Accomplishments

Our 2006-2007 Accomplishments Included:

Our 2005-2006 Accomplishments Included:

Our 2002-2003 Accomplishments Included:

• 500 parents (coming from Los Angeles, the Central Valley, the Bay Area and rural northern and eastern California) took off from work to come to the State Capitol for our annual "Stand for Children Day."
• 250 parents rallied at the State Capitol and at San Jose hearings in December to successfully save the Stage 3 CalWORKs child care program.
• 85 parents attended our annual "Knowledge is Power: A Day of Parent Advocacy Training" in Oakland in January, following the release of the Governor's budget proposal.
• Parents formed Parent Voices chapters in Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Glenn, Marin, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Shasta counties
• Parents advocated for the protection and expansion of child care support to both Senators Boxer and Feinstein and their local congressional representatives. Senator Boxer's staff visited a child care center with parents.
• Parents in the Bay area and Sacramento area spoke out at press conferences when the budget was delayed and therefore no child care funds were being released.
• Parents in Napa saved the only subsidized child care center serving infants and toddlers from closure during the state budget impasse.
• The News Hour with Jim Lehrer featured the California budget crisis through the lens of a Parent Voices parent using child care that was in danger of being cut.

Our 2001-2002 Accomplishments Included:

• Parents organized and over 300 parents attended "Stand for Children Day" at the Capitol on May 29, 2002.
Parent Voices held candleight vigils, a press conference, and had a meeting with the Governor to win back $24 million in withheld child care funding.
• 250 parents came together to send a message to the governor: "Don't Cut our Child Care!" Legislators in attendance included Oakland's Mayor Jerry Brown, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, and Assemblymembers Dion Aroner and Wilma Chan.
• Parents testified at the Women's Legislative Caucus hearings on proposed changes to the child care subsidy system.
• Parents met at the State Building in Oakland for a vigil protesting the cuts being made to the child care subsidy system.
• Parents went to Sacramento to meet directly with the Governor.
• Parents testified at bill hearings for the Child Care Expansion Bill (SB 308, Escutia)
• Parents and organizers met with the Director of the Child Development Division of the California Department of Education to discuss the allocation of $40 million in subsidy expansion funds

Other Past Accomplishments Included:

• We advocated for and received an additional 50 million for Stage 3 CalWORKs child care subsidies. (Parent Voices organized former CalWORKs parents who were losing child care subsidies at the end of the year because of lack of funding. Five parents testified at a special legislative hearing to advocate for the reinstatement of CalWORKs child care subsidies.)
• At legislative hearings, in addition to telling their stories, parents expressed their concern that welfare recipients will be pitted against low-income working parents for limited child care resources. They made it clear that the population are one and the same, and without supportive services parents who successfully transition from welfare to work would be forced to go back on welfare to sustain their families.
• Through letters, newspaper interviews, and parent testimonies at the state capitol, Parent Voices successfully pressured the Governor to reinstate funding for CalWORKs child care subsidies.
• In the Fall of 1999, News Hour with Jim Lehrer interviewed our parents to highlight the challenges parents face in finding and funding child care.