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"Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel." �"G.K. Chesterton

CCW MERGES WITH AFT

The Center for the Child Care Workforce (CCW), recently announced that effective November 1, 2002, it will merge with the American Federation of Teachers Educational Foundation (AFTEF). According to CCW's Marci Young...

"Joining forces with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as a project of the AFTEF will provide an unprecedented opportunity to broaden the scope of CCW's work and expand our capacity to create a unified voice for the child care workforce. We see CCW's affiliation with the AFTEF as a natural progression of our work. AFT recognizes that children who have a productive and positive early childhood education experience are better prepared for school, both socially and academically, and AFT President Sandra Feldman has taken an active role in advocating for improving early care and education services for young children. Since CCW and AFT share a history of advocacy to improve child care jobs, we expect this affiliation to strengthen our collective capacity to influence public policy and to organize to improve wages, benefits, training and advancement opportunities for the child care workforce."

"As a project within the AFT Educational Foundation, CCW will remain committed to its central goal of improving jobs for child care teachers and providers. Its activities and projects will continue to focus on:

• developing and advocating for public policy that restructures the early care and education delivery system to better address the issues of workforce recruitment and compensation; and

• influencing union and community organizing strategies that emphasize a unified voice for child care teachers and providers."
For additional information about the merger, go to the CCW web site, www.ccw.org.