Prepare for the Early Childhood Lobby Day

by Melissa Duclos | Mar 27, 2019 | Oregon Policy, Community Engagement

Thank you for joining the Early Childhood Coalition Lobby Day! It’s important for lawmakers to hear from you, their constituents, about the impact of early childhood programs and services. The resources on this page will give you more information about the investments we’re advocating for, guide you through the process of drafting your personal story to share with legislators, and let you know what to expect from our day at the capitol.

We know high-quality early learning has a lasting impact, improving kindergarten readiness, third grade reading, and high school graduation. Yet 30,000 kids from low-income families in Oregon still lack access to preschool; children with developmental delays and disabilities don’t get the levels of early intervention and early childhood special education they need; children of color and dual language learners do not have enough options for culturally responsive early learning programs; and the early childhood workforce is severely underpaid for the important work they do. We’re asking lawmakers to:

Fully fund Head Start and Oregon Pre-kindergarten
Expand Preschool Promise to reach more children
Increase service levels for children with developmental delays and disabilities
Create an Early Childhood Equity Fund
Expand early education programs and professional development for educators
Support educators by improving alignment from preschool through fifth grade

Family Supports

Parents in Oregon need more support so that they can provide the safe, nurturing environments that kids need to thrive. Oregon already has programs in place that support positive parenting and optimal child development, and reduce neglect and abuse. Lawmakers can continue to support parents by:

Expanding Relief Nurseries
Funding universally available home visiting for any new parents who want it
Expanding on-going home visiting services to serve any parents who want them
Funding parenting education programs
Expanding the literacy program Reach Out & Read

Your Story Matters!

Lawmakers want to hear from parents, care providers, and educators about their experiences with early childhood programs and services like preschool, child care, and home visiting. You can tell your representatives about the positive impacts these types of programs and services have had on you and your children, or you can share your difficulties in accessing these programs.

Tips for Telling Your Story

Plan your story in advance.

You don’t need to memorize a speech for your meeting with legislators, but you should jot down some notes about what you want to say. The template below will help with this.

Speak from the heart.

You’re here because you care about early childhood. Let your legislators know how important these issues are to you personally by sharing your experiences.

Remember what we’re asking for.

End your story with a clear request to your legislators: Support state investments in proven early childhood programs and services to ensure every kid in Oregon gets the best start in life.

Sample Stories

My name is Susan Smith. I am a parent of two young children and live in Baker City. After my second baby was born, I had three home visits from a nurse. She helped me with feeding and the baby’s sleep routine and gave me information about play groups in my area that I could go to with both my kids. I wish I’d had home visiting when my first child was born. These services should be available to any parent of an infant who wants them. I hope you vote to invest in these and other services for young kids so that parents and kids in Oregon get the support they need.

My name is Heather Sanchez. I live in Astoria and have a 4-year-old. My daughter loves her Head Start program and it has helped her to learn and connect with other kids. It also gives me information on how to be a better parent through volunteering and being in the classroom. Without Head Start, my family wouldn’t have been able to afford preschool. I’m so glad we found a spot in a class because I can see what a difference it makes. Please invest state money to make sure more kids can attend preschool and access other programs and services.

My name is Suleiman Ahmed. I live in Portland and have worked in early childhood for 15 years teaching and managing a preschool classroom. I am still unable to adequately support my family and earn a wage that reflects the skills I have working with children. Early educators are severely underpaid, something that drives many skilled educators out of the profession and ultimately hurts young kids. If we want kids to succeed, we need to make sure they have access to high-quality care and education, provided by well-paid professionals.

Download a Template to Plan Your Own Story

Download the Early Childhood Coalition Talking Points

What to Expect at Lobby Day

When You Arrive

Parking: Sometimes parking is limited around the Capitol. Try to give yourself some time to park and walk to the Capitol. Parking in downtown Salem costs $1.50 per hour. More information about parking meters and payment types accepted is available here.

