Rising Up for Child Care

"I worked as an ECE teacher for 15 years. Originally I left the field with the intention of just taking a break. Through a series of events I came to be employed as a forklift operator making DOUBLE what I did as an ECE. For that reason, I stayed in my new career. I've often thought about how sad a reflection on society it is, that my two chosen careers have been so ridiculously unbalanced. To be an ECE of course, I needed a college diploma which took me 2 years. To be a forklift operator I needed to take a one week training course. Indeed, there have been times when I felt I wanted to go back into the field of childcare and nursery school. Sadly though, financially, I have become accustomed to my current income, and have no intention of returning. Our society just doesn't seem to value early childhood education the way some other countries do, it's sad to me that this is the same situation we've faced since the early 90s and precious little progress has been made." ______ No one should have to choose between a profession they love and being able to pay the bills. It is time for a publicly-funded, universal child care system that ensures decent work and professional pay for ECEs, early years staff and child care providers. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

“I have been working as an ECE for four years now. I have been in the same company for the past four year. There are so many times that I have wanted to leave but been afraid to. It seems to me that even if I move to another ECE job, I’ll still be facing the same bad situation I’m experiencing now. I can't blame anyone because I know that everyone here is trying their best to create a good working environment, especially my supervisor, which I really appreciate. But enough is enough. Despite the four years that I have been working, I still don't have health benefits and paid vacation. Before Covid I was working 7:30am split shifts, which meant I couldn’t use my 7 sick days easily. Now, because of the pandemic, it feels impossible for me to use my paid sick days. I feel overwhelmed everyday as all the responsibility is on my shoulders alone. I have an ECA as a partner, our supervisors don’t expect them to have the same responsibilities as me, so I bear that alone. When there are complaints or demands from parents, I’m the only one expected to face them, and that adds more stress to my job. I don't want to blame anyone, but this has become my situation for the past four years. The only thing that drives me and that keeps me going are the children that I work with. I love the job but when I am in the program I want to run away. I want to help and be part of the advocacy for decent work. I want to be part of the voices to advocate that ECE’s should not face unreasonable and unrealistic demands. I want to help by advocating that we are educated professionals and should be treated with respect as other professionals are.” ______ ECEs, early years staff and child care providers deserve respect and recognition for their work. This includes the decent work conditions that create opportunities for meaningful pedagogical and caring work. This requires a publicly-funded, universal child care system with decent work at the core.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I am a Mum of 2 amazing children 5 and 1, and an RECE. After the birth of my first son I decided to move from Centre based care to licensed home child care. I knew after working in centres for 13 years before I made the switch we did not get a whole lot, but in home child care we get even less for doing triple the work. Not only am I the teacher, I am the cleaner, cook and everything else in-between. Since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, I now spend even more time cleaning and sanitizing, leaving very little time for my children/husband to have a mum who has energy for them. There are days that I work 15 hours a day with no breaks and no lunch time. When you break down my pay, most days I make $2.50 an hour, and that covers my wages, my bills, the food for the children, etc. I currently live in Keene Ontario where subsidies, wage enhancement, and base funding is available. That funding helps to ease the burden a little. But I will soon be moving to Port Hope Ontario, and now I worry that the same funding won’t be available to me there. How is that fair? I will be doing the same work I am doing now, but with no help from the government, simply because of my location. There needs to be a system to help all child care, no matter if it’s in a centre or in a licensed home. All RECEs should be paid the same and fairly, no matter their place of work. --------------------- We know that during the COVID-pandemic closure many licensed home child care providers remained open, and their particular needs have been roundly ignored by the Province. Emma’s concerns with increased responsibility, unjust compensation and inadequate funding are highlights of the many inequities and gaps of our existing system. It’s time to rise up and demand more from the Province - this is not good enough. All educators, children, and families deserve better. