We’ve heard from you and from early care and education leaders around the country that early care and education programs need help to understand how to survive during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We set out on a stealth mission to get that information out to you ASAP.
Inspired by Margie Carter and Louise Stoney, we invited two experts to pre-record a webinar to provide insight, guidance, and resources to consider NOW. Today, Sunday, April 19, 2020, we joined Heidi Hagel-Braid and Joanne Hurt to record COVID-19 Financial Survival Strategies for Early Childhood Programs: Emergent Resources and Advice. The end result is an exceptional resource for every child care director, owner, or family child care provider thinking “What do I do right now to keep my business viable?” The practical steps and resources offered in this recording also provide an inside look at how decisions about their programs will be made.
Watch the recording and access the slides now. You can also access the tools offered by First Children’s Finance to project child care center or family child care cash flow that were mentioned during the presentation:
Finance tools for child care centers Finance tools for family child care
Hello,
Thank you to all who worked so diligently to make the financial survival strategies available–it is greatly appreciated!!
What is also vital right now is an unwavering and united advocacy movement. Early childhood care and education programs need federal emergency funding. Early childhood care and education programs can not survive or even think about thriving in the future without approval of a multi-billion dollar stimulus package from Congress. Lark Sontag posted an informative and inspiring call to action today in Will Start Small stating, “COVID-19 has amplified the point that the fight for equitable childcare is a feminist fight…”. We all know this to be true. Please take a moment to read Sontag’s full message urging all women to speak out now to inform the public regarding the disgraceful inequities across the field of ECE, and to demand emergency funding be approved http://willstartsmall.com/blog/2020/04/20/women-essential-workers-need-childcare/
Thank you for all you do for the field of early childhood, children and families.
Sincerely,
Sue Schlembach, PhD
Assistant Professor, Education
University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College
Hi Sue,
Thanks for your reflections and the link to Lark’s post. Joanne Hurt, one of the speakers during the webinar mentioned the inequities and disproportionate burdens placed on the women, and especially women of color who are the core of the child care infrastructure. Immediately following the recording of the webinar, I happened to watch Governor Cuomo’s daily briefing during which he cited the same concerns in regard to child care professionals as well as other essential workers. That was a gratifying moment. Seeing such a powerful leader broadcast the problem so clearly was inherently encouraging to me. Today I read a article on Medium by Senator Warren about her plan for a $50 million bailout for child care, which also gives me hope. As much as I know this is controversial, I don’t see how we can continue to elevate the problems without a labor union behind us. We’ve been so adverse to the idea of unionizing for so long, but this crisis should make us rethink unionization for our profession.
I appreciate your comments and your participation. Now, how to do we get started with our advocay? Perhaps we need to join with MomsRising? Or is PowertotheProfession really making a difference? We’ve been working on it for so long, but I don’t really see the traction. What next?
I always think about UNIONIZATION FOR OUR PROFESSION it is as an wonderful idea because on this critical time we are all connected and people can recognize our labor as a professional educators that have a big responsibility to build a strong foundation in children life and social future.
Interesting idea, Gloria. I think about unionization, too. I think it’s time for the profession to come together to be recognized. If we have learned nothing from COVID-19, it that we are undervalued, underpaid, and almost invisible.