Oregon Infant Care: Parent Voices for Change
Oregon families, especially those with infants and toddlers, struggle to find care and education for their children. In fact, families with infants and toddlers in every Oregon county live in a child care desert. Parents’ ability to work, their physical and mental health, family stability, and children’s health and development, are all tied to having quality, affordable choices for infant care. It’s critical for partners, advocates and decision makers to be aware of this very real problem for Oregon families, and inform system and policy decisions related to infant care.
Oregon Families’ Stories
Watch and listen to these six powerful stories of Oregon families and how they have been impacted by the struggle to find quality, affordable infant care and other related supports:
Teresa's Story
Ashley's Story
Dominique's Story
Vanessa's Story
Juana's Story
Tiffany's Story
Here are some ideas to improve access to affordable, high quality child care in Oregon:
Learn
about Oregon’s
child care supply crisis so you can talk about it with others:
Cost of Care in Oregon
Learn more about why the
quality of child care matters so much:
Learn more about why affordable and accessible child care matters so much:
Learn more about Oregon Child Care Rules so that you can advocate for safety and quality in all programs
Get involved with groups that champion the cause of women,
children, and families
Check out these resources and tell others about them:
Questions? Contact Oregon MCH
If you believe storytelling is an effective way to change systems, check out StoryCenter
High quality child care is essential for our children, our families and our society
Childhood care and education (CCE) providers play a key role in children’s lives. Healthy, safe and nurturing CCE environments and a skilled CCE workforce using best practices can preserve, protect and promote children’s health and well-being and build a foundation for lifelong health and learning.
When CCE is healthy, families can work, go to school and participate in their community assured that their children’s needs are met, and their community will have a healthier future.
Oregon Kids: Healthy and Safe (OKHS) is a training and online resource that early care and education professionals can use to provide healthy and safe environments and practices for children in their care.
Learn more
Download OKHS Marketing Cards
in English (pdf)in Spanish (pdf)