Put Child Care on the Map!

RESULTS believes it is important it is for families to have access to good, reliable, high-quality child care. Child care is early learning, and also a crucial support for working parents. We have a lot of ground to cover this year to make sure every member of Congress hears about child care in their community: everything from the early learning opportunities to the employers who count on staff to come every day; from subsidy assistance to tax credits to dollars to improve quality. They need to hear about the good things happening for young children in the classroom, and they need to hear about the waiting lists and families turned away. They need to hear that you want them to support a funding increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), and they need to hear about the consequences if we don’t that investment. They need to hear about the real children, parents, and providers that know first-hand that child care matters.

We need to put child care on the map, and we need your help to do it.

Members of Congress will be in their state and district offices many times in the coming months. Check out this schedule of congressional recess periods.

While they’re in town, you can put child care on the map:

• Schedule a meeting in the district office with the legislator or staff person — bring a parent, a child care provider, or a local employer/business leader to the meeting. Click here to see tips on organizing a great meeting, our template for requesting a meeting, and you can look up the district office phone number and address online. 97 percent of congressional aides say this can influence a representative’s/senator’s decision.
• Attend a town hall meeting or candidate appearance and ask a question about child care when they’re talking about jobs or education or families. See these tips online and here is a short "laser talk" that you can adapt to ask a question in this setting.
• Host your Member of Congress to visit a local child care program. Here’s a toolkit with easy steps.
• Write a letter to the editor of the local paper using our online alert, and see our Activist Toolkit pieces on writing a letter to the editor and generating an op-ed for tips.

• Organize an effort to send local parents to work wearing “I’m at work because I have child care” stickers — take pictures and alert the media. Here’s a template made with standard labels!
• Hosting an early childhood conference or training this year? Set up a table for conference attendees to “take action” — using a computer to e-mail Members of Congress using our alert or have people handwrite letters with our action sheet (Word).

And after you’ve put child care on the map for your member of Congress, put it on our map! Let us know how you put child care on the map for your senators and representative, and we’ll post it on this map to highlight the efforts going on around the country!

View Putting Child Care on the Map in a larger map

We’d love it if you let us know what actions you plan on taking in your community, answer questions offer need support? E-mail Meredith (dodson@results.org). Watch for e-mail alerts for updates and more ways you can take action to put child care on the map!