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I'm a social worker, it's a job that's been a bit harder since I had my son, but I've known since I was a kid that it's what I wanted to do. I was temporarily laid off from my job for 3 months because of the pandemic. In May our municipality redeployed workers to long term care homes, and those who weren't able to take on that work were laid off. I had only been back from 18 months of maternity leave for a matter of weeks, and with medically fragile family members, I simply couldn't take the risk. On one hand each day I spent home with my child felt like a blessing, on the other hand, each day spent at home brought more worry and concern. Would I have a job to go back to? Would my husband and I be able to afford child care if/when I went back to work? Would we even feel safe sending our son back to child care? I felt so much confusion and uncertainty. Three months later I was called back to work, which by chance, happened on the same day we got a deadline from our child care to decide if we would be sending our son back. After much deliberation, we had already said, "no, we won't be coming back" to our child care centre; but within the hour I got the call to return to work. Even though I’m working from home, my employer has a condition that I must have child care arrangements to return, and I knew that if I didn't return at that point, I would be ineligible for CERB. I had to make a decision incredibly quickly, while standing in a grocery store, and I really felt like I had no choice. An hour after telling our child care not to hold our spot, I had to call them back and say, "I need him to start next week". However, as I was off work for so long, we could only afford to send him part time. We are really thankful to have a child care centre that is taking great precautions to ensure our child's health and development is prioritized, and it's reassuring to me that the ratio in his class is low, but I still worry. Because we could only afford part time care, for two days a week my busy boy is home with me as I work from home full-time. Our days are filled with lots of independent play, coloring, singing songs, and a nice long nap for baby so mama can get work done. I feel real pressure trying to do two jobs at once, and worrying about doing both well. I also feel incredibly guilty if my son is watching tv so I can take a call. I'm doing the best I can in the face of some pretty impossible choices, and we are taking things one day at a time. ----------------------------------- We know that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, families have had to make incredibly difficult, and often, unfair decisions. Like Sabrina, we often aren’t given a ‘real choice’. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. A universal, publicly-funded, accessible, affordable, inclusive child care system would create the conditions where families can make real choices about the care and education of their young children. It would create opportunities for all children to experience a quality early learning environment where educators are respected, valued, and well-paid. The time is now. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I have been working as an RECE in the field for over 15 years.  I chose this field because I truly enjoy working with children. I was happy to get up and come to work everyday.  A few months before the pandemic rocked our child care world (and the rest of the world), I started questioning my place in this field.  Over the last couple of years, we as RECEs have been given more and more responsibilities, but continue to make next to nothing and go unrecognized as essential professionals.  During the pandemic, I truly missed my role in the classroom and was looking forward to getting back to work. Sadly, since returning I have experienced nothing but stress and anxiety in my role as centre supervisor.  I spend all of my days reporting Serious Occurrences for children who have fallen ill or updating them as test results return. I don't get to spend time in the classrooms enjoying the children anymore, instead I stress about how the centre is going to pay the bills each month - as the funding that the government is constantly bragging about STILL has NOT come through (and we have no idea when it will) and I worry about letting down my staff and families if we can't continue on financially.  I'm exhausted and some days I feel like everything I loved about this job has been taken away. While I understand that these times are different, I also wonder if things will ever return to what I spent so much time learning about in school.  I'm seriously at the end of a tethered rope and I don't know how much longer I can hold on.  RECEs deserve so much more recognition than we receive and I seriously hope that the government steps up and follows through on their promise of funding and assistance before it is too late for my centre and others out there like mine that are holding on by a thread." --------- This is the urgent need we are hearing across Ontario. Our child care programs need support now, and we need long-term, sustainable solutions. This means a publicly-funded, universal, accessible, affordable, inclusive child care system. The Federal government has stated their commitment, now the Ford government must work together with the federal government on this vital priority. Our collective voices highlight the urgent need for change and the value of early childhood education in Ontario. All children deserve it, all families deserve it, all educators deserve it. The time is now. