Parent Voices CA is pleased to share a new column called Real Life with Gia. Mother, writer, and parent leader Gia (she/her/hers) will share her perspectives around parenthood, advocacy, and real life in the Bay Area. Read Gia’s first post and look out for more in the future!
Parent Voices CA is a genuinely progressive and caring organization that helps to give voice to parents such as me. As a mother of four, I’ve completely embraced the challenges of parenthood, advocacy, and real life in the Bay Area. I’m a Parent Leader living in CA who’s fiercely writing to empower communities, children, and families through advocacy. In defining my work as an advocate, parent leader, and writer, I gravitate to the profound voice of an Advocacy Writer. In the world of writing, my lens is delicate to the experiences of people, social change, and parenthood. Subsequently, I’m confounded by unseemly impact of daunting social issues that impact us all. In just, I believe that affordable and quality child care are the centerpieces of healthy families, collective social change, and powerful investments into the future.
Mommy life in the San Francisco Bay Area is filled with laughter, family, self-care, advocacy, and writing. I enjoy the happiest moments with my teenage daughter, twin sons, and toddler daughter. In the times of a global pandemic, I’ve struggled with the implications of Covid on my family. Fortunately, the grass is always greener on the other side and I’ve refined my philosophy as a writer of advocacy, culture, family, and self-care. I’m thrilled to bring forth Parent Voices CA vision through my writing and work within the community. Next generation Rosie’s are ready to thrive and promote the continuous work needed for affordable child care.
Notably in 2017, I was part of the Parent Voices campaign to update income guidelines used to qualify for child care that were nearly a decade old. This campaign also ended the practice of requiring families to update their paperwork multiple times a year. As a mom with a growing family, I’ve experienced stress due to the lack of congruency in transitions relating to my child care. It’s a joy and sometimes challenging to manage mothering, work, and maintain access to child care subsidies. AB 60 and other child care bills are precisely why I passionately advocate in support of parents, the community, families, and children. It’s a testament of my efforts to create social change, and personal strides as a child care advocate. In liberty and justice, Parent Voices CA is great at understanding the intricacy of parent life struggles, political woes, and the importance of accessibility to affordable child care.
Child Care is the ultimate centerpiece for growing families, family-oriented organizations, and legislation for equal pay for parents. Parent leaders including myself are ready and are at the forefront of what matters in developing public policies that impact families. My work as a writer essentially is to emphasize the experiences of parents and child care providers throughout California that are driven to make positive change. Most importantly, as a Parent Voices Advocacy Writer I’m destined on a continuum to create social change in creative ways through writing, advocacy, and public policies that highlight real parents with real stories that matter. Undoubtedly, as a writer and parent, I wholeheartedly love my children and sacrificially want to see them thrive. I seek to encourage the value of telling our story. The children’s stories within our communities. Our beautiful families stories.
Gia Jones is an Advocacy Writer for Parent Voices. She’s a proud mother of four from the San Francisco Bay Area and has been advocating for child care, family services, and public policies with Parent Voices for over 10 years. Gia is embodying her ultimate dream of having a thriving family that understands the power in a life of advocacy.