Family Forward is inviting you to join us for Oregon’s Day Without Child Care 2024 on May 13th!
Child care providers, parents, our kids, and our economy have waited long enough! Sign the petition to demand our lawmakers meet our demands:
- Thriving wages for early childhood educators
- Financial supports for mothers and caregivers doing unpaid care work
- Affordable care for families for all families who need it
- A childcare system built on racial and gender equity; and
- Robust, sustainable, and dedicated funding for child care!
Dear Oregon Elected-Representatives,
Every single one of us, whether we have our own children, are the fun aunt and uncle, or have no children in our lives, have been shouldering the burden of a child care system that is on the brink of collapse for too long.
Caretakers – particularly mothers and grandmothers, have been shouldering the burden of a childcare system that is on the brink of collapse for too long. And too many of our children are losing out on education in their prime developmental years – an impact that can last a lifetime and contribute to generational poverty.
For years, we have been fighting for equitable access to affordable child care, and better pay and working conditions for providers, but our needs are still unmet. With our woefully underfunded child care system, most of the burden of the true cost of care – financial, emotional, and socioeconomic – has been placed on the shoulders of women, especially Black and brown women. We are calling on our lawmakers–from all levels of government–to meet our demands:
- Thriving wages for early childhood educators
- Financial supports for mothers and caregivers doing unpaid care work
- Affordable care for families for all families who need it
- A childcare system built on racial and gender equity; and
- Robust, sustainable, and dedicated funding for child care!
Too many child care educators wake up at the crack of dawn to prepare the day’s curriculum, buy the ingredients for a healthy food schedule, and read up on the latest activities that help children’s development, only to be left at the end of the day without enough pay to buy their own kid new school clothes. Too many parents have had to put off changing their tires again to pay the daycare bill. Too many employers struggle to keep talented employees because the math forces them out of the workforce. We all know the struggle.
Imagine instead a system funded on the true cost of care that would give all of our children an equal opportunity to thrive. We’d have high-quality, sustainable child care careers that pay thriving wages and offer healthcare and retirement. We’d have high-quality child care slots open and affordable for all families who need it. We’d have women, particularly Black and brown women, back in the workforce. We’d have educated, healthy, and happy kids.
We know that when it comes to children, it truly takes a village – a community of parents, child educators, neighbors, and friends who work together to set the next generation up for success. But our elected leaders must raise and invest the robust, sustainable, and dedicated funding for the child care system we need and deserve.
Signed,