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I have been an ECE for the last 15 years and have yet to hold a full-time position. My career began in a supply Educator position, and for five years I struggled to obtain a full-time position as they were few and far between. Eventually I was forced to leave my job that I loved. After my second child it became almost impossible to pay for childcare for 2 children with the uncertainty supply work brings. Still with full-time positions limited I spent the next 5 years in contracts for before and after school programs as a Supervisor, being a contract part time staff I didn't receive any benefits. The odd hours forced my husband to switch to night shifts because again we could not afford childcare with my part time hours, I was also denied subsidy because I didn't work enough. Five years of night shifts began to have a negative impact on my husband's health and we made the decision to move away from the city. Now 15 years into my career I am working 2 part time jobs, 6 days a week as an RECE, I still receive no health benefits, vacation time or sick days. When I became an Early Childhood Educator I never imagined that I couldn't afford childcare for my own children. --------- We know that the storyteller is not alone. We know others in our sector are forced to make impossible decisions everyday. This is why Ontario needs to be part of a national child care plan that delivers decent work and compensation for educators and affordable child care for families.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"With two months left of school in my Early Childhood Education Diploma, my future became very uncertain. The COVID pandemic completely uprooted everything I thought I knew about childcare. As I physically distanced at home and completed school online, I listened with fear to stories of outbreaks in emergency childcare and I wondered if I would ever feel safe enough to begin working in a career I love. Now that childcare has reopened in Ontario, I am filled with fear and uncertainty. Between decreased funding, lack of jobs, and the fear of getting sick, it feels like the sector has been left behind by the provincial and federal government." --------- Rachel is not alone in her worry for the future. We know that many are concerned about the future of the early childhood education sector. Yet, we have an opportunity - we need Ontario to be part of a national child care plan that delivers decent work and compensation for educators and affordable child care for families.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"My childcare centre is committed to decent work practices in ways that I haven't seen often in our sector. We are paid well, have good health benefits, 12 sick days/year, vacation... all things that I personally consider to be the bare minimum to keep staff healthy and happy. The cherry on top is that we have daily paid planning time with our room partners and we are also "over staffed", at least by ministry standards... which should also be part of standard practices in childcare, but as most RECEs and childcare workers know, the reality is very different. I've felt the consequences of these practices in many ways. I currently work in the preschool program and before covid, we had 16 children with 4 staff (3 RECES, 1 assistant). That meant no one needed to come cover our breaks (more consistency for the children) and we were able to divide and conquer the enormous amount of paperwork that comes with childcare.  When we first re-opened after the pandemic closure, we kept our cohort at 10 for the summer, which meant it was me, one of my colleagues and 8 children. Those 2 months were hard on us. There were all the changes to what we could/could not do with children, the worries that come with providing childcare during a pandemic, and not having extra staff or planning time was hard. When the new school year started, it was decided that we would still have 4 staff (now 2 RECEs and 2 assistants) but only 12 children. Our shifts and breaks were changed to ensure we had 3 staff in the room most of the time and that myself and my fellow RECE still had planning time everyday. Our covid summer was hard, yes. But it was also a learning experience. We learned how to adapt our practice to minimize cross-contamination, we shuffled our environment and our program to promote physical distancing in developmentally appropriate ways. We've had just over a month with the new children and I can say confidently we're doing amazing work. The lower numbers have allowed us to get to know our children better, give them lots of 1-on-1 attention, make them feel welcome and make the transition into the new program easier and smoother. Planning time has allowed me and my partner to develop a closer relationship, work on our communication with each other, build on each other's strengths and actually divide the workload so we don't feel as burnt out. Childcare is a hard job on one's mental and emotional health, now more than ever, but I definitely feel like these measures have helped us cope better with the stress and pressure. The biggest tell is how happy our children are. Our transitions are mostly smooth (I mean, they are children... big feelings are expected) and we're focusing on uninterrupted free play, outdoor time and going with the flow. It's still weird and uncomfortable to wear PPE and it's hard to