Catherine Read Archives - Read. Think. Act.

Emerge Virginia – Training Democratic Women Candidates – Inside Scoop

(Aug 21 2017) Catherine Read talks with Emerge Virginia Board Members the Hon. Kate Hanley and Atima Omara about this affiliate of Emerge America. Emerge Virginia is a program designed to recruit and train Democratic women who are interested in running for office – local offices as well as statewide and federal offices. They do not endorse candidates or fund their campaigns, but they work in cooperation with Virginia’s List which does both.

In 2017, Emerge Virginia has 24 alumnae running for office – in both the House of Delegates and in local offices like Charlottesville City Council (Amy Laufer) and Fairfax County School Board (Karen Keys-Gamarra.) In total, there are 43 Democratic women running for the Virginia House of Delegates, a record number of women candidates. This effort in recruiting and training women is in response to the dismal level of representation of women in Virginia’s General Assembly – where they make up only 17% of the legislators. Virginia has never had a woman in the office of Governor, Lt. Governor or U.S. Senator. Only ONE WOMAN has ever been elected to statewide office – Mary Sue Terry was Attorney General from 1986 to 1993. She is the only woman to ever run for Governor and she lost to George Allen.

The Honorable Kate Hanley, Chair of the Emerge Virginia Board, started out on the Fairfax County School Board, was elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors from the Providence District in 1986, and represented that district until being elected Chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 1995, where she served until 2003. Governor Tim Kaine appointed her as Secretary of the Commonwealth in 2006 where she served until 2010. She has been instrumental in launching and building Emerge Virginia to serve women running at every level – including the election of Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid in 2013, the first woman to serve in that position in the Fairfax County’s 275 year history.

Atima Omara distinguished herself early in her political career by running and winning a national campaign to be the President of the Young Democrats of America in 2013– the first Virginian to hold that office and the first African-American woman to hold that office in it’s 81 year history. That same year, she made Jet Magazine’s 40 under 40 and Ebony Magazine’s Power 100. A native of Richmond with a BA from the University of Virginia and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from George Mason University, she is on the Board of Directors of Emerge Virginia as well as Virginia’s List. She is a regular speaker/panelist at NetRoots Nation each year, and a sought after political media commentator at major news outlets across the country.

Emerge Virginia has a powerhouse Executive Director, Julie Copeland, and distinguished Board of Directors that includes women from every part of Virginia. They include First Lady of Virginia Dorothy McAuliffe, Delegate Kathleen Murphy, Maggi Luca, Doris Crouse-Mays, Cianti Stewart-Reid, Gaylene Kanoyton, Sandra Brandt, Alexsis Rodgers and the late Mary Ann Hovis. Every Board Member has brought their unique talents and expertise to the task of increasing the number of elected Democratic women in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mary Ann Hovis was instrumental in helping to launch the DPVA’s Pat Jenning’s Project, and regularly opened her home to both Democratic women candidates and nearly every other Democratic candidate running in Virginia. Mary Ann was the daughter of Congressman Pat Jennings of Marion, VA. She was a graduate of Radford College and a long term member of the Radford University Board of Visitors where she served two terms as Rector. In 2000 she received the University’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Her commitment to electing more Democrats in Virginia is legendary.

There is much work to be done in supporting women running for public office in Virginia at every level. Emerge Virginia is focused on finding women in this Commonwealth with the passion for public office at every level of elected office. If you want to be a part of this movement, find out how you can help at www.EmergeVA.org

by Catherine Read 1 Comment

Women Behind Bars Returning to the Community – Friends of Guest House

(July 31, 2017) Catherine Read delves into the unique challenges of women who are incarcerated in Virginia’s jails and prisons and what they face when returning to their local communities – including reconnecting with their children, finding support for addiction, and finding employment. Friends of Guest House based in Alexandria, VA, is a residential program that can accept 26 women at a time into their residential program. Founded in 1974, this program has helped about 3,000 women and their 4,000 children while accepting only 17 women at a time, until very recently when the program expanded to 26 residents and expanded from 3 months to 6 months.

In the first segment of the show, case worker Laura Jessick outlines some of the broad challenges these women face and how the Friends of Guest House residential program works to successfully support them through their transition. In the three segments following, Trystika, Kimberly and Alexis talk about their experiences while incarcerated and the challenges of trying to cope with life behind bars. One of the most basic challenges is managing their monthly menstrual cycles without access to adequate supplies – including underwear. We explored this topic in an earlier show with Holly Seibold of BRAWS – Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters. The lack of medical care and basic necessities for incarcerated women is an issue that the ACLU has brought forward in other states with a case in Michigan still pending.