Meeting room: We will be in 2 rooms, 162 and 167 G. They are on the first floor. If you enter through the front door and are in the rotunda, you will take a right and head West to the end of a long hallway. The information desk can give you directions.

Food & Logistics: We will have all the materials you need, your final schedule, boxed lunches & snacks, beverages, a place to put down your coat and bag, and some activities for children in our meeting rooms.

Lobby Day Schedule

12:00: Arrival and lunch (provided)

12:30: Training (optional)

1:00-4:00: Legislative Meetings

1:30 & 2:30: Tour of the Capitol (optional)

Meet at the state seal in the rotunda to attend one of these guided tours of the Capitol.

Meetings With Legislators

We have scheduled meetings with more than 60 legislators. Each legislator will have a small group attending their meeting. The group will include a facilitator and constituents, and may include other partners.

The Facilitator will start the meeting and ask everyone to introduce yourself.
The Facilitator will provide a quick overview of why we are meeting with the legislators.
Other meeting attendees will then share their stories.
Then legislators will have a chance to ask any questions or make follow-up comments.
- Some will agree with us. Great! We have strengthened their support.
- Some won’t know about these issues. Great! We have helped educate them.
- Some will have concerns or be opposed. Fine! We have given them more information to consider and pushed them in the right direction.
- Some will have questions we can’t answer. No problem! Write them down, and we can follow up with them later.
At the end, make sure to say thank you for their time.
Then you can come back to our room and do 2 things:
- Someone from the team can write a thank you card. We will deliver it later.
- Someone from the team can fill out a “report back” form so we know what happened in the meeting and can follow up.

Building a Culture of Care at John Wetten Elementary

by Melissa Duclos | Mar 8, 2019 | Podcast, Educators and Workforce, Successful Students

We visited John Wetten Elementary in Gladstone, Oregon recently to learn about how the district and the school are working to address ACEs, or Adverse Childhood Experiences. Superintendent Bob Stewart and Principal Wendy Wilson have worked to establish a “Culture of Care” in the school that relies on building relationships with students and establishing an environment of predictability and safety. They’ve recently added a new classroom called the Skills Learning Center (SLC) that serves as a resource for kids needing to work on self-regulation, behaviors, and habits. In this segment, we hear from Stewart and Wilson about their work addressing ACEs, as well as Erika Nelson who works directly with children in the SLC.

Advocate for Children in Oregon

by Melissa Duclos | Feb 19, 2019 | Videos, Benefits of Preschool, EI/ECSE, Home Visiting, Oregon Policy

Learn more about the programs and services in Oregon that support young children and families: home visiting, child care, early intervention, early childhood special education, and preschool.

Parenting is hard work, especially with young children. Fortunately, Oregon has great services and programs for families.

These include home visiting, child care, early intervention, early childhood special education, and preschool.

Home visiting improves child health and development, parental confidence, and school readiness. And it reduces maternal depression, child abuse, and low-weight births.

Today, home visiting reaches only 1 in 5 eligible families. What if every family who wanted these services could access them?

Oregon also helps many working families access quality child care by providing subsidies or, in some cases, paying for the full cost.

But many working families don’t have access to child care because there aren’t enough providers or it’s just too expensive. What if we could help more parents?

Early Intervention and Early Childhood Special Education services support children with developmental delays and disabilities.

They help kids build skills and get ready for school.

But only 1 in 50 kids with high needs get the EI/ECSE supports they need. Where does that leave the rest?

Children who attend high-quality preschool are better prepared for kindergarten and more likely to graduate high school.

And the benefits of preschool last. Adults who attended preschool have better job prospects and better health.

30,000 children in Oregon could benefit from high-quality preschool. Imagine if all of them had that opportunity.

From birth to age 5, kids grow and develop at an astonishing rate, and they need loving, nurturing environments and relationships.