understand the children when their masks are on, but we're doing it. Our experience shows that investing in decent work practices for educators and childcare staff have a direct impact on children's experiences. I love being an educator and I wish all educators in our province had the opportunity to work decent jobs and feel valued by their community. Children and families need high quality childcare and educators deserve to work decent jobs. The future is still uncertain - we don't know how viable our program is going to be when CEWS ends or if we will go through another closure. We don't know much, but we do know decent work and high quality childcare are possible with the appropriate funding and support. --------- Patricia’s story is important - many ECEs experience decent work and professional pay, and feel valued and honoured in their communities. But, not all educators have access to these conditions. This is why our current system needs to change. Every educator deserves decent work. Every child and family deserves access to high quality programs.  Instead of addressing these issues with immediate action and investment towards building a publicly-funded child care system which ensures decent work for all educators, the regulatory changes Ontario proposed on Friday (to ratio/group sizes, staff qualifications, and others) undermine our sector and our profession. We all deserve better. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I drive a 2012 Volkswagen, nothing fancy. I live in a small house with my husband. I don't have name brand clothes or expensive furniture. I look at my paycheck every two weeks and want to cry. The pay I receive as a full time RECE, barely covers my bills every month. Plus I have to spend my own money to provide materials for my classroom because I am told, "it's not in the budget". I am pregnant with my first child. I have to go back to work after 6 months after having my baby because my husband and I can't afford for me to be off for 1 year. I cry about this a lot. I stress every day about how we will afford a child and child care on my salary. I love my job so much but it is also the reason I stay up at night worrying about my future and the future of my baby. --------- Jenna is not alone. So many ECEs, child care staff and providers, and parents are forced to make impossible decisions to balance their careers and family needs. It doesn’t have to be like this. There is a more fair and just way for us to live, and it involves a national child care program with decent work for educators and affordable fees for parents. Time is up - children, families, educators and communities deserve it now.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I worked as an ECE teacher for 15 years. Originally I left the field with the intention of just taking a break. Through a series of events I came to be employed as a forklift operator making DOUBLE what I did as an ECE. For that reason, I stayed in my new career. I've often thought about how sad a reflection on society it is, that my two chosen careers have been so ridiculously unbalanced. To be an ECE of course, I needed a college diploma which took me 2 years. To be a forklift operator I needed to take a one week training course. Indeed, there have been times when I felt I wanted to go back into the field of childcare and nursery school. Sadly though, financially, I have become accustomed to my current income, and have no intention of returning. Our society just doesn't seem to value early childhood education the way some other countries do, it's sad to me that this is the same situation we've faced since the early 90s and precious little progress has been made." ______ No one should have to choose between a profession they love and being able to pay the bills. It is time for a publicly-funded, universal child care system that ensures decent work and professional pay for ECEs, early years staff and child care providers. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

“I have been working as an ECE for four years now. I have been in the same company for the past four year. There are so many times that I have wanted to leave but been afraid to. It seems to me that even if I move to another ECE job, I’ll still be facing the same bad situation I’m experiencing now. I can't blame anyone because I know that everyone here is trying their best to create a good working environment, especially my supervisor, which I really appreciate. But enough is enough. Despite the four years that I have been working, I still don't have health benefits and paid vacation. Before Covid I was working 7:30am split shifts, which meant I couldn’t use my 7 sick days easily. Now, because of the pandemic, it feels impossible for me to use my paid sick days. I feel overwhelmed everyday as all the responsibility is on my shoulders alone. I have an ECA as a partner, our supervisors don’t expect them to have the same responsibilities as me, so I bear that alone. When there are complaints or demands from parents, I’m the only one expected to face them, and that adds more stress to my job. I don't want to blame anyone, but this has become my situation for the past four years. The only thing that drives me and that keeps me going are the children that I work with. I love the job but when I am in the program I want to run away. I want to help and be part of the advocacy for decent work. I want to be part of the voices to advocate that ECE’s should not face unreasonable and unrealistic demands. I want to help by advocating that we are educated professionals and should be treated with respect as other professionals are.” ______ ECEs, early years staff and child care providers deserve respect and recognition for their work. This includes the decent work conditions that create opportunities for meaningful pedagogical and caring work. This requires a publicly-funded, universal child care system with decent work at the core.