DID YOU KNOW?
According to Washington’s 10-Year Plan to Dismantle Poverty Plan, approximately one in four residents of WA, including more than 500,000 children, live in households that struggle to make ends meet. 12
Policymakers and members of state, local, and tribal governments will play a vital role in the success of the Early Learning Coordination Plan outcomes. With 2 years of input from thousands of parents, providers and the professionals that support them, the ELCP is an equity-based tool for funding, policy, and programming decisions. Below are examples of how the ELCP envisions you, as governing bodies and policymakers, supporting the Plan’s success.
QUALITY
Developing sustainable long-term funding for early learning and family support programs.
Increasing funding for and capacity to provide additional mental health supports for infants, children, families, schools and community providers.
Creating a unified approach for helping children and families get the services and supports they need.
Funding and programming to improve recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, with compensation that moves toward pay parity across early learning and K-12 teachers.
ACCESS
Creating budget and policy actions that increase compensation and enhance workforce stability.
Funding and crafting policy to support equitable learning and health outcomes for children and families.
Supporting solutions for paid time off for parents to support their family and children’s well-being.
Forging partnerships and creating new resources to better serve rural communities.
Ensuring the workforce can accommodate developmentally diverse children and families who need healing-centered support.
Collaboration
Listening and responding to the concerns of families and providers in the early learning system.
Working closely with communities of color to co-design policies, strategy development and implementation, resulting in programs and services that are accountable to those communities for outcomes.
“If we as a state cannot see the whole child in everything that we do, then how can we uplift them? How can we support them? How can we love them? This message isn’t just a call to action. This is an invitation for change. Join us in not just saying we believe in this work, but in this paradigm shift of our state.”
– Mike Browne (he/him), Sr. Director of Community Engagement, Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington
—Resource LINKS for GOVERNMENT & POLICY MAKERS—
(COMING SOON)
