Child Care Providers United

This week, childcare providers showed up all over California, fighting for fair pay and marching in solidarity for immigrant rights! ✊ 🙌 🙋♀️ If you missed us, we'll fill you in ⤵️ 📣 March 29 - we spoke at the Union Women's Conference about the history of our union 📣 March 31 - we marched alongside @UFW in support of immigrant rights in Delano, CA for #CesarChavezDay 📣 April 2nd - We took to the streets in San Diego, LA, & San Francisco and hosted kitchen table conversations to call on the state to take action on the #truecostofcare for #CCPUCalifornia's day of action 📣 April 3rd - We testified alongside our allies, @parentvoicesca, to #CALeg on why providers need rate reform NOW THIS is what union power looks like -- fighting together for respect and fair pay. 

💜 "We have an opportunity for rate reform to reflect the actual cost of care. We need rate reform now to stabilize the workforce. Subsidy rates haven’t kept up with inflation. The status quo cannot continue. The current model is failing providers and families. Families depend on us." Miren Algorri, Child Care Providers United #CABudget #CASenate #ChildCare #RateReform

Thanks to Forbes for shining a light on the devastating challenges CCPU providers face in rebuilding after the LA fires due to decades of pay that is a fraction of the cost of providing care. "Childcare was already unaffordable, and providers were already barely scraping by, even before the latest fires. Because of the large overheads of running her business, which weren’t fully reflected in the rates she could charge, Wright hadn’t been able to accumulate savings. As rent increased year after year, her pay did not. This financial precarity has made her less able to bounce back following the fires. One of SBA’s suggestions for small childcare providers preparing for a disaster is to set aside emergency savings. It’s sound advice, but building up a financial cushion isn’t possible for someone in Wright’s position. She says, 'If we have the true cost [of childcare], then I would be able to put something away to where when this happened, I didn’t have to look for any type of help.'" https://lnkd.in/gt9PHmV9

Yesterday morning, CCPU provider leaders met with California’s Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis about the urgent need for paying providers for the true cost of care and expanding fire relief funding for child care providers in LA. We look forward to working together to ensure child care providers receive fair pay for quality care. ✊

Many child care providers still haven't been able to reopen their businesses in the aftermath of the LA fires & the state's timeframe to continue paying is up this week! ⌛️ "We need financial assistance over the mark. Not only have you lost your home, but you've lost your business," says CCPU member & FCC provider Alana Lewis. Child care is an essential service for working families & essential for a community’s economic recovery, but providers need help to rebuild! Providers have been unable to return to their homes, secure alternate sites and licensing waivers to reopen, and cleanup/equipment replacement has yet to occur. FEMA and SBA loans have been denied to providers due to their low income and other reasons. CCPU California is demanding that California continue to pay providers until they can reopen.

CCPU providers’ houses are both their homes and workplaces, supporting families throughout their communities. The wildfires in LA have devastated thousands of providers and families they serve. Our hearts are with southern CA. Resources here including child care provider specific information, enforcing CCPU contract provisions, and links to local, SEIU local 99 & UDW resources and more. https://lnkd.in/g4NC3KS6

The CCPU team enjoyed a virtual winter holiday gathering this week filled with fun lights, animal avatars and yummy breakfast food. Cheers to a joyful holiday season, and wishes for peace and solidarity throughout the coming year!

✨“This is Disneyland, make it happen!”✨ ← One of my favorite lines from MAKE A CIRCLE Film. This is what Charlotte tells her staff about creating a joyful early learning environment for the kids at her family child care in Oakland, CA. Appropriately we were across the street from Disneyland with over 7,000 early educators and advocates at National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)’s Annual Conference in Anaheim. Folks from every corner of the country dedicated to the professional development of early educators and policies that reflect their importance to our collective present and future. Patricia from the film shared inspiring words about coming to the US after escaping political violence in Bolivia, and the 20-year fight to form the Child Care Providers United union in California. Her unwavering dedication to justice, and the amazing NAEYC community fills us with more ideas and allies for the work ahead. ✨Thank you to NAEYC for all your amazing work and for supporting MAKE A CIRCLE since its “infancy”!✨ #naeycac

No election will stop us from standing united for our profession and the working families and children we serve.  During the last Trump administration, after our decades-long fight, we finally won the right to bargain and we used our collective voice to stabilize providers during the pandemic. Together, California childcare providers will not stop fighting for fair pay and increased access to care for families. 

CCPU providers were glad to take part in this film and screening, to make the essential child care work they do invisible no longer & to connect the film to urgent action needed in California to move to fair pay now, which will reimburse providers for the true cost of care so they can keep their doors open for California families.