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I am a Mum of 2 amazing children 5 and 1, and an RECE. After the birth of my first son I decided to move from Centre based care to licensed home child care. I knew after working in centres for 13 years before I made the switch we did not get a whole lot, but in home child care we get even less for doing triple the work. Not only am I the teacher, I am the cleaner, cook and everything else in-between. Since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, I now spend even more time cleaning and sanitizing, leaving very little time for my children/husband to have a mum who has energy for them. There are days that I work 15 hours a day with no breaks and no lunch time. When you break down my pay, most days I make $2.50 an hour, and that covers my wages, my bills, the food for the children, etc. I currently live in Keene Ontario where subsidies, wage enhancement, and base funding is available. That funding helps to ease the burden a little. But I will soon be moving to Port Hope Ontario, and now I worry that the same funding won’t be available to me there. How is that fair? I will be doing the same work I am doing now, but with no help from the government, simply because of my location. There needs to be a system to help all child care, no matter if it’s in a centre or in a licensed home. All RECEs should be paid the same and fairly, no matter their place of work. --------------------- We know that during the COVID-pandemic closure many licensed home child care providers remained open, and their particular needs have been roundly ignored by the Province. Emma’s concerns with increased responsibility, unjust compensation and inadequate funding are highlights of the many inequities and gaps of our existing system. It’s time to rise up and demand more from the Province - this is not good enough. All educators, children, and families deserve better. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I'm a social worker, it's a job that's been a bit harder since I had my son, but I've known since I was a kid that it's what I wanted to do. I was temporarily laid off from my job for 3 months because of the pandemic. In May our municipality redeployed workers to long term care homes, and those who weren't able to take on that work were laid off. I had only been back from 18 months of maternity leave for a matter of weeks, and with medically fragile family members, I simply couldn't take the risk. On one hand each day I spent home with my child felt like a blessing, on the other hand, each day spent at home brought more worry and concern. Would I have a job to go back to? Would my husband and I be able to afford child care if/when I went back to work? Would we even feel safe sending our son back to child care? I felt so much confusion and uncertainty. Three months later I was called back to work, which by chance, happened on the same day we got a deadline from our child care to decide if we would be sending our son back. After much deliberation, we had already said, "no, we won't be coming back" to our child care centre; but within the hour I got the call to return to work. Even though I’m working from home, my employer has a condition that I must have child care arrangements to return, and I knew that if I didn't return at that point, I would be ineligible for CERB. I had to make a decision incredibly quickly, while standing in a grocery store, and I really felt like I had no choice. An hour after telling our child care not to hold our spot, I had to call them back and say, "I need him to start next week". However, as I was off work for so long, we could only afford to send him part time. We are really thankful to have a child care centre that is taking great precautions to ensure our child's health and development is prioritized, and it's reassuring to me that the ratio in his class is low, but I still worry. Because we could only afford part time care, for two days a week my busy boy is home with me as I work from home full-time. Our days are filled with lots of independent play, coloring, singing songs, and a nice long nap for baby so mama can get work done. I feel real pressure trying to do two jobs at once, and worrying about doing both well. I also feel incredibly guilty if my son is watching tv so I can take a call. I'm doing the best I can in the face of some pretty impossible choices, and we are taking things one day at a time. ----------------------------------- We know that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, families have had to make incredibly difficult, and often, unfair decisions. Like Sabrina, we often aren’t given a ‘real choice’. