We are now officially into fall! Leaves are finally starting to change, and the holidays are right around the corner. With the close of October comes the 2016 elections, which we continue to follow closely as both candidates have elevated the issue of child care in their platforms. We invite you to visit our Child Care Works movement website, designed to improve child care by shifting public opinion, generating policy solutions, and securing legislative victories.

Below are some additional highlights from October.

Online and On-Air

Child Care Aware® of America hosted three webinars this month in partnership with ZERO TO THREE, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), and Make it Work and the Child Care Fight for $15:

• On October 5, CCAoA and ZERO TO THREE discussed how quality infant–toddler care will impact the future, as well as how to ensure babies’ needs are front and center during the election. The webinar was moderated by Jay Nichols, CCAoA’s Director of Federal Policy and Governmental Affairs, and presenters included Patricia Cole and Elizabeth DiLauro of ZERO TO THREE.
• On October 17, CCAoA and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) summarized child care and what is at stake this election. The webinar was moderated by Desiree Tims, CCAoA’s Senior Advisor of Public Policy, and the presenter was Helen Blank of NWLC.
• On October 26, CCAoA joined partners to discuss Make it Work’s public education campaign on workplace policies for families and the Child Care Fight for $15’s presentation on child care worker wages. The webinar was moderated by Jay Nichols from CCAoA, and presenters included Julie Kashen from Make it Work and Jorrie Harper from the Child Care Fight for $15.

Child Care Works, powered by CCAoA, released its second video on October 24, making the case for why quality, affordable child care is valuable for everyone—with a shout out for the hard work of child care professionals.

The VROOM Outreach Team is excited to announce the launch of a redesigned module website. The new updates expand the online library to 10 modules, with five also available in Spanish. The four new modules explore language development, attachment, and sharing attention. This fresh user-friendly platform has interactive features and includes additional resources like discussion guides. Individuals can create a new free account. All users, even those registered on the previous system will need to create a new account.

Around the Country

On October 3-4, Dr. Dionne Dobbins, Senior Director of Research, and Michelle McCready, Chief of Public Policy, presented at the National Black Child Development Institute’s annual conference, highlighting our report on Unequal Access: Barriers to Early Childhood Education for Boys of Color. The session also highlighted how advocates can become involved by joining the Child Care Works movement. Dr. Dobbins also led a panel on child care deserts with child care resource and referral agencies (CCR&Rs) from Ohio, New Hampshire, and Kansas at CCAoA’s Leadership Institute in October. The panel highlighted our recent report on Child Care Deserts: Developing Solutions to Child Care Supply and Demand.

ICYMI: October in the News

CCAoA, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Moriah Group, recently PUBLISH a report on Unequal Access: Barriers to Early Childhood Education for Boys of Color. The report explores the research about why boys of color are disproportionately shut out of meaningful educational opportunities. There are a host of reasons, among them:

• Financial. High-quality early childhood education is one of the most significant expenses in the family budget, and the challenge is greatest for low-income families of color.
• Structural. The supply of free or subsidized child care and Head Start programs does not begin to meet the demand.
• Societal. All of us have and are subject to implicit bias; particularly for boys of color, the negative effects of this bias includes growing up in a society that consistently sends them negative, biased messages about their behavior, identity, and future. That can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. CCAoA Board member Dr. Walter Gilliam is a leading expert on implicit bias and the author of another brief in this series titled Early Childhood Expulsions and Suspensions Undermine Our Nation’s Most Promising Agent of Opportunity and Social Justice.

Visit usa.childcareaware.org/boysofcolor to learn more about this report.

The Emergency Preparedness Team has also launched a new survey on community perceptions of emergency preparedness and planning. We are collecting information from CCR&Rs, child care center program directors and staff, family child care providers, and parents with children enrolled in a child care program to advance our emergency preparedness training and technical assistance efforts. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, and we will be holding a drawing for a $50 gift card. We invite you to learn more and take the survey today!

In October CCAoA celebrated Fire Safety Month. Fires have a significant impact on children, parents, and child care providers. Did you know that on average, every day 293 children are injured and at least one child dies from fire. In addition, each year approximately 325 fires occur in child care centers. There are simple steps you can take to help prevent these tragedies. To learn more, check out our fire safety and replacing your smoke alarm blog posts by our Emergency Preparedness Team.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that CCAoA has been awarded three MarCom Awards as part of a 2016 creative competition for marketing and communications professionals.

• Platinum Award: Child Care Aware® of America 2016-2017 Calendar
• Gold Award: Child Care Works website
• Gold Award: Child Care Aware® of America Annual Report

CCAoA was selected as a winner from more than 300 categories of print, web, video, and strategic communications.

Extra Notes

CCAoA has been selected as a Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) charity. This workplace giving opportunity is for federal employees and members of the military. From now through December 30, join us in sharing the news and encouraging your network to select #12300 as their designated charity for 2016!
We are also pleased to launch our #GivingTuesday campaign, celebrated on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving (November 29, 2016). There are several ways you can support CCAoA as part of #GivingTuesday:

• Make a donation and encourage your friends and family to do the same,
• Join us for a Facebook Live panel at 9 a.m. on November 29, where we will examine the child care challenges American families are facing and how you can get involved in our movement to create change, and
• Take an #unselfie holding one of our signs and post it on your social media page. All #unselfies will be entered into a drawing to win a $50- gift card. Remember to use the hashtags #unselfie and #CCAoA, or tag @childcareaware so everyone knows how awesome you and we are!

Visit our #GivingTuesday page to learn more about the campaign.

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