"Children Learning, Parents Earning, Communities Growing"
January 9, 2023 | Issue #2
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January 2023 Monday Morning Update Sponsor
Celebrating a Successful Virtual Advocacy Day
On behalf of the 26 organizations that came together in unity focused on making sure that the most fragile of Californians are provided access to food, child care, and other core necessities, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all that participated last Wednesday in legislative visits, educating lawmakers and advocating! Collectively, we were able to connect to over 27 legislative offices in ONE DAY, and this would not have been possible without all of you.
 
All resources and materials from the day can be found here:
 
Also, we would like to give special recognition to our event sponsors!
New Year, New Energy Prioritizing Ending Child Poverty & Funding Child Care
by Denyne Colburn, CEO of CAPPA

Last Wednesday, advocates, community partners and parents came together to kick-off a day of informing and educating legislators and staff on the issues important to lifting up California's most fragile of families.

In reflection of that day, newly elected Senator Caroline Menjivar kicked off the day noting that she has come to Sacramento with a lot of "lived experiences" giving her unique insights into our issues as well as aligning herself with our message of helping families thrive. During the Senator's campaign, helping families thrive was a central them. She was raised by a single mom and was raised as a latchkey kid. She understands and prioritizes that child care is critical not only for the economy but also for single mom's who are not able to go back to work if there is no access to child care. Overall, Senator Menjivar intends to be a voice for marginalized communities as well as a strong voice for us all. Finally, she underscored how critical it is to pay child care providers livable rates as well as to move towards supporting universal child care for all. (NOTE: Senator Menjivar has been appointed to the Senate Human Services and Senate Budget & Fiscal Review).

Next up was Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer who made sure that all that were listening were well aware that within his family were those that operated a long standing child care center in Los Angeles. He touted the quality of the private child care center as well as another family member who is affiliated with a family child care home provider that is open and operates 24-hours per day/seven days per week to meet the real needs of families in the community. He made sure all that were listening knew he was a legislator that can be counted on to support our collective needs.

Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gomez Reyes who has long championed that child care continue to be a priority of the California Legislative Women's Caucus. Further, this leader has carried the legislation to waive family fees and is undeterred by the veto of this issue last year. She understands that child care providers must be paid livable rates so that when the time comes for them to retire they will not live a life of poverty. Child care workers should not have to give up or accept less if parents cannot pay or the reimbursement rates are not keeping up.

The final legislative speaker was Senator Maria Elena Durazo who took a great interest in taking on the issue of supporting the conversation of lifting up the "No Wrong Door" vision wherein whatever door a family enters they will be supported with a coordinated delivery of supports. The Senator noted that she wanted to do the work and would welcome doing more to bring the right bureacracies and stakeholders to the table to review an overlay of where the programs and funding are provided but are those resources getting efficiently delivered.

In reflection of what we heard not only from those noted above but from the other roughly 24 legislators that were met with is that child care funding, rate increases for providers, revisiting the needs of parents and families to have access to private child care providers for their three and four year olds in addition to transitional kindergarten as well as funding for housing, food insecurity and more are priorities. Although California is facing a deficit year, the resounding message from all was that there will not be devastating cuts made to the programs we have been building for for the most fragile families. We must protect the progress made and break the cycle of poverty.