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. A universal, publicly-funded, accessible, affordable, inclusive child care system would create the conditions where families can make real choices about the care and education of their young children. It would create opportunities for all children to experience a quality early learning environment where educators are respected, valued, and well-paid. The time is now. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I have been working as an RECE in the field for over 15 years.  I chose this field because I truly enjoy working with children. I was happy to get up and come to work everyday.  A few months before the pandemic rocked our child care world (and the rest of the world), I started questioning my place in this field.  Over the last couple of years, we as RECEs have been given more and more responsibilities, but continue to make next to nothing and go unrecognized as essential professionals.  During the pandemic, I truly missed my role in the classroom and was looking forward to getting back to work. Sadly, since returning I have experienced nothing but stress and anxiety in my role as centre supervisor.  I spend all of my days reporting Serious Occurrences for children who have fallen ill or updating them as test results return. I don't get to spend time in the classrooms enjoying the children anymore, instead I stress about how the centre is going to pay the bills each month - as the funding that the government is constantly bragging about STILL has NOT come through (and we have no idea when it will) and I worry about letting down my staff and families if we can't continue on financially.  I'm exhausted and some days I feel like everything I loved about this job has been taken away. While I understand that these times are different, I also wonder if things will ever return to what I spent so much time learning about in school.  I'm seriously at the end of a tethered rope and I don't know how much longer I can hold on.  RECEs deserve so much more recognition than we receive and I seriously hope that the government steps up and follows through on their promise of funding and assistance before it is too late for my centre and others out there like mine that are holding on by a thread." --------- This is the urgent need we are hearing across Ontario. Our child care programs need support now, and we need long-term, sustainable solutions. This means a publicly-funded, universal, accessible, affordable, inclusive child care system. The Federal government has stated their commitment, now the Ford government must work together with the federal government on this vital priority. Our collective voices highlight the urgent need for change and the value of early childhood education in Ontario. All children deserve it, all families deserve it, all educators deserve it. The time is now. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I have been an ECE for the last 15 years and have yet to hold a full-time position. My career began in a supply Educator position, and for five years I struggled to obtain a full-time position as they were few and far between. Eventually I was forced to leave my job that I loved. After my second child it became almost impossible to pay for childcare for 2 children with the uncertainty supply work brings. Still with full-time positions limited I spent the next 5 years in contracts for before and after school programs as a Supervisor, being a contract part time staff I didn't receive any benefits. The odd hours forced my husband to switch to night shifts because again we could not afford childcare with my part time hours, I was also denied subsidy because I didn't work enough. Five years of night shifts began to have a negative impact on my husband's health and we made the decision to move away from the city. Now 15 years into my career I am working 2 part time jobs, 6 days a week as an RECE, I still receive no health benefits, vacation time or sick days. When I became an Early Childhood Educator I never imagined that I couldn't afford childcare for my own children. --------- We know that the storyteller is not alone. We know others in our sector are forced to make impossible decisions everyday. This is why Ontario needs to be part of a national child care plan that delivers decent work and compensation for educators and affordable child care for families.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"With two months left of school in my Early Childhood Education Diploma, my future became very uncertain. The COVID pandemic completely uprooted everything I thought I knew about childcare. As I physically distanced at home and completed school online, I listened with fear to stories of outbreaks in emergency childcare and I wondered if I would ever feel safe enough to begin working in a career I love. Now that childcare has reopened in Ontario, I am filled with fear and uncertainty. Between decreased funding, lack of jobs, and the fear of getting sick, it feels like the sector has been left behind by the provincial and federal government." --------- Rachel is not alone in her worry for the future. We know that many are concerned about the future of the early childhood education sector. Yet, we have an opportunity - we need Ontario to be part of a national child care plan that delivers decent work and compensation for educators and affordable child care for families.