Impact & Influence
WECA centers innovation in all its work to support the early childhood workforce and early care and education in Wisconsin. Check out this page for more information on WECA’s innovation and influence through several impact updates, our blog, Annual Reports, news coverage, and more.
WECA In The Spotlight
Families are ‘drowning’ as early child care programs face widespread staffing shortages (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Jackson County sees success with efforts to combat child care crisis (Wisconsin Rapids Tribune)
Advocacy group shines spotlight on child care need, potential solutions (Wisconsin Examiner)
Early Childhood Education News
The death of a day care: When a child care center closes, an entire community is affected (The 19th News)
Child care industry struggles with shortage of workers (ABC News)
Why You Can’t Find Child Care: 100,000 Workers Are Missing (The New York Times)
Rural communities need federal child care investments (Center for American Progress)
WHAT IS WECA?
WECA is a state nonprofit with significant local reach that supports early care and education in Wisconsin. Watch this video to get perspective from providers, partners, advocates, and WECA staff.
Read the Annual Report!
For more information about WECA’s research and data findings – visit this page.
Good Food at Home Partnership
WECA’s food systems staff collaborated with Partnership for a Healthier America and LifeWays Early Childhood Center to help bring fresh fruits and vegetables to 200 Milwaukee families this past winter. The initiative provided $60 a month in Instacart credits for fresh produce.
“Providing access to these fresh foods can help improve outcomes for children for a lifetime,” shared WECA food systems co-coordinator Catherine Hansen.
Learn more about the project in this video overview (offered in English) and read our recent blog for more on WECA’s commitment to assisting early childhood programs foster positive food environments to help children and families thrive.
Wisconsin Early Childhood Association Blog
A hub of first-hand perspectives, calls to action, program and initiative information and other timely updates.
WEESSN Set to Expand Services Across Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Early Education Shared Services Network (WEESSN), connecting center-based and family child...
American Families Plan: Child Care & Pre-School Expansion Under Consideration by Congress
The good news is that the President and Congress are talking about large investments in child care and preschool. Families have long struggled with the cost of child care. Therefore, it’s good to see interest from the Administration and Congress to address affordability for families. The American Families Plan, as proposed by the President, would invest $225 billion to make child care more affordable and to improve the quality of child care over the next 10 years.
Worthy Wage Day 2021, A Reflection on Advocacy and the Early Childhood Workforce
While Worthy Wage Day always invokes a myriad of feelings, 2020 was likely one of our darkest tributes to this cause. With COVID-19 spreading across the state and the world, early care and education programs were asked to do the impossible – stay open to care for children of essential workers without necessary personal protective equipment to stay safe. It seems in some ways like that day has been repeated 365 times to bring us now to 2021, worn and weary. The pandemic has laid bare the significant challenges early childhood professionals face each and every day.
American Rescue Plan: Affordable Health Insurance for the Wisconsin Child Care Workforce
On April 15, Wisconsin received $579.7 million for child care through the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March. These funds will be used to help families afford child care and to help stabilize the child care market (i.e. support child care businesses impacted by COVID-19 that are struggling to pay staff and fixed costs, such as rent, mortgage, or other operating expenses).
We Are Teachers Too: Reflections by Kyra Swenson
It began with idle small talk at a friend’s party. But that’s always how it begins.
“I’m a Realtor, what do you do?”
“I’m a teacher.”
“Oh, that’s such a rewarding job! My niece is in second grade. What grade do you teach?”
“I teach one-year-olds.”
*record scratch *
“…wait, I thought you said you were a teacher. What do you teach one-year-olds?”
WEESSN + Parenting Place + Local Farmers = new Farm to ECE purchasing pilot for child care providers
It has been a long-standing dream for Farm to Early Care and Education to explore ways for child care providers to share services in bulk purchasing of food for the children they serve. The year 2020 and a global pandemic magnified the need for fresh, local, and affordable options for meal services. Very early in the pandemic, child care providers struggled to find fresh produce. Many child care sites had to revert back to canned fruits and vegetables, meat, and protein alternatives that were in short supply. Frustrations in limits on items that could be purchased in stores literally had child care providers in tears because it was difficult to buy enough food at one time to keep meals going. It became a crisis, in that child care directors had to figure out new ways to keep little bellies full. Sometimes that meant a meal with no fruits and veggies, heavy on carbohydrates, and low in nutrients.