Women's Leadership: One Voice for Early Childhood

By Lisa Sieren

Each of us only has one voice. Sometimes, one voice is enough to advocate for what we believe in. More often, though, it takes many voices collectively speaking out on behalf of our cause. It goes along with the thought that "two heads are better than one." Individually, we have one perspective, one voice. Together we can look at an issue from multiple angles, develop a stronger solution and advocate with many voices.

For several months prior to and during the legislative session, United Way and an advocacy partner worked on legislative recommendations to improve the quality and affordability of child care for working families. With the current economic situation and the state and federal budget concerns, let’s just say that it has been even more complicated than usual to develop recommendations. In late January, a group of women representing the Advocacy Committee of United Way Women’s Leadership Connection joined United Way staff, a child care center director and a parent utilizing child care to meet with a local representative on early childhood legislation.

It was a great meeting — one of the best advocacy meetings I have ever been a part of. The Women’s Leadership members were able to recommend what they felt would best strengthen child care in the state. The child care center director discussed ideas that could best support child care providers. The parent talked about the strategies that helped her, as a working parent, ensure her child was in a quality child care center. Each person brought a unique perspective to the table, but all with the same commitment and passion for early childhood. With the input of all these early childhood advocates, we were able to generate additional ideas to help us move past the complications we were stuck in.

Women’s Leadership members convened again last week along with Polk County Empowerment to speak with two legislators on the importance of protecting early childhood funding through Iowa Community Empowerment. At a time when the state budget is strained, early childhood supporters are advocating for Empowerment funding cuts to be no more than the across-the-board cuts faced across government agencies.

Following the meeting, Women’s Leadership, Empowerment and early childhood supporters picked up their phones and sent e-mails asking their representatives to protect early childhood funding. With a collective voice, the message was spread much farther and with a lot of strength.

We all have issues we are passionate about. Sometimes, to help advance our work and speak louder, it helps to find additional individuals who are also advocates for our issues. Advocating together, we can sometimes do much more than we can do on our own.