The statistics are staggering for the growth of women in our jails and prisons. Their offenses are overwhelming low-level non-violent trangressions with many involving addiction, fraud, property damage, probation violations and theft. Many of those crimes are tied to issues of poverty. In 1970, 73 percent of counties across the United States reported zero women in their jails. Between 1970 and 2014, incarcerated women went from under 8,000 to nearly 110,000. Currently, nearly half of all jailed women are in small county jails which are funded and operated by local municipalities.*

Another key differentiating factor is that nearly 80 percent of women in jails are mothers.** Unlike incarcerated men, they are by and large single parents who are solely responsible for their young children. While much of the discussion around mass incarceration in this country has focused on the high numbers of men of color in our prisons, there has been little discussion about the explosive growth of women behind bars and the trauma that they endure there. Only Thailand incarcerates women at a higher rate than the United States. And the statistics don’t begin to show that many of these women are victims of trauma, with 86 percent reporting that they experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. Another staggering statistic is that while women make up only 13 percent of people held in local jails, they make up 67 percent of victims of staff-on-inmate sexual violence.

Traumatized when they arrive, traumatized while incarcerated, these women have major hurdles to overcome when they are no longer behind bars and must navigate their way back to a sustainable life on the outside without the support of treatment programs and services to help with affordable housing, workforce development, healthcare, transportation and support for their children. This is where the Friends of Guest House have a proven track record of helping women to get their lives together in a way that is sustainable. While national recidivism rates are around 70 percent, for those who complete the Friends of Guest House residential program, that rate is less than 10 percent.

Scant attention has been paid to the struggles of women behind bars, the explosive growth in their incarceration, and the many social-economic-racial factors that have led to this national crisis. One fact alone should give this nation pause: an estimated 2.6 million children have a parent behind bars. When that parent is their only parent, we are almost ensuring that the cycle of poverty and prison will continue and will grow. There are alternatives to incarceration and more can be done for the women who find themselves incarcerated. It’s incumbent on us to do more both nationally and locally.

* From the published research: Overlooked: Women in Jails in the Era of Reform

** From “Mothers in Prison” – Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Nov. 25, 2016

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Lisa Johnson-Firth of Immigrants First PLLC talks about Know Your Rights

(July 20 2017) Catherine Reads speaks with local attorney Lisa Johnson-Firth of Immigrants First, PLLC about the shift in policy regarding enforcement of immigration laws and which immigrants are the focus of this shift under the Trump Administration.

Lisa Johnson-Firth does presentations for many groups in the area entitled “Know Your Rights.” In the first segment she discusses what it means to be “out of status” and the appropriate measures to take when being pulled over by police. While Virginia is a “name only state” and we are not required to give anything other than our names, Lisa talks about the practical issues of cooperation with law enforcement while being aware of giving information that can and will be used against us in a court of law. The point of her Know Your Rights presentations is to make certain that people in our community know their legal rights and also the practical considerations of how much to say and when.

Catherine and Lisa also talk about the various groups of people in this country who are “out of status” which includes those who have overstayed their student or tourist visas from countries around the world. Europeans and non-Hispanic people do not appear to be the target of this crackdown on immigration which brings into question the profiling of anyone who might be an “out of status” person in this country based solely on their appearance. This seems to be driven by a fear of gang members and criminals pouring across our southern borders instead of the many women and children who are fleeing violence in their own countries as refugees.

In the second segment, Lisa discusses those who seek to claim asylum here and the process for that and how it varies from one country to another. There continues to be a stream of unaccompanied minors coming across our boarders from Central America and managing that flow is taxing our resources at the border and is putting these children in danger. This risk is driven by desperation and until the violence subsides in those countries, the flow of illegal immigration is not going to slow down.

The final part of this show asks some fundamental questions about dealing with illegal immigration going forward and what can be done to craft better public policies around this issue. We must also be honest about the benefits of immigration to our communities in this country as well as to the immigrants themselves. For more information visit Immigrants First, PLLC.

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Turning Point Suffragists Memorial – Occoquan, VA – Inside Scoop

(July 3 2017) Catherine Read interviews Patricia Wirth, Executive Director of The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial Association. The goal of the organization is education of the public regarding the Suffragists Movement. The proposed memorial to be built in Occoquan Regional Park in Fairfax County Virginia, would serve as a monument to the 72 year struggle by over 5 million women in America to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. It’s design also includes an education center to provide the historical context missing in the history lessons taught in classrooms around the country.

