Erikson Institute and Administration for Children and Families Co-Host Panel Discussion on the Early Childhood Workforce
On September 24, Erikson Institute and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), co-hosted a panel discussion and networking event focused on challenges facing the early childhood workforce and how academia, government and philanthropy can help address them.
Among the topics discussed were access and equity, compensation, apprenticeship opportunities and how to appropriately support families.
The event kicked off with a welcome from Dr. Mariana Souto-Manning, President of Erikson Institute. Souto-Manning described how Erikson was founded nearly 60 years ago to support teachers in the Head Start program which was created to address inequities in early childhood education.
“Today, we continue… developing the workforce in communities that have been disinvested, really trying to undo some of the wrongs,” she said. “We know that…workforce preparation and early childhood education is an investment in the future and in the public.”
Angela Green, Regional Administrator for ACF’s Region 5, oversees high-priority human services initiatives of the agency, which funds family assistance, child support, childcare, Head Start, child welfare and other programs related to children and families. She spoke of recent initiatives ACF has undertaken to support the early care and education workforce, which include convening leaders to focus on innovative policy approaches.
“A big part of our role as a regional administrator for the Administration for Children and Families is to help create spaces like this for states and communities to share and explore meaningful innovations that drive equity forward,” Green said.
Dr. Teresa Ramos, the First Assistant Deputy Governor for Education for the Office of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, was a skilled moderator for an esteemed panel of experts. She kicked off the discussion by updating attendees on Illinois leaders’ strong commitment to early childhood. “Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has made historic investments in early childhood and public education. In just the last two fiscal years in Smart Start Illinois, we’ve added $417 million into early childhood services,” Ramos said.
She also spoke about the Illinois Department of Early Childhood which will bring together programs and funding streams now spread across three agencies into one agency to streamline operations, improve services and increase access to all families with young children. A key element of the transition is a focus on anti-racist design, and centering families with children living with special needs and multi-lingual families. “Our belief is we will actually make the system better for everyone if we center those two groups with anti-racist process,” Ramos said.
The panel was composed of experts in higher education and in the provision of early childhood care and education programs:
- Juliet Bromer, PhD, Research Professor at Erikson Institute and nationally recognized expert on home-based childcare, which is the most prevalent form of childcare in the U.S. but is often overlooked in policy and programming efforts.
- LaTonya Jones, MA, Site Director at Carole Robertson Cetner for Learning’s North Lawndale center who started at Carole Robertson as a parent volunteer and worked her way up to her current position while advancing her own education.
- Catherine Main, Senior Lecturer and Director of Early Childhood Education at the College of Education at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Main is a leader in innovative programming that supports students seeking their teaching degree and licensure while they continue to earn a living.
- Bela Moté, President and Chief Executive Officer at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, which is known for creating connections with parents and the divested communities it serves. Moté has spent her career supporting early childhood and youth development at the local, national and international levels.
- Sandra Lucia Osorio, PhD, Professor and Director of Teacher Licensure at Erikson Institute. Osorio launched Illinois’ first triple-endorsement master’s degree in early childhood education (early childhood, bilingual, special education) that seeks to increase and retain the number of teachers serving divested communities.
The panel discussed topics ranging from equity in compensation and other supports, how to “earn while you learn,” which is necessary for many students seeking to become licensed teachers in Illinois, how to build community among students so they can support one another during and after earning their degrees, how to recognize and support the essential work of home-based childcare providers, and how to remove burdens and systemic barriers that can prevent people from achieving their goal of becoming teachers and early care professionals.
Jones’ own story brought together many of these themes. She earned her CDA certification, her associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees all while she was working for Carole Robertson Center for Learning and raising her family. She spoke movingly about how more people can do the same with resources for tuition, books and other costs associated with earning a degree. Her passion for her profession and for bringing more people into the field was evident.
“Parents as educators, parents are the first teachers. And so, with that being said we need to have those resources for them so that they can have a success story as I do today.”
To see a video of the event, please click here.
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