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CHILD CARE MATTERS TO EVERYONE
Regional Conferences
Registration Now Open
Windsor - May 23, 2015
York Region - May 30, 2015
Thunder Bay - June 13, 2015
These one-day conferences are presented by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Do you want to take action to inspire and engage your community and build local networks to advocate for licensed child care and the importance of early childhood educators? Would you like to build or enhance your leadership skills while participating in critical dialogue and action based workshops on creating change? The Child Care Matters to Everyone conference will do just that.
Child care really does matter to everyone and this one-day conference invites educators, service providers, parents, students, policy makers and concerned citizens to come together and discuss its importance from a variety of perspectives. The day will draw on the strengths of the community to build relationships and identify how we can work together to create the change we need for child care.
The morning will feature local leaders from different sectors to discuss why child care matters to everyone, followed by an opportunity to engage in dialogue around our individual experiences and concerns with child care. In the afternoon participants will choose from a selection of action-based workshops.
The following workshops are confirmed:
- Answering Tough Questions about Child Care
“Why should I pay for other people’s children?” “Isn’t a national child care program too expensive?” This workshop focuses on answering questions and challenging the arguments against investment in child care. We will practice effectively crafting our messages to change the minds of our opponents and build broader support for the value of child care.
- Making Change with Little to No Resources
This workshop centers on the difficulties many people face when wanting to create change with little time and fewer resources. What can we do when we work long hours, have obligations, families and careers? How can we make change when we are just a few voices, with little support, few resources and limited access? We will explore a variety of tools and tricks that will help build awareness, support and a following for your cause.
- Finding your voice: Using Your Personal Story to Advocate for Change
Many people are hesitant to participate in advocacy because they feel that they do not have the knowledge or experience to be an effective advocate or talk about the ‘big’ issues. In this workshop we will discuss and practice advocacy strategies that use the strength of our personal stories to advocate for change in our communities and to decision makers.
Additional workshops may be available at the time of the event. Registration for afternoon workshops will be on a first come first served basis at the time of morning registration.
Your Registration fee covers the cost of lunch and materials.
AECEO/OCBCC Members $18 Non Members $20 Students/Unwaged $15
COMING FALL 2015
Ottawa, Hamilton, Sault Ste. Marie
We will be hosting a workshop for the Week of Action!
We have the pleasure of introducing you all to our Host and Workshop lead Sarah Sahagian. Sarah Sahagian is a PhD candidate in Gender, Feminist and Women’s studies at York University, where she is currently finishing her dissertation on the mothering of inter-ethnic children. Her writing has appeared in such publications as Chasing Rainbows, a popular anthology on gender fluid
parenting, as well as The Huffington Post, Bitch Media, Gender Focus, the pop culture website Comments Enabled and the Journal of the Motherhood Initiative. Sarah is also the co-editor of the Demeter Press book Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us as Feminist Academics and Activists.
This is a great professional development opportunity for child care workers, a great resource and leadership experience for supervisors and an empowering workshop for parents who want to learn to find their political voice. There will be a one hour workshop followed by a very fun and informal monologue presentation to help us all rip off the public speaking band-aid.
Spring Into Action for Child Care: Week of Action
May 9-17th, 2015
Do you think child care should be a key issue in this year's federal election? Help put child care front and centre by joining advocates across the country in a week of action. Here's what's happening across the country and in Toronto.
Canada-wide events
May 14 2015 / Chalk It Up for Child Care: Take to the sidewalks / outdoor play spaces with chalk (or banners and signs) to let your community know that you support the vote Child Care 2015 campaign. Make sure to take photographs, share on social
media and send to [email protected]
May 14 / Twitter Storm / Print the “#VoteChildCare2015 because” photobooth sign and share your message and photo on Twitter with the hashtag #VoteChildCare2015
All week / The Power of ONE / If each of us has ONE conversation with ONE friend, family member or colleague about the child care and the federal election. Have a ONE-ON-ONE conversation and share your experience on social media, encouraging others to take part.
Toronto
May 9 / Vote Child Care Spring Picnic / Kick off the week of action with a ROARing good picnic (BYO picnic). Toronto: Trinity Bellwoods Park / 1:00pm-4:00pm / Contact: Lyndsay Macdonald, National Coordinator, Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada, [email protected] or 647-920-5203
May 11 / Find your political voice / A workshop for ECEs, child care workers and parents / Toronto: Kensington Market Lofts community room, 21 Nassau St. / 6:00pm-8:00pm / Contact: Viktoria Bitto, [email protected] or 416-538-0628 ext 2
May 13 / Affordable Child Care: Why Wait? / A public forum to discuss local child care issues and what we need from the federal government. / Toronto: Ralph Thorton Centre, 765 Queen St. East /7:00-9:00pm / Contact: Carolyn Ferns, [email protected] or call 416-538-0628 x 4
May 12 & 14 / Subway leaflet / Coming to a subway station near you / To volunteer contact: Carolyn Ferns, [email protected] or call 416-538-0628 x 4
Find out more about Vote Child Care 2015
- votechildcare.ca
- Use the campaign toolkit
- facebook.com/votechildcare
- Twitter: @votechildcare #VoteChildCare2015
- Join the Vote Child Care 2015 mailing list.