Advocacy as a Member of the ELCC Workforce

Your role as an educator, regardless of the environment (family child care, commercial centres, etc.) can be exhausting due to the demanding nature of nurturing and educating young children. You are responsible for creating a supportive and stimulating environment, promoting cognitive and social development, all while addressing individual needs. You are required to be constantly vigilant, adapting to the behaviours and moods of the children in your care.

You often work long hours, balancing planning and executing educational activities with ensuring the safety and well-being of the children in your care. The emotional and physical demands are significant, requiring patience, empathy, and the ability to handle challenging situations. Managing a group of energetic and diverse personalities requires constant attention and quick decision-making. Additionally, paperwork and administrative tasks contribute to the workload.

Your role as an educator, in short, can take a toll on your energy levels.

Fortunately, it is now easier than ever to advocate!

How can you advocate for the ELCC workforce during your work day?

1. Communicate with Families

Regular communication with parents and caregivers about the importance of the learning that is taking place in your space can help them not only understand details about their own child, but can start a trickle effect of them sharing about this with others! This can happen when providing a specific update about their child - make reference to the materials you introduced to support learning, or to a way you encouraged the child to persevere.

Interested in building your child development lingo so that you can more clearly communicate the important work that you do? Keep an eye out for a future reference here on our website!

2. Share Success Stories

Did you notice a fellow ECE supporting a child in a way that brought a smile to your face? Share that with the child’s parent or caregiver. Then share it with your coworkers and administrator - highlighting the positive effect another ECE had only raises the work you do even higher!

3. Collaborate with Coworkers

While you’re sharing success stories, chat with your coworkers on how they have supported children in similar situations. Learning from one another opens up the lines of communication so that you can develop your collective voice which can have a significant impact when advocating for improvements in working conditions or resources.

How can you advocate for the ELCC workforce after your work day?

4. Stay In the Know

Follow local ECE organisations and voices on social media! This can help you to stay informed about current educational policies and initiatives while you check out all the other fun things to see online. Remember the importance of chatting with your coworkers? Share relevant information with your fellow ECEs and parents to raise awareness.

5. Become a Member

Join a professional organisation related to early childhood education. These groups often engage in advocacy efforts, and your involvement strengthens the collective voice of educators. Just becoming a member supports these organisations. Interested in learning what the organisation does for the sector? Check out online platforms and reach out to the organisation’s reps to learn about ways you can advocate for something that is important to you.

Click here to learn about our own provincial ECE association - the AECENL membership immediately gives you a national level CCCF membership (click here to learn more about CCCF). 

6. Share!

So much of your day as an ECE is supporting children as they navigate sharing. As we know, it takes language development, the emotional development to identify your emotion and to self-regulate through it, having enough expressive language to speak up for what you want, and problem solving skills to come to a compromise.

Sharing isn’t just for children! Advocacy often starts with personal enthusiasm, and sharing that passion can inspire others to recognise the importance of the field.

How can you share?

• Like the posts from the ELCC organisations that you follow online! Not only does it help with the mysterious social media algorithm, it lets the organisations that you follow know that you agree with the work that they’re doing, or the info they are posting.
• Share the posts from the ELCC organisations that you follow online! Share child development details with parents. Share the importance of the early years with your family. Share the work that the ELCC organisation is doing with your fellow ECEs. The wider the audience, the further these platforms can lift your voice!

These are just 6 ways to begin your advocacy journey. Start small! Pick one of these things and try it out.

Remember, even small actions can contribute to a culture of advocacy and positive change in early childhood education. Every effort, no matter how modest, creates a domino effect that can collectively strengthen the ELCC profession as a whole.

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