Parenting young children is challenging, but together we can work to make it easier.

Join Children’s Institute in advocating to expand home visiting, early intervention, early childhood special education, child care, and preschool so more kids and families have access to these proven supports and services.

You can make a difference.

And we need your voice.

Advocate for Children in Oregon

Learn more about our 2019 Policy Recommendations to support young children and families in Oregon and join our movement to let lawmakers know: Early Childhood Matters!

Learn More About Voluntary Home Visiting

by Melissa Duclos | Jan 28, 2019 | Home Visiting, Oregon Policy, Parents and Families

With a 2019 investment, Oregon could make meaningful progress toward offering universal voluntary home visits to new parents who need and want additional support in their first few months home with a new baby. While expanding home visiting services to all infants and families is a new idea in Oregon, home visiting has a long history in the state. The Oregon Legislature created Healthy Families Oregon (originally Healthy Start) in 1993 to provide home visiting services to first-time parents. Since then, the state has worked to strengthen the program with federal dollars and created the Best Beginnings Committee with a goal of creating a cohesive home visiting system. Home visiting services provided through Healthy Families Oregon and numerous other state- and locally-funded programs currently reach 12,000 families across the state. This is, unfortunately, less than 20 percent of families who could benefit.

Tell the Senate Committee on Health Care to Support Universal Voluntary Home Visiting

We aren’t the only state who understands the value of Home Visiting services. As part of their ongoing “What’s Working” series, CBS This Morning looked at the impact of Family Connects, a universal home visiting program that has served 30,000 families in Durham, North Carolina. Home visiting has been proven to increase optimal child development and health, the confidence and competence of parents, and school readiness in children. It decreases child abuse and neglect, maternal depression, low-weight births and other preventable childhood health conditions. As the video below highlights, home visiting has also reduced medical costs, ultimately saving the state money.

Now Is the Time for Oregon to Expand Voluntary Home Visiting

In her Children’s Agenda, Governor Kate Brown proposes funding to provide home visits for all Oregon infants. Speaking with the Beaverton Valley Times, Dr. Alanna Braun of Oregon Health & Science University explained the value of the program:

“Having a new baby at home is stressful for everyone, regardless of income,” she said. “It’s a time of life when most anybody needs some help.” The idea of home visiting being universal throughout Oregon would be good, Braun said, because not everyone has the same easy access to a pediatrician or a hospital.

Tell the Senate Committee on Health Care to Support Universal Voluntary Home Visiting

As Oregon’s population becomes more ethnically and linguistically diverse, culturally specific home visiting has also become increasingly necessary. For families who live in rural communities, the challenge of receiving vital home visiting services is further complicated by the lack of access to home visitors and increased driving time and costs.

Bill Co-Sponsor Sen. Steiner Hayward, In Her Own Words

In this interview on Think Out Loud, State Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward explains why she’s co-sponsored the bill that would make voluntary home visiting services available to all parents of newborns.

Steiner Hayward said her own personal experience with postpartum depression, in addition to her professional background as a family physician, has been a motivating factor in her support for this bill.

“I was married. I was a physician. It was a planned pregnancy. My husband was a successful father already. I had everything going for me, and yet I still had this completely common biologic occurrence of having this depression, and it would have been incredibly helpful to have a trained nurse come in and help me,” she said.

Learn More About Voluntary Home Visiting

Hear from a Family Who’s Benefited from Voluntary Home Visiting Services

In this podcast, we visited Ha Mi Da and her family at her apartment in Southeast Portland. Ha Mi Da came to the United States from a Burmese refugee camp several years ago and we wanted to learn more about her story, her involvement with home visiting services provided by IRCO, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, and her hopes and dreams for the future. Many thanks to Mihaela Vladescu, the family’s home visitor with IRCO and Healthy Families Oregon, and Min Sein who provided interpretation services during the visit.

