With the average cost of child care in the U.S. equaling college tuition and millions of early childhood educators facing wages so low they often struggle to support their own families, WestEd’s For Our Babies and the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment released a new animated video to help people understand the challenges facing families, babies, and the teachers that work with them.Through the story of baby Eva, her parents who need care for her while they work, and infant/toddler teachers Nora and Carmen, we discover a broken system that needs our immediate attention. “Getting it Right for our Babies” presents three key strategies to right this situation in the United States: paid parental leave; affordable, quality child care; and investment in teachers.
For information and how to get involved visit: http://forourbabies.org/
For information about the status of the child care workforce visit: http://cscce.berkeley.edu/
Written by
J. Ronald Lally, EDD, Co-Director of the Center for Child & Family Studies at WestEd and Marcy Whitebook, PhD, Director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, UC Berkeley with Elena Montoya, Research and Policy Associate for the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, UC Berkeley & Julie Weatherston, Communications Director for the For Our Babies campaign, WestEd
Animation by Jonathan Lemon, Digital Media Producer, WestEd
Narration by Noam Smooha