Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/advocate-for-change-family-child-care-educators-raise-their-voices/5026830/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
Lovely Jamison-Duckworth is an early childhood educator who owns and operates Lovely’s Little Angels, a family child care program in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Last year, she and the children in her program took part in an initiative to help lawmakers understand the importance of family child care and encourage them to back nationwide efforts to increase funding and support for all types of early care and education.
Over several weeks, everyone at Lovely’s Little Angels wrote, colored, addressed, and stamped a series of brightly-colored postcards with messages about the importance of early care, and why they love their family child care program. They then mailed them to Connecticut’s representatives in Washington, D.C.
For Ms. Lovely, the project was a way to develop a personal connection with advocacy. It was “an individual and community effort to make family child care educators and programs stand out. The postcards gave a personal touch through the children’s own designs. Also, it allowed us as educators to further express our jobs as professionals. I think it grabbed the attention of senators and [members of] Congress.”
Ms. Lovely worked on the project with her educational coach, Lisa Fay, from All ...