Our progress is possible, not guaranteed – It will only be made if we keep marching, KEEP MARCHING ON!
– Shaina Taub from “Suffs”

Today’s message is shared by Kathy Pomer, President and CEO of GatherRound Consulting.

In Jessica Calarco’s book Holding it Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net we are faced with the fact that America HAS created comprehensive universal child care when necessary during wartimes when the country needed all women to work – and just as comprehensively dismantled the system when it no longer met the needs of working men returning home from war.

What does that say about us – about our world now and about the world we want to become?

After the immediate space of frustration when faced with these history lessons, we MUST move together into a space of action – and lucky us – it’s almost election time! In the United States this is our chance to make our voices heard! We must vote in ways that support high-quality, accessible infrastructure for children, for families, and for educators who must also be respected as the professionals they are. We must realize how many early childhood professionals and home child care providers are small business owners and, as my friend Corrinne Hendrickson says, become small business voters!

I grew up in a household where I was assured that those with power would create trickled down empowerment to the rest of us. It is time to realize that has not worked and we are the ones we’ve been waiting for to create the change now.

And then after November 5 – no matter how the votes settle – we must exercise extreme self care and create the type of ongoing engagement that is sustainable.

Vote for a better future on November 5 and KEEP MARCHING ON!

You’ll find GatherRound topics and discussions will always be around finding the positive energy to sustain us and help us realize our power and find our voice. The work goes on and we are already on the front lines. I can’t think of a stronger team to help us create the future we’ve always known we were destined for! Join us on October 30 to hear more about how author Jessica Calarco outlines our needed steps forward.