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"My childcare centre is committed to decent work practices in ways that I haven't seen often in our sector. We are paid well, have good health benefits, 12 sick days/year, vacation... all things that I personally consider to be the bare minimum to keep staff healthy and happy. The cherry on top is that we have daily paid planning time with our room partners and we are also "over staffed", at least by ministry standards... which should also be part of standard practices in childcare, but as most RECEs and childcare workers know, the reality is very different. I've felt the consequences of these practices in many ways. I currently work in the preschool program and before covid, we had 16 children with 4 staff (3 RECES, 1 assistant). That meant no one needed to come cover our breaks (more consistency for the children) and we were able to divide and conquer the enormous amount of paperwork that comes with childcare.  When we first re-opened after the pandemic closure, we kept our cohort at 10 for the summer, which meant it was me, one of my colleagues and 8 children. Those 2 months were hard on us. There were all the changes to what we could/could not do with children, the worries that come with providing childcare during a pandemic, and not having extra staff or planning time was hard. When the new school year started, it was decided that we would still have 4 staff (now 2 RECEs and 2 assistants) but only 12 children. Our shifts and breaks were changed to ensure we had 3 staff in the room most of the time and that myself and my fellow RECE still had planning time everyday. Our covid summer was hard, yes. But it was also a learning experience. We learned how to adapt our practice to minimize cross-contamination, we shuffled our environment and our program to promote physical distancing in developmentally appropriate ways. We've had just over a month with the new children and I can say confidently we're doing amazing work. The lower numbers have allowed us to get to know our children better, give them lots of 1-on-1 attention, make them feel welcome and make the transition into the new program easier and smoother. Planning time has allowed me and my partner to develop a closer relationship, work on our communication with each other, build on each other's strengths and actually divide the workload so we don't feel as burnt out. Childcare is a hard job on one's mental and emotional health, now more than ever, but I definitely feel like these measures have helped us cope better with the stress and pressure. The biggest tell is how happy our children are. Our transitions are mostly smooth (I mean, they are children... big feelings are expected) and we're focusing on uninterrupted free play, outdoor time and going with the flow. It's still weird and uncomfortable to wear PPE and it's hard to understand the children when their masks are on, but we're doing it. Our experience shows that investing in decent work practices for educators and childcare staff have a direct impact on children's experiences. I love being an educator and I wish all educators in our province had the opportunity to work decent jobs and feel valued by their community. Children and families need high quality childcare and educators deserve to work decent jobs. The future is still uncertain - we don't know how viable our program is going to be when CEWS ends or if we will go through another closure. We don't know much, but we do know decent work and high quality childcare are possible with the appropriate funding and support. --------- Patricia’s story is important - many ECEs experience decent work and professional pay, and feel valued and honoured in their communities. But, not all educators have access to these conditions. This is why our current system needs to change. Every educator deserves decent work. Every child and family deserves access to high quality programs.  Instead of addressing these issues with immediate action and investment towards building a publicly-funded child care system which ensures decent work for all educators, the regulatory changes Ontario proposed on Friday (to ratio/group sizes, staff qualifications, and others) undermine our sector and our profession. We all deserve better. Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup

"I drive a 2012 Volkswagen, nothing fancy. I live in a small house with my husband. I don't have name brand clothes or expensive furniture. I look at my paycheck every two weeks and want to cry. The pay I receive as a full time RECE, barely covers my bills every month. Plus I have to spend my own money to provide materials for my classroom because I am told, "it's not in the budget". I am pregnant with my first child. I have to go back to work after 6 months after having my baby because my husband and I can't afford for me to be off for 1 year. I cry about this a lot. I stress every day about how we will afford a child and child care on my salary. I love my job so much but it is also the reason I stay up at night worrying about my future and the future of my baby. --------- Jenna is not alone. So many ECEs, child care staff and providers, and parents are forced to make impossible decisions to balance their careers and family needs. It doesn’t have to be like this. There is a more fair and just way for us to live, and it involves a national child care program with decent work for educators and affordable fees for parents. Time is up - children, families, educators and communities deserve it now.  Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup