Provider Appreciation Day was founded to recognize child care providers, teachers and other educators of young children everywhere.  Momentum and support for this event has grown since 1996, when it began, and recognition has steadily grown to include individuals and government organizations throughout North America, Europe and Asia.  It is truly an international effort! 

This year’s Provider Appreciation Day is Friday, May 8 (always the Friday before Mother’s Day).  It’s a day when individuals (mothers, fathers, grandparents, neighbors) and community leaders can network with child care and early care and education groups to plan events, schedule media coverage and issue proclamations.  We ask you to begin now to contact parents, community groups, child care agencies, government leaders and others so that anyone who wants to support child care providers and educators of young children will have the opportunity to participate in the important recognition events in your community.  

Where are the events in your community?  They are the ones YOU organize and make happen.  There are so many ways to recognize “providers”.   The website, www.providerappreciation.org, lists a multitude of suggestions for events that can be hosted by both organizations and as individuals.  The Web Site also has a link to view past and current events by state to give you resources and ideas when you are organizing events or other organizations in the state you may want to contact.  

Some suggestions include:

Organizations
•        Plan a luncheon or dinner honoring child care providers
•        Hang banners or posters
•        Ask government officials to sign a proclamation
•        Purchase a new piece of equipment for a program in honor of the day
•        Organize a spa day
•        Send a press release to your local newspaper 
•        Invite neighboring early childhood organizations to join you in your celebration

Parents
•        Send flowers, cards or a handwritten note of appreciation
•        Bring breakfast or lunch for your provider and for the kids
•        Work with your child to create a special remembrance
•        Give your provider a paid day off, a raise or a bonus….or that special spa day
•        Inquire if your employer provides scholarships for toys, equipment or training   that you can sponsor as a parent
•        Write an editorial to your local newspaper

Choose a way that will help you show providers and all educators that their efforts do not go unnoticed or unappreciated.  This is also a perfect opportunity to keep the importance of child care and early education in the minds of the community and government officials as well.

To learn more about the ongoing initiatives of Provider Appreciation Day, visit the national Web site jointly sponsored by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC).  The site has links to templates of sample press releases, government proclamations and news testimonials that you can adapt to send to your local newspaper, radio or other media outlet to let them know about Provider Appreciation Day and any special events you may have planned.  

Please let us know at  www.providerappreciation.org of any community or state events you become involved in so that they can be posted on the Web site.   Help this be truly a community and national movement to recognize and give thanks and appreciation to the hundreds of thousands of child care providers who contribute to the most crucial years in a young child’s life.

Today, over 11 million children under age 5 are in some type of child care arrangement every week while their parents work. On average, children of working mothers spend 36 hours every week in child care. Studies repeatedly have shown that high-quality child care – care that provides a loving, safe, stable and age-appropriate stimulating environment – helps children enter school ready to learn. Yet, less than 10 percent of the nation’s child care is of high-quality.

Unfortunately, not all of our policymakers know the facts about child care. Each year, members of the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) come to Washington, D.C. to NACCRRA’s Public Policy Symposium. Representatives from state and local CCR&R agencies from throughout the nation join together to raise the visibility of child care issues, such as the lack of quality in child care, and to advocate for improved conditions. Last year, our members heard from Members of Congress that the need for high-quality child care was not a priority for them because they did not hear directly from parents on the issue. NACCRRA made it a priority to change that by bringing parents to the very next Symposium.

This year, NACCRRA introduced the Parents@Symposium program to ensure that policymakers heard directly from parents. Forty-four parents and grandparents from 39 states were chosen to attend the conference, which was held March 10-14. The Parents@Symposium program included a series of highly interactive sessions designed specifically to prepare parents to meet with their representatives in Congress and the media. The group included parents who shared tragic stories about their children who were hurt or killed in unlicensed child care settings; parents who encountered difficulties finding and paying for child care; and parents who shared contrasting stories about the high-quality settings they experienced in the military child care system. Six family members of children who tragically died in child care came to advocate for standards that will increase safety, training and inspections.

After the parents and grandparents learned about national child care issues, they had the opportunity to meet with their representatives on Capitol Hill. The feedback from the parents and grandparents after their visits was overwhelmingly positive. One grandparent shared that she had no idea how much power she had as one American citizen to make positive changes for children. (Read more about their stories in, “Child Care in America: Parents’ Perspectives” )

This inaugural year for our Parents@Symposium program was inspirational and successful. The CCR&R professionals and staff members who attended Symposium were extremely impressed by the parents’ courage and ability to articulate the issues. In fact, Linda Smith, NACCRRA’s Executive Director, said that the parents were “the highlight of the Symposium. Thanks to these parents’ willingness to share their personal experiences, the CCR&R members of NACCRRA achieved their goal of educating legislators about the realities of child care in America through the power of parents’ testimonials.” We also heard from more than one CCR&R member who said, “This year, the parents helped us make a real difference on Capitol Hill.”

We hope that Symposium marked the beginning of a journey of parent advocacy for the parents who attended, and that the experience inspired them to use the experience as a springboard for future advocacy activity. We are thilled to announce that many of the parents who attended our 2009 Parents@Symposium program will form the first cadre of Parent Leaders in Child Care Aware® Parent Network and will be offered continued leadership training.