For instance, the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, did not give ALL women the right to vote. There are still issues with voter suppression to this day.

The first Women’s Rights Convention convened at Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848, is often cited as the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in this country. The convention organizers, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Two hundred women attended this event and it would be the beginning of seven decades of struggle with millions of women working to get the right to vote for all women – current and future. An interesting account of this arc of history can be found in Adam Grant’s book “Originals” contained in the chapter “The Narcissism of Small Differences.”

Throughout this interview, Patricia Wirth shows slides of the women whose names are virtually unknown to most Americans despite their importance to this history of our country. Carrie Chapman Catt was the leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the founder in 1920 of the League of Women Voters, an organization that is thriving in 2017. Alice Paul was the co-founder of the National Women’s Party and she authored the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1923. The ERA Amendment was passed in 1972 (five years before her death in 1977) but it has NEVER been ratified. In recent years it has come up annually for a ratification vote in the Virginia General Assembly where it is passed by the Senate and killed in the Republican controlled House.

The ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote hinged on the votes of the Tennessee legislature in August of 1920. It came down to the vote of one single legislator, a young man named Harry Burn, who received a letter from his mother asking him to support Mrs. Catt and vote yes. Few people were ever taught this bit of history in school, and this is one of the missions of The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial, to educate. Through education and leadership development programs, we can build a monument not only to the people who sacrificed so much for women’s suffrage, but also as a reminder of what it takes to create substantive social change. As Rebbecca Solnit points out in her book Hope in the Dark, we must build monuments to the journey of how great change takes place.

The location of the memorial in Occoquan Regional Park in Virginia has historical significance. In 1917, the “Silent Sentinels” who had been peacefully protesting outside the White House for years, were rounded up by order of President Woodrow Wilson and imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia. They were held without charge and brutalized there – beatings, force feedings and in deplorable conditions. It was the headlines of the international media that finally forced the administration to release the women. A documentary titled “Iron Jawed Angels” detailing the infamous “Night of Terror” that took place on Nov. 15, 1917, is available online.

The role of African American Suffragists will also be an integral part of this memorial to the suffrage movement. The earliest suffragists came from the abolitionist movement well before the 1848 convention in Seneca Falls. The Women’s Suffrage Parade held in Washington, DC, in March of 1913 included 22 founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. It was the only African American women’s organization to participate and they remain a stalwart supporter of building this memorial 114 years later.

The Turning Point Suffragists Memorial will be part of a proposed “Constitutional Trail” connecting historical sites in the region that impacted the creation of the U.S. Constitution, including it’s 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. The trail will include the Archives in Washington, DC – home of the original Constitution; Mount Vernon – home of George Washington, president of the Constitutional Convention and the first President under the new Constitution; Gunston Hall – home of George Mason, Father of the Bill of Rights and Montpelier – home of James Madison, Father of the Constitution.

A major capital fundraising effort is underway to raise the funds necessary to construct this $2 million dollar memorial with a deadline of February 2019. The goal is to allow 18 months to construct the memorial complex in time for the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August of 2020. There is an urgent need to find major donors to underwrite the cost as this will be a privately funded memorial built on donated county park land.

For more information on how you can help raise the visibility of this fundraising campaign visit http://www.suffragistmemorial.org

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Holly Seibold – BRAWS: Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters

(July 2 2017) Catherine Read talks with Holly Seibold, founder of the non-profit BRAWS – Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters. The mission of this three year old organization is to bring dignity and empowerment to women and girls by providing feminine hygiene products to those who cannot afford them or don’t have access to them. Many of these women are victims of domestic violence, incarcerated, or in programs where they are receiving benefits like WIC and SNAP that don’t cover these products.

Additionally, BRAWS provides new bras and underwear (tags on) to women who are in shelters and other programs where access to these essential items are limited. They have ongoing partnerships with other local organizations like the Vienna Women’s Club whose members faithfully count, sort and organize the inventory on a monthly basis. These feminine hygiene products and undergarments are then distributed to women in collaboration with area organizations such as Shelter House, Friends of Guest House, Northern Virginia Family Service, Britepaths, Homestretch, Bethany House, New Hope Housing and others.

Holly Seibold, Executive Director and Founder of BRAWS, was recently named Emerging Influential of the Year by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce at their annual Corporate Citizenship Awards Luncheon on June 14, 2017. BRAWS was also the recipient of the Shelter House Changing Lives Award at a Volunteer Appreciation Reception held on June 28th.