Read Our Policy Brief on Voluntary Home Visiting in Oregon

Our policy brief on home visiting focuses on promoting loving, nurturing relationships between parents and children and the role of home visiting programs across Oregon.

Our 2019 policy recommendations for the state include offering universal home visits for all families and further investing in programs that strengthen parent-child bonds.

Read and download the policy brief

New Research: Impacts of Voluntary Home Visiting on Families

The Administration for Children and Families and the Health Resources and Services Administration within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released the results of a multi-year study of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, which confirms lessons learned for states and communities working to continually improve the outcomes of vital, federally-funded voluntary home visiting programs.

This study looks at the crucial work being done in communities nationwide to identify family needs and implement and improve home visiting programs to make a difference in the lives of families with young children.

Among other findings, the study documented the following outcomes from voluntary home visiting:

Improved home environments: Families participating in home visiting provided more cognitive stimulation and emotional support to their children.
Reduced frequency of psychological aggression towards the child: Parents participating in home visiting were less likely to yell, scream, or swear at the child, or call the child names.
Fewer child emergency department visits: Children whose families participated in home visiting were less likely to go to the ER for injury or illness, perhaps due to improved preventive care, reduced incidence of child maltreatment, or a better understanding of when an ER visit is needed.
Fewer child behavior problems: Children whose families were enrolled in home visiting were less likely to show aggression, act out, or demonstrate hyperactivity; they were also less likely to present with anxiety, sadness, and social withdrawal.
Gentler guidance: Parents enrolled in home visiting were more likely to motivate and encourage their children in a positive manner than to assert power over children to accomplish a task.
Reductions in experience of intimate partner violence: Mothers enrolled in home visiting were less likely to experience physical or sexual violence or battering.
Reductions in parental depression: Parents enrolled in home visiting were less likely to exhibit symptoms of depression.
Reductions in parental stress: Parents participating in home visiting were less likely to exhibit parenting distress or dysfunctional parent-child interactions.

Other Trusted Sources Discuss Voluntary Home Visiting

Education Week: Home Visiting Successes Explored in New Reports

The New York Times: How Home Visits From Nurses Help Mothers and Children, Especially Boys

National Home Visiting Resource Center: Oregon Profile

Health Resources & Services Administration: Home Visiting Overview

Oregon’s Relief Nurseries Support Families and Keep Kids Out of Foster Care

by Melissa Duclos | Jan 17, 2019 | Oregon Policy, Home Visiting, School Readiness

Oregon’s nationally recognized Relief Nursery model serves families with children ages 0–5 who are most at-risk for abuse and neglect. In 2019, Children’s Institute is joining a coalition of early childhood advocates to request an additional $5.6 million in funding for Relief Nurseries to strengthen parent-child bonds and decrease abuse. We spoke with the Association of Oregon Relief Nurseries Executive Director Cara Copeland to learn more the need for additional investments in these critical programs.

All photos in this story were taken at the Chelsea’s Place Family Building Blocks Relief Nursery in Salem.

Children’s Institute: Can you explain how Relief Nurseries, which are unique to Oregon, use a multidisciplinary approach to serve children and families?

Cara Copeland: Relief Nurseries have been in Oregon for just over 40 years. The core model relies on three things: a therapeutic classroom for children, home visiting for parents, and parent education. A lot of our children are behind developmentally, so we work one-on-one to make sure they’re ready for kindergarten, focusing on the social emotional development of kids ages 0–5. The home visiting and parent education provide tools and emotional support. Many Relief Nurseries also have other supports: they might have food and diapers available, or mental health, drug and alcohol counseling, or peer services.

CI: Why do you think the ages birth to 5 are such a critical time for kids and families?

Cara Copeland: Research shows that a child’s brain is 80 percent developed by age 3. The first 1,000 days are the most critical. We know that if you don’t invest in that child in the first three years, you’re compromising that child’s future capacity.

There’s no wrong door.

Cara Copeland explains how families can connect with a Relief Nursery.

