My Idea for a Child care Awareness Campaign Child care is our societys signal that we really value children. Without a strong commitment to child care, we undermine not only our childrens future but our communitys strength. — Paul Dewar, MP, speaking at Glebe Parents Day Care, April 21, 2011 Article 18 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states, in part, that Canada is responsible for taking “all appropriate measures to ensure that children of working parents have the right to benefit from child-care services and facilities for which they are eligible” and that Canada “shall render appropriate assistance to parents and legal guardians in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities and shall ensure the development of institutions, facilities, and services for the care of children.” Since Canada signed that UN agreement back in 1989, a generation of Canadian kids has grown up without a universal child-care program—and a generation of Canadian parents have had to make do with whatever child care they could find. For 80 percent of us, that has meant unlicensed child care. All this time we could have had a universal child-care system that not only paid for itself but that also created spinoff jobs in our communities. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Yet the government continues to pander to the outdated notion that a pan-Canadian child care program would be an unnecessary burden to tax payers. This is despite the fact that many other countries are enjoying the economic benefits after actively invested in child care. They have discovered that investing 1 million dollars in childcare will create 4 times as many jobs as investing that same amount in the construction sector. But still we hold strong to the belief that children should be home with mothers to support old fashioned family values and families with a single parent or two working parents are made to feel that they are giving their children a substandard childhood as opposed to children that are raised solely in home prior to entering school. In response to this I propose a “Child Care Works So Can I Campaign” I propose that as a community we choose on day a year when everyone who benefits from Child Care where’s a nametag to work that states “Child Care Works So Can 1” to show the general public all the folks who would not be working if they did not have childcare. So maybe they could get a sense that childcare matters to us all. That if we could wave a magic wand and all families could have one parent from every family stay at home with their children, regardless if that parent studied hard for their career or if a single parent now must live off the social service system and regardless if there is no data to suggest that children who go to a quality child care center with engaged staff are develop just as well as a child with one stay at home parent. Let’s be realistic if this were to happen who would take their place in the job market. In 1967 Prime Minister Lestor Pearson established the Royal Commision on the Status of women. The commission took as it guiding light the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “All human are born free and equal in dignity and rights” within this framework the Commission established four principles: • That women should be free to choose whether or not to take employment outside the home; • That the care of children is a responsibility to be shared by the mother, the father and society; • That society has a responsibility for women because of pregnancy and child-birth, and special treatment related to maternity will and always be necessary and • That in certain areas women will for an interim time require special treatment to overcome the adverse affects of discriminatory practices. It is my hope that through this campaign we spread awareness throughout our communities how child care affects everyone not just the families directly using it. Our entire working industry relies on employees being able to access quality childcare. So lets choose a pan-Canadian Day and encourage all child care programs to have their staff. families, ELCC instructors, licencing officers and provincial organization’s that support child care wear a badges one day every year that says “Child Care Works So Can I”. Rosetta Sanders
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 23:48:25 +0000
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