“Growing up in rural Wisconsin, politics was something you didn’t talk about. It was icky. It wasn’t for you, it was for them,” recalls Childcare Changemaker Corrine Hendrickson.
Thousands of people were in the streets for Community Change Action and Childcare Changemaker’s 3rd annual “Day Without Child Care” – with more than 1100 providers closing their doors, with the support of the families they serve, across 86 organizing events in more than 26 states and D.C.
On May 8, childcare providers across the country closed their doors and came together to take action, showing the true cost of care.
Dedicated to bucking the bootstraps narrative, Doutherd approached the film with an organizer’s eye. She points to the “often boring and unfun” everyday actions of base-building.
Ayanna Albertson gathered with her grandmother, mother and sister to make space for the different decisions they faced when providing care for their children.
Thousands of parents, providers and grassroots organizers led more than 50 grassroots events in 27 states + Washington D.C. across the country on May 9, a national #DayWithoutChildCare.
Teresa is a mom and a child care provider who, during the pandemic, stepped up to care for children of essential workers. Although Teresa’s services have been key to get parents to work while she cares for their children, the existing low wages of providers mean that she struggles to make ends meet at home. Families, and our economy, simply cannot work without child care.
Even before the pandemic, about 60% of families in rural areas lived in a child care desert, so this isn’t a new problem. But COVID-19 made it much worse.
Elida Cruz is a child care provider from California supporting the children of farmworkers. In this video, she shares the struggles and rewards of her work.
It’s a lose-lose situation for parents and caregivers. Providers are chronically underpaid and parents are left with little options that don’t threaten their family’s financial stability.