Their collection efforts are ongoing and they look for opportunities to collaborate with other organizations and events to collect these items. They continually update their events on the BRAWS website for fundraising, donation drives and also distribution events. At the recent Women’s Summit in Leesburg, VA, BRAWS had a table and a collection box that allowed the 300+ women attending to donate as part of that conference. They also hosted a Fun Run in June that was sponsored by many local organizations. One of their biggest annual fundraisers is Mardi Bras held in February. It continues to grow each year as more people discover the work that BRAWS is doing in the community.

Issue advocacy is also a main focus of BRAWS as they work to change the fact that feminine hygiene products are taxed in Virginia and DC, despite being non-optional items women are forced to purchase at a substantial monthly expense for over 4 decades of their lives. That is a lot of sales tax on top of the actual cost of the products themselves. Holly Seibold has testified in front of numerous committees to make the case for why the sales tax should be eliminated and public facilities such as prisons and schools should provide these products to those who cannot afford them or don’t have access to them. Advocacy is an important part of BRAWS core mission. In 2017 Delegate Jennifer Boysko introduced the Dignity Act at Holly’s urging. This bill would remove the tax on feminine hygiene products in Virginia. It was killed in committee and never reached the floor of the House or Senate for a vote. Delegate Boysko will again submit that bill in the 2018 General Assembly Session.

For more information on donating funds, collecting supplies, organizing an event, or donating your time visit their website at www.BRAWS.org, follow them on Facebook and also on Twitter at @BRAWSorg

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The Brain Foundation – Laura’s Houses – with founder Trudy Harsh

(May 23, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Trudy Harsh, founder of The Brain Foundation and Laura’s Houses. She formed this non-profit in 2003 to provide supported housing for those in our area living with brain diseases such as schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders. Laura’s House are named for Trudy’s daughter Laura who had a brain tumor removed when she was 8 years old and struggled with mental health issues up to the time of her death in 2006.

Trudy is a Realtor in Northern Virginia with over 40 years of experience. She is quick to acknowledge that she is not involved in direct services for mental illness, but she does know real estate. Her mission is to provide safe and affordable housing for those who are capable of living more independently in a small group setting. She keeps this population in Fairfax County from becoming homeless by providing housing based on their ability to pay.

The first house she purchased was in Fairfax City and it was made possible by an infusion of $50,000 from another Realtor who believed in her mission. There are now 9 Laura’s Houses. She purchases 4 bedroom homes so there are four residents in each home. They are in integrated within the larger community in a way allows them to be part of a neighborhood. Trudy expects that they will be self sufficient in 10 to 15 years.

The Brain Foundation has partnered with Pathways and the Community Services Board (where Trudy served for two terms) to find potential residents who are likely to thrive in this environment. Not every placement works out and Trudy monitors the residents in each home and makes adjustments as necessary.

The long term consideration for this founder is about succession planning, maintaining and adding supporters, and recruiting new board members to keep the work of The Brain Foundation viable over the next decades beyond her stewardship. This organization has been successful in showing that supported housing can make the difference in the lives of those living with brain disease. They need an infusion of new interest, younger supporters, and of course . . . money.

On June 3, 2017, The Brain Foundation will host it’s annual fundraiser and this year’s keynote speaker is Virginia Senator Creigh Deeds. It will be held at Maggiano’s at Tyson’s Galleria and the public is invited. If you can’t attend, consider making a donation to this very worthy organization.

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ARC of Northern Virginia with Lucy Beadnell – Your Need to Know

(May 2017) Catherine Read talks with Lucy Beadnell, Director of Advocacy for The ARC of Northern Virginia, about the programs and services they provide to people in our community with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The ARC is celebrating 55 years of supporting the IDD community in our region and continues to add programs, services and staff to their robust suite of resources.

Lucy talks about the ARC’s public speaking program “A Life Like Yours Toastmaster’s” which is an adapted Toastmaster’s model pioneered by People First. The drop-in group includes both people in the IDD community and their allies. In a recent Fairfax County Budget Hearing, Elizabeth Carter and Frank Stephens spoke to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on behalf of preserving resources for human services agencies like the ARC. These two young people wow’d the crowd with their great public speaking skills and their ability to so clearly advocate on behalf of themselves, their community and the organizations that support them.