“When a new Relief Nursery starts in a community, typically families come to us via referral. The idea is that there’s no wrong door, and there’s one piece of paper that a pediatrician could fill out, a DHS worker, a self-sufficiency worker, an employment office, or a WIC provider. The Early Learning Hubs have been integral in helping communities, either partnering alongside what communities are already doing to coordinate referrals, or to instigate that process. Over time, what we’ve seen across virtually every Relief Nursery is that within a couple of years, most referrals are self-referrals: families in the program refer their friends. We build trust within a community, and that’s what’s really important.”

This is also an important time for a family to establish healthy patterns, especially for a first birth. Forty-five percent of children reported to be abused or neglected are under age 6, and 12 percent of children who suffer abuse are under age 1, according to the Oregon DHS 2017 Child Welfare Data Book. Many of our families are products of abuse, generational neglect, substance abuse, and incarceration. In those first few years when they are becoming a family, if we can establish some patterns of interaction and parent-child attachment, that’s going to serve that family for the long haul.

CI: How do Relief Nurseries help establish those healthy patterns for families?

Cara Copeland: Sometimes people think of Relief Nurseries as child care or preschool. We do serve families that are raising children of preschool age, and we do care for their children, but we are neither child care nor a preschool program. We’re focused on building the five protective factors in families: concrete supports, social supports, understanding of child development, social-emotional competence of children, and parental resilience. When parents have something traumatic happen to them—homelessness, food insecurity, domestic violence—that’s where relief nurseries step in, to build parental resilience along with these other supports. We can’t guarantee that life is going to get easier, but we can help give parents tools to stand up when life is hard.

CI: What kind of impact have Relief Nurseries had in Oregon?

Cara Copeland: Across the state Relief Nurseries serve about 3,000 children, and about 2,600 families. Forty percent of the families coming to us are already involved in child welfare. Statewide our families have an average of 16 risk factors associated with a higher likelihood of abuse and neglect, which often lead to foster care. Across the state, our most recent independent evaluation showed that 98 percent of our children required no further foster care placement after they entered Relief Nursery services. Parents love their children and they really want to parent, and we’re often their last chance at keeping their kids.

We need a strong foster system. We need quality foster parents, and we need to support our foster parents. But my goal would be that at some point we have no need for foster care. Can you even imagine? I think that’s a worthy goal to fight for.

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Cara Copeland explains why trauma-informed care is critical to preventing child abuse and supporting families.

Children’s Institute and many other early childhood advocacy groups from across the state recognize the value of Relief Nurseries and have joined together to request a $5.6 million investment in Relief Nurseries that help prevent child abuse and strengthen parent-child bonds.

Learn more about our 2019 Policy Recommendations and add your voice in support of programs that support healthy and intact families.

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Prepare for the Early Childhood Lobby Day

On This Page

The Investments We’re Fighting For

Child Care

Early Learning

Family Supports

Your Story Matters!

Tips for Telling Your Story

Plan your story in advance.

Speak from the heart.

Remember what we’re asking for.

Sample Stories

What to Expect at Lobby Day

When You Arrive

Lobby Day Schedule

Meetings With Legislators

Building a Culture of Care at John Wetten Elementary

Advocate for Children in Oregon

Advocate for Children in Oregon

Learn More About Voluntary Home Visiting

Now Is the Time for Oregon to Expand Voluntary Home Visiting

Bill Co-Sponsor Sen. Steiner Hayward, In Her Own Words

Learn More About Voluntary Home Visiting

Hear from a Family Who’s Benefited from Voluntary Home Visiting Services

Read Our Policy Brief on Voluntary Home Visiting in Oregon

New Research: Impacts of Voluntary Home Visiting on Families

Other Trusted Sources Discuss Voluntary Home Visiting

Oregon’s Relief Nurseries Support Families and Keep Kids Out of Foster Care

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences