The Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance is working to create a region where all young children (birth to 5) and their families thrive because they can equitably access:
- High-quality, affordable, culturally responsive early care and education that justly compensates providers.
- A coordinated array of resources and supports promoting equity in wellbeing.
With this newsletter we aim to educate and inform our communities – from Greater Green Bay to Oshkosh – about the need for systems change and to spark opportunities for action, alignment and coordination.
This month you’ll find:
LOCAL NEWS:
- Insight Magazine, June 2023 issue features work of the Alliance
- Outagamie and Winnebago Counties release ARPA grant opportunities
- First Five Fox Valley is hiring a Help Me Grow State Director
- Alliance launches first of three strategy action teams
OPPORTUNITIES TO ENGAGE & LEARN:
- Raising WI Joint Finance Committee action
- We Can Change Minds language and messaging for advocacy
Local News
Insight on Business, June 2023 features a story highlighting the Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance “Strategy Design Events” held in April to bring awareness and action to critical issue of child care wage and workforce needs.
ARPA GRANT OPPORTUNTIES
Outagamie County is now accepting funding requests for the creation of a Family Resource Center and a Child Care Shared Services Program.
Last year, Outagamie County’s Board of Supervisors voted to invest $2.75 M of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars in Childcare and Early Childhood Development. The County has since established two grant opportunities to invest these funds:
- Family Resource Center Grant Program: Non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for $500,000 – $2,000,000 to create an Outagamie County Family Resource Center. The Center should support families and early childcare professionals by promoting family/community strengths, building parenting skills, and providing access to supportive family services.
- Shared Services Grant Program: Non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for $250,000 – $750,000 to create a Shared Services Program to support child care and early learning providers in the county. The program should serve as a hub for center-based and home-based child care providers to help them pool resources and outsource basic business operations. The goal should be to save child care providers’ money. Their savings, in turn, can be used to increase workforce wages or to build financial capacity.
Applications for both programs are due on August 17, 2023.
Click Here to Learn More Family Resource Center Click Here to Learn More Child Care Shared Services
Winnebago County Spirit Fund Project Funding Opportunities have been identified and the due date for application has been extended from June 30 to July 15, 2023.
Click Here to Learn More Award Parameters Click Here to Learn More Application Requirements
First 5 Fox Valley is hiring a Help Me Grow-Wisconsin Statewide Director and needs your help to spread the word. The application period closes July 15th. The full job description can be found by clicking the button below, but here are a few highlights. Please pass this around and/or post to any job sites your organization might use.
- Full Time Hybrid position must live in Wisconsin requires some travel around the state for meetings, and in-person meetings in Kimberly at the First 5 Fox Valley office.
- Start date anytime between August 1 and September 30, 2023
Job Summary: This position is responsible for the executive leadership and oversight of the Help Me Grow System and the positioning for expansion and replication throughout the state of Wisconsin. The Statewide Director position is responsible for organizing meetings, aligning regional and statewide efforts across various cross-systems partnerships and serves as a spokesperson and advocate with oversight for implementing various HMG programs. The Statewide Director leads a cross-sector HMG navigator team to effectively and efficiently run the Help Me Grow program to fidelity and aligns to the HMG National Centers expectations of an evidence-based model of operations.
The Greater Fox Valley Child Care Alliance came together in August of 2020 to address growing concerns around how the accessibility, affordability, and quality of Early Care and Education (ECE) in the region was directly affecting families’ stability and the region’s economic recovery. With support from the Basic Needs Giving Partnership, the Alliance developed a shared vision, explored the underlying systemic root causes contributing to current ECE challenges in the region, and prioritized a set of system change goals to inform action.
The Alliance has launched the first of three strategy action teams to support advancement of goals. Action team #1 : Advocate for sustainable funding mechanisms to support viable child care operations and workforce wages met on June 16 to begin conversations and organizing the task force. Our plan is to launch action teams for Strategy #2 and #3 by end of summer.
Please let us know if you are interested in joining one of these action teams.
Opportunities to Engage & Learn
As the Alliance works to advance the critical importance of ECE for kids, families, and providers, as well as economic stability and growth, we share our voice in concert with statewide advocacy efforts stewarded by Raising WI. On Friday, June 16th, the State Legislative Joint Committee on Finance removed provisions to extend funding of the “Child Care Counts” program in budget deliberations. Below is what Rising Wisconsin had to say:
Raising Wisconsin called for significant state funding for child care and optimal child health and well-being initiatives in Wisconsin’s 2023-25 state budget. The coalition’s budget priorities centered around support for young children and their families, early childhood professionals and programs, and the economic and social well-being of all Wisconsin communities.
Raising Wisconsin is disappointed and concerned with the Joint Committee on Finance’s decision to provide nearly zero funding for these priorities. For more on the coalition’s reaction to JFC’s decision, read our child care and health and well-being statements released in late June.
Read More about Raising Wisconsin’s call for state funding
New Study: We Can Change Minds – and Mindsets – About the Value of Early Childhood
The importance and value of ECE is often misunderstood and devalued in our society. As we work together to build shared understanding and public will to transform the ECE system, language and messaging from a strength-based perspective is needed. This Early Learning Nation article comes at a moment when we can use the boost, providing some examples of the power of our message.
“One of the greatest takeaways of this and other studies on framing is for communicators to recognize that they are not the audience for their messages, as evidenced in the gaps in understanding the study observed. To break through to policymakers and the public, advocates must work to understand the other’s frames and reality. Otherwise, any attempts at telling the story of early childhood will either bounce off or fall on unhearing ears.”
Thank You Partners