Some of the exciting new initiatives involve app based technology. The Arc of Northern Virginia has partnered with SpecialNeedsWare, Inc to develop a travel training curriculum called TravelMate, which helps people to more confidently use public transit. Kymberly Deloatche, Travel Training Coordinator for the ARC, works with teachers, job coaches, therapists, assistive technology specialists, disability providers and family members on how to use this new technology. Newly added to their suite of tech tools is EmployMate which uses a similar model to help people navigate their employment tasks by acting as a guide, memory tool and resource.

In the ARC’s Special Needs Trust Department, Lucy talks about the work of Megan Rusciano, Beneficiary Advocate and the many services she provides to families from case management to life planning and many thing in between. It’s a needed support for families looking toward the long term well being of their family members.

It’s no surprise that The Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce selected Lucy Beadnell as a nominee for the 2017 Outstanding Corporate Citizenship Awards in the Emerging Leader Category. The Corporate Citizenship Awards honor individuals, businesses and non-profits for above-and-beyond business leadership and corporate social responsibility. Lucy’s work, and that of the entire ARC of Northern Virginia staff and their Board of Directors, continues to be a model for effective direct services and advocacy. Under the leadership of their Executive Director, Rikki Epstein, they are relentless champions for integrating those in the IDD community into every local community where they live in Northern Virginia.

Keep up with the ARC on both Facebook and Twitter @TheArcofNoVa

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Gun Violence Prevention – James Atwood – Andy Goddard

(May 2017) Catherine Read talks with Rev. James Atwood, author of the book Gundamentalism: And Where It Is Taking America, and a member of the Board of Directors of The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Catherine is joined in the second half of this show by Andy Goddard, Legislative Director for The Virginia Center for Public Safety.

In the first segments, Rev. Atwood talks about his experience as a gun owner, including his experience taking a gun to Japan in 1968 and the restrictions in place at that time on gun ownership in that country. His moment of reckoning in getting involved in gun violence prevention was when a charter member of his church was shot and killed by a teenager as part of a botched robbery. He has now written two books on the subject, the first one published in 2012, America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose. He is now a retired Presbyterian pastor and remains committed to his work on gun violence prevention in the United States and in Virginia specifically.

Andy Goddard, father of Virginia Tech shooting victim Colin Goddard, has been actively involved in gun violence prevention in the decade following the mass shooting in 2007. In his work for The Virginia Center for Public Safety, he is focused on gun legislation specific to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Out of the thousands of bills filed each legislative session, there are many related to guns. In 2017, there were bills related to concealed carry permits, guns in schools, domestic violence and child access. Mr. Goddard tracks those bills, helps to organize testimony for committee hearings around specific bills, and keeps the public informed. Details on the 2017 gun bills can be found at The Virginia Center for Public Safety.

There are numerous organizations working on the issue of gun violence prevention here in Virginia. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Everytown for Gun Safety and The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are some of those groups active in our area. They help to organize constituents around defeating bad legislation in Virginia every legislative session. Here in Fairfax, VA, on the 14th of every month, there is a gathering of activists outside the NRA headquarters to mark the shooting at the Sandy Hook School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012, that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults.

With an estimated 350 million guns already in the United States, most of them unregistered, we need to move the conversation from the right to own guns – which is not in dispute – to how to regulate them in a way that reduces the 32,000 gun deaths in our country every year.

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Christopher Fay of Homestretch in Falls Church VA

(May 1, 2017) Catherine Read speaks with Homestretch Executive Director Christopher Fay. This non-profit provides transitional housing for families with children in Fairfax County. Founded in 1990, they have 50 homes distributed throughout the county and they support families for two years with safe housing and additional support services. They offer assistance in helping families to pay down debt, repair their credit history, pursue additional education and certifications, and to find jobs with a career path. They also offer English as a second language classes.

Over 50% of the Homestretch families are women with children who are victims of domestic violence. Some have been victims of human trafficking, and some are refugees from countries where the U.S. has had a military presence – Afghanistan, Iraq and the Sudan. Some families are there because of the death of a loved one, a medical crisis or prolonged unemployment. Everyone there has children, and all have suffered some type of trauma in their lives.

The shocking reality about homelessness in the United States is that the average age of a homeless person is 9 years old. Sixty percent of the homeless population in this country are families. Homestretch clients come from area shelters where they have been given temporary shelter.

Support services include Kidstretch, which serves the children of Homestretch and is also open to the public. They partner with Fairfax County Early Literacy Services and provide access to cultural enrichment activities, structured play and field trips.

Teenstretch supports middle school and high school students in Homestretch with programs focused on Social/Emotional Development, Academic Support, Healthy Living, Life Skills and Community Service.

