In California, we have been working to increase the participation of men in early care and education. The California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAEYC) has for several years now, had a committee on Men In Child Care. I am the current chair of this committee.
Activities in this area include a Male Involvement session at the Train The Trainers Conference this October 9-10 in Los Angeles, and workshop sessions featuring issues of male involvement at each of our CAEYC Annual State Conferences. The Beach Cities Affiliate of CAEYC, for which I am past president works hard to bring the faces of men who are leaders in the field to speak to ECE professionals in our area. BCAEYC has collaborated to present male involvement workshops for students at local community colleges. We collaborated to bring Ronald Mah and Jonathan Mooney, two dynamic speakers to the Los Angeles area.
But in California our efforts go beyond the local stage. Moises Roman, from North Bay AEYC is the “Curriculum Guy” at KCET’s award winning “A Place of Our Own – En Su Casa” series. I have participated in the Chattahoochee Technical College “Expect Male Involvement” video created by Frances Carlson.
In addition, we have outreached to men to join our affiliate board by going beyond the usual “boundaries”. By including the involvement of School-Aged programs and Child Care Resource and Referral agencies, we have added the contributions of some dynamic individuals to our board meetings
Finally, we take our role outside the ECE world by participating at area School Readiness Projects such as School Readiness on the Westside (hosted by Westside Children’s Center), the Coalition for School Readiness (hosted by the Center for Community and Family Services) and the South Bay School Readiness Conferences. The systems are being put in place to support male involvement in the ECE profession. And we are a part of that movement.
We are ALL a part of that movement.
Gregory Uba
Past-president and public policy chair of BCAEYC men in child care chair of CAEYC