairs.org

Marin: Leah Benz, 415-491-5776, leah@mc3.org

Sacramento: Rachel Minnick, 916-369-3387,
Rachel.Minnick@childaction.org

San Francisco: Maria Luz Torre, 415-343-3383,
parentvoices@childrenscouncil.org

San Joaquin: Ana Tacan, 209-461-2933, atacan@frrcsj.org

San Mateo: Child Care Coordinating Council, 650-655-5078

Santa Barbara: Children’s Resource and Referral Program, 805-962-8988

Santa Clara: Mario Del Castillo, 408-487-0747, mariod@4c.org

Solano: Kathy Lago, 707-864-4620, klago@solanosfcs.org

Sonoma: Lorie Siebler, 707-522-1413, lsiebler@sonoma4cs.org

California Child Development Corps

Visit your legislators: Corps participants are visiting their state legislators’ home offices and inviting them to programs to remind them how important early childhood education is. Keep quality child care funded. Join us! Contact your county representative to participate.

Collaborate with the Corps: Is your organization visiting state legislators about ECE and budget cuts? Contact the Corps to collaborate.

For more information, contact:

• Statewide:  Sara Hicks-Kilday, 415-808-7327, cares@caccwrc.org
  
  
• For Spanish:  Teresa Calle-Streicker, 415-821-7871
  
  
• Alameda:  Marva Lyons, 510-521-3997
  and Margaret Costello-Chevis, 510-226-9414
  
  
• Butte: Jennifer Ferrini, 530-893-2443
  
  
• Contra Costa: Donna Daly, 925-833-0834
  
  
• Humboldt: Danielle Koren, 707-443-2497
  
  
• Los Angeles: Catherine Scott, 562-572-9939
  
  
• Riverside: Tamara Dobson, 951-340-3186
  
  
• San Diego: Katy Kenshur, 760-436-3725
  
  
• San Francisco: Valentina Feldman, 415-861-5361
  
  
• San Joaquin: Bettina Engleman, 209-601-9467
  
  
• San Mateo: Silvia Espinoza, 650-359-4675
  
  
• Santa Barbara: Christine Fleenor, 805-937-0675
  
  
• Shasta: Carol VonBrandt, 530-365-1931
  
  
• Solano: June Regis, 707-439-0876