Christopher Fay shared stories of some of the families who have come to Homestretch under the most dire of circumstances. Because they support families longer than most taxpayer programs provide for, Homestretch raises 95% of their operating funds themselves. In addition to their many fundraising activities, they have long term corporate partnerships with area companies like Excella Consulting, Integrity Management Consulting, Butz Wilbern, The JBG Companies, Mayer-Brown, ReedSmith LLP and many others. Beyond monetary and in-kind donations, these companies have employees who are actively engaged in providing support and services directly to Homestretch families.Faith communities like Dulin United Methodist Church also provide support and volunteers. In addition to a staff of 20, there are 300 to 400 volunteers providing everything from mentoring adults and providing meals to dental services and moving services.

Homestretch is unique in following up with their families to determine how successfully they have maintained self-sufficiency years after leaving the program. George Mason did one such study and George Washington University did two. Those results showed 95% of their program participants were still living independently and are successfully integrated into their communities.

There are many ways to support Homestretch. Cash donations are gratefully accepted, donations of furniture and furnishings for new families (families take their furniture with them when they move on), painting and landscaping, providing meals and snacks for classes and providing transportation to classes in Falls Church for Homestretch families. Often there are collection drives for things like welcome baskets, mattresses, Easter baskets, diapers, etc.

Homestretch has received a number of awards including the Washington Post Helping Hand Award in 2016. Find out more at www.HomestretchVA.org

by Catherine Read 1 Comment

Child Care: Safety, Quality, Affordability with Grace Reef – Inside Scoop

(Apr 3, 2017) Catherine Read talks with Grace Reef, President of the Early Learning Policy Group, about child care policy in Virginia. This show was live broadcast 2 days before the only child care bill that survived the 2017 Virginia Legislative Session (SB 1239) was voted on by the Veto Session convened on April 5, 2017. Governor Terry McAuliffe amended the bill passed by both chambers re-inserting language that better protects the safety of children. Grace works with Child Care Aware Virginia, an organization that maintains a Virginia Education and Action Center online, which is the best place to find reliable information on the state of child care in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Grace Reef started her career in the U.S. Senate where she worked on policy development around issues of early childhood education and development, some specific to the child care setting. As a consultant, she works with a number of agencies in states throughout the country, sorting through data and research studies that show the impact of early childhood experience on long term health, achievement and life outcomes. She acknowledges that we often separate child care into separate issues of safety and quality, as if they are distinct from one another. Safety builds the floor to quality care and Virginia has not made sufficient progress in addressing public policy that provides oversight to those providing care – whether it’s in a child care center or in a home based setting.

One of the perplexing aspects of moving the needle forward on better quality child care in Virginia is the lack of connection between economic development agencies, elected leaders, Chambers and business owners with the need to provide quality child care for a workforce made up of working families with children. Grace talks about her work with The Committee for Economic Development (CED), a non-profit based in DC, that is the voice of business leadership working in states around the nation to advocate for better public policy to support working families with children.

Virginia has a shocking track record of child care deaths – over 60 deaths in the last ten years – that place us at the top of a list we don’t want to be on. Here in Northern Virginia, we have had a child care permitting process in Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County. Fairfax County’s Office for Children was established in 1975. Virginia has 95 counties and 38 independent cities and in a majority of the Commonwealth, the only “regulation” is Virginia’s state policy around what is a “licensed” child care program. A requirement of licensing for home based daycare was changed last year, making the license a requirement for the care of 5 children (instead of 6 children.)

Also in 2016, operating an unlicensed child care home/center was changed from a misdemeanor to a felony. This was in the aftermath of a tragic death in Chesterfield County, VA, where 1 year old Joseph Allen died as a result of a house fire in an unlicensed child care home with no fire extinguisher, no working smoke detectors, no evacuation plan and no list of what children were in the home that day.

Safe, affordable, quality child care is integral to the health and well being of every community in Virginia. It’s not just a concern for parents with children, it’s the foundation of healthy school systems and a workforce that needs child care in order to be able to work. Employers, small business owners and Chambers of Commerce need to connect investment in better child care to strengthening economic growth and development in every community in Virginia. The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine has done the research on Financing Early Care and Education with a Highly Qualified Workforce. There is no shortage of compelling data, we are jut not connecting the dots at this point. That needs to change, and it’s going to take a lot of voices to change it.

For further information on the research being done on early childhood development check out Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, specifically Harvard’s Brain Research (Birth to Age 3)
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