Thirty Baltimore families are tackling child care struggles and finding strength and solutions through a new series of workshops held in October.
On Thursday night, the first of four parent advocacy sessions led by representatives from the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University drew a crowd of 15 – with toddlers in tow – to Port Discovery Children’s Museum.
Some parents came dressed in scrubs and work clothes. Others cradled newborns. Many dropped their kids off for free child care on the floor below.
But all came for the same reason: to build community and share resources.
Kelli Simpson is a single mom participating in the workshops.
“My mom passed away three weeks after my daughter was born, so I am learning to be a mom without my mom and my grandmother,” she said. “And I just want to make sure that I'm surrounded with good people and creating the village for myself.”
Simpson hopes to gain “direction and guidance to resources” from the sessions. She’s also looking for a group that feels “therapeutic.”
“I'm giving myself grace and learning to be kind to myself, and understanding that everything doesn't have to be perfect,” she said.
Simpson isn’t alone. Attendees shared mutual experiences of complications during childbirth, racism in schools and daycare centers and the pressure to be perfect parents.
Tunette Powell, one of the workshop leaders, said navigating issues like these is a full-time job. That’s why coming together helps.
“Tonight is about being real, being unapologetic about who we are, about who our kids are, about what we want to see, about the struggle but also the opportunities to dream a little bit,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like it's just you with your babies. But today, we get out of that silo and say we have a community.”
During the session, parents identified systems and stereotypes – like racism and sexism – that make child care more difficult to access. Then, they created collages to illustrate their personal goals.
“We will always start these [classes] with problems and end with possibilities,” Powell said.
Three more virtual workshops will be held this month. Parents receive $75 for every session they attend – or $400 total for attending all four.
Felicia Jones-Taylor is the prenatal-to-three program director at the Maryland Family Network, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring early childhood success. She helps coordinate and run the partnership with Arizona State University.
Jones-Taylor said the idea for the workshop stemmed from a series of community meetings run by the Maryland Family Network last summer. Parents in Baltimore City named child care as a primary concern – but said that advocating for their needs is challenging.
“A lot of times that can be intimidating for a parent or caregiver, to speak with an elected official, or go to a board meeting and express concern, or even go into their child's classroom and express concern,” she said. “These workshops are all about giving families and caregivers a starting point of how to do this.”
Jones-Taylor said the workshops hit sign-up capacity two hours after opening for registration.
