l Advocacy l
Addressing our country’s child care crisis means that parents will be able to find and afford high quality child care; the child care workforce will have a voice in the system; educators will earn a wage that allows them to lift themselves and their families out of poverty; and all children will get a strong start.
Working families with young children (especially infants and toddlers) continue to struggle to find affordable, high quality care and the workforce is still plagued by high turnover, low wages, lack of benefits and inconsistencies in quality. Existing federal and state policy initiatives have proved insufficient to build the high quality early childhood system that the child care workforce and America’s working families so desperately deserve. To strengthen our nation’s child care system, we must build a broad and diverse movement to unite parents, advocates and child care teachers.
With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have developed an advocacy curriculum for educators, parents and other allies.
Fill out the form below and we’ll send you all the materials you need!
l Peer Mentorship l
Family Child Care Providers possess deep wisdom, experience, and assets which can be leveraged through peer mentorship in order to decrease isolation and support providers’ advancement toward their professional development and career goals.
SEIU ESF is piloting a peer mentorship program in Rhode Island that trains providers who are at a QRIS Level 2 and who possess their Child Development Associate certificate in adult training techniques, cultural sensitivity, communication, problem-solving,and more. Upon successful completion of the course, these providers become peer mentors to providers at QRIS Levels 1-2, engaging in supervised group mentoring and one-on-one peer mentoring. Advocacy and problem-solving approaches are integrated in order to address institutional barriers to achieving quality ratings.
l Substitute Pool l
A shrinking number of licensed family child care providers, along with a shortage of approved and qualified assistants and substitutes to provide regular and supplemental staffing, are major barriers to ensuring a strong, stable child care system for families.
In Rhode Island, SEIU ESF is collaborating with the RI Department of Labor and Training, RI Department of Human Services, SEIU 1199NE, SEIU 1199NE Training and Upgrading Fund, Carina Care, and family child care providers to create a statewide pool of highly qualified substitutes to serve as caregivers in family child care providers’ homes. When family child care providers have on-demand access to highly qualified substitutes, we expect to see family child care providers participate in more professional development opportunities and access their earned sick time bank because they will be able to leave their businesses knowing that the children they care for will continue to receive high quality care.
For more information about the Substitute Pool for Family Child Care, please contact Yuri Liriano at (901) 286-3793 or email subpool@seiuesf.org.
If you are a family child care provider registered to utilize the Substitute Pool for Family Child Care in RI, see below for forms related to professional development leave care.
l Apprenticeship l
The SEIU Early Childhood Education (ECE) Apprenticeships aim to transform the field of ECE into an entry point for a sustainable career pathway. The Apprenticeships address the education and training gap by providing an innovative, multi-level program designed to support the success of working adults with structured on-the-job learning, coaching and mentoring, coordinated college coursework with academic supports, professional learning communities, and wage increases that are not paid for by parents. Through participation in the Apprenticeships, low-income ECE workers earn college credit that articulates to certificates or degrees required for higher-wage positions. The registered apprenticeships establish a pipeline of qualified workers and a pathway to self-sufficiency for the low-income, female workers that predominantly make up the ECE workforce.
Over two years:
300 providers have enrolled
114 providers earned stipends totaling $350,000
20 providers have completed Bachelors Degrees; 8 have completed Associates Degrees
| OUR IMPACT |
Discover the profound impact of the Educator-Led Communities of Care (ELCC) program on our 2022-2023 peer leaders, cohort participants in Rhode Island and California, and members of the 2022 National Advisory Committee (NAC). This illuminating report showcases findings based on data collected by an external evaluator using diverse qualitative and quantitative methods in both English and Spanish. Take a firsthand look at the transformative growth and positive change that the ELCC program has ignited within our communities, proving the power of collective action for a brighter future.
“…this program is so responsive to our needs as providers…it heard the voices of those of us who do family child care work every day.”
“The reason why this program is so responsive to our needs as providers is that it heard the voices of those of us who do family child care work every day. No one can better identify the needs and hurdles in our profession than those of us who actually do the work each day. Together, we are also capable of finding the best solutions to address barriers to help us continue our education and this program is a prime example of that. That is why through our union, we continue building opportunities for more providers to participate in valuable trainings... When we leave today, we are taking more than a certificate home. We are leaving with invaluable training helpful to our everyday work and we are also taking with us our network of irreplaceable sisters who share our passion and commitment for early care and education.” - Brenda Mercado
