By: Gia Jones
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.
Stand for Children Day is an important day of awareness and advocacy for parents, legislators, child care providers, and advocates in California. There are beautiful logistics that coincide with the cultivating, planning, and engagement for this annual celebration. Influentially the creatives haven’t been silent in the strive for accessible child care and services. Many local and statewide parents, advocates and artists have utilized their voices of advocacy in the artwork and the support of public policies. As an advocacy writer, I understand undoubtedly that the detail in Saving Our State and System for child care comprises care, advocacy, and creativity. Subsequently, Parent Voices advocates continue to get creative for Stand for Children Day.
On April 18th 2022, the Parent Voices Stand for Children Day Program Committee met to envision messages of empowerment. The mood of excitement and enthusiasm filled the zoom meeting space. The organizers and leaders provided a continued array of advocacy, brainstorming, and creativity. Ideas flowed as a comprehensive meaning to Saving Our System and Saving Our Serenity. Most importantly, at the meeting the Parent Voices advocates focused on implementing the needs of parents for this online event. In totality, this gave way for the advocates to display in the most caring way to get creative for accessible child care.
Francis Brown is a primary example of a parent taking the art world of graffiti, caricature drawings, and pop art by storm. This wife and mother of six kids has gracefully advocacted her way through access to affordable child care. The artist goes on to say, “it’s wonderful to be able to combine all these styles and produce customized art pieces that speak to a particular cause, movement or purpose, personal or public, as I feel so many artists accomplish in each of their works.” The creativity that elicits emotions and messages of advocacy will be displayed on specific Parent Voices events such Stand For Children Day. She’s an artist that cares about the needs of families and children which can be seen in her artwork. It’s evident that this an artist of expression, diversity, and meeting client needs.
Parent Voices California continues to make political strides in creating refreshing views on advocacy in the community. Primarily, this year has been about advocacy for extending family fee waivers, increasing provider wages, implementing Universal Pre-K, and adding additional child care subsidy slots. So, not only has there been groundbreaking work in legislation but creative artists are setting a precise stage for advocacy in child care. The core of these artists’ artwork is to solidify key messages of Saving Our System, Saving Our Serenity, Saving the Beautiful State of California with authentic art pieces about the stories of families. Let’s stay creative in creating the social change within the child care and early childhood education industries.
