Benefits To Your Local Affiliate of NAEYC spotlight on riaeyc

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Hello, this is Erica Sakosio, the host of Practical Biz podcast and child care directors chair. I am a child care owner, member of the Rhode Island national association for the Education of Young Children. I recently joined as a board member in 2018 and I have worked with all ages of children from infant up to school age, school age being 5 to 12 years old. And I do want to make that a point throughout our conversation today. And I am joined with Allison, who is somebody I've known a really long time. She is a fast advocate, very knowledgeable when it comes to the world of early childhood education and advocacy and leadership, for sure. She has a great heart and a smart head, for sure. On her shoulders. She has worked in many different programs and those of you who work in their early childhood field have benefited from her work either directly or indirectly. So with that, I'm going to have you tell us a little bit about yourself. Thanks, Erica. Tell us a little bit about yourself. It's all very true.

That is like the sweetest introduction I've ever heard.

And it's all very, very true. I have been lucky to know you for a few years now. Now, can you tell the folks who don't know you, who haven't had the pleasure yet to work with you a little bit about yourself and how you ended up here at Riot?

Sure. So I'm Alison Panzarella. I'm a graduate of the University of Rhode Island's Human Development and Family Studies program. And I first joined Rhode Island AUYC as an intern my senior year of college there. Um, and I just loved the work and I. It felt like a good fit. So luckily, when a position opened up, they reached out to me and it was. And I've been there ever since. So I've worked for Rhode Island AUIC as staff for seven years.

Smart move, guys. Smart move. Amazing hire. But you already know that the growth in this lady is amazing.

Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So there I'm the. I'm the coordinator of Program quality at Rhode island auic. So that means basically at a nonprofit agency, when you coordinate that program quality, your hands are in a lot of really important projects. We're going to definitely do a deeper dive on all of those. But really, Erica started by saying that, you know, I'm a fierce advocate. Right. And I think that just learning about the childcare industry and the early childhood workforce, I was very driven to study the law and policy that governs this industry.

And.

And obviously, just knowing what we know about the first five years and how Important. It is. I'm very interested in laws that are preventative in nature. So I went to Loyola University Chicago and studied children's law and policy there, and that has really helped shape my advocacy. And I also just recently started as an adjunct professor back at my alma mater at uri, teaching family policy. So.

Pretty impressive.

There's one thing. It's. It's just. It. It is, but you're right that it's just. It's a passion, and I just hit the books about it. You know, that's like, that's what I've always known to do. And so I said, you know what? I'm gonna study the crap out of this and we're gonna work on it and we're gonna make it better.

Yeah.

So that's how you're trying to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So tell us a little bit about the vision of the agency.

Sure. So the vision at Rhode Island, AUIC and NACY is that all young children thrive and learn in a society dedicated to them reaching. Which, like, tattoo it on my body. Like, I feel it deeply. Like, it's probably like the reason why I've been here so long. It's just that I. I feel that very deeply. And that is a society that I want to live in. Especially when we consider, like, working families and young parents and just making sure that their child is always taken care of, especially when they don't have the opportunity to stay home with them. It's really important to us that children have high quality early learning experiences, no matter where they take place, whether that is at home with parents, whether that is in a small family child care home, a home based child care center, or in a center like the ones that you run, or whether they're in, you know, accessing public education, public early childhood education. So we work in all those industries just with the one goal of ensuring that the education children are getting is high quality.

Yeah. And so one of the things, my face has been connected to the school age group in Rhode island for a very long time. And so I thought I wanted to throw my hat in the ring, which a lot of people thought thought was an odd fit. But for me, I really felt like children ages 5 to 12 somehow in our state, and I'm not, I don't know, every state had gotten lost for a long period of time because there are a lot of great advocacy for older youth. Right. You've got the After School alliance, and you've got PASA and a lot of really fantastic agencies, but most of them are Middle school, you know, children. So I really didn't want our children who were 5 to 12 year olds, 12 year old to get lost. And so that's why I decided I would get involved with your group because I felt like somebody needed to be at that table. And so way, way, way long. Probably you were probably still in elementary school. I was at the first meetings that were at Johnson and Wales and all of these different places when they were putting together Bright Stars and it was me, Tina dolling and like two other people in a sea of 80 professionals representing that age group. And so, you know, I felt like that was why it was important for me to get involved and why I advocate so strongly to my staff members and my colleagues. Like you need to get involved because if not our voice will be lost. Right, yeah. So I felt like that was important. So let's talk about some of the events.

I love the events. Yes. But before we do that, I think you brought up a really good point about.

Children, you know, not being able to advocate for themselves. Right. Like they can't vote and like who we need to be the professionals in the field that go and represent them. Whether it be at committee meetings, at test, at hearings about law that it applies to them. It just, it's just they need the professional there to kind of advocate for that after school experience. For sure. And I appreciate everything you're doing too.

And I think people who are nervous to speak because I had to do some of those testimonials and I like to talk and I'm not shy at all. But it is, it is a little bit nerve wracking if you're not used to it, but it is important. So if you feel really strongly about anything in our field, you have to use your voice because as you said, the five year old can't or the eight year old can't go to that meeting and they can't fight for themselves. So that's, that's our job, you know, that's our job.

We are the experts here, I promise you. Like, no, not a call out to them at all. But they don't know anything about the day to day of child care. Sure. They know like the broad scope of the issue and how it impacts families. But like we are the experts in this field and it's our voices that need to be at the forefront of this movement. So yeah.

I liken it to like teaching, you know, preschool or even, you.

Know, after school programs because we are educating other people. Yeah, absolutely.

And like they know just as much about Our industry, you know, so they really. They need the education too.

And I feel like a lot of them are receptive, I would say. Especially since COVID Right?

Yes.

I don't want to get off topic, but especially since COVID I think the whole world was like, oh, wow, like, really, what's going on in child care really does impact us. Right.

It really reminds me of working parents, of what we all did all day.

Yeah. Even employers, right? Even employers, Right.

Yeah.

Like, your folks cannot come to work if they don't have safe, reliable, quality child care.

Yeah. Yeah. I can tie it right back, though, for you, Erica. No worries. Events, Events. Post Covid, it's been tough. I think that we as an agency have been very cautious about gathering in person. Just, you know, just knowing everything that Covid has brought us. We didn't want to be like one more super spreader event.

Yeah. So.

So it has been a little bit slow in the uptake, but we. There are national events every year and they are back to being in person. So as a NAEYC member, you have access to annual conference, which is such a great networking opportunity for early childhood professionals to gather in one place and just, you know, learn together and have the opportunity to network. I mean, I have honestly made some, like, real friendships through my NAE membership and through meeting people with similar jobs that I have in other states. And just we're learning from each other. And I think, especially when we talk about the advocacy, it's important to keep up with other states and what their successes are and, you know, where their challenges are, even in implementing a lot of the programs that we have here in Rhode Island. Like bright stars.

I was gonna say that. I was gonna say for a small state. I bet a lot of people reach out to you guys because you guys really do a fantastic job.

I mean, I don't wanna, but you do a little.

You do.

We.

We definitely are a leader in the country for sure. We definitely are. You know, people know who we are because, you know, small but mighty, I would say.

Yeah. And we're all leaning on each other. I think that Rhode island is really well positioned because some of the policies, like pre K, we were kind of towards the latter of the states that took it on, and we were really looking at other states and how the. And what their lessons learned were. And I think that NAE is a great way to just kind of tap into professionals that are having a similar experience because at the end of the day, it's pretty universal what we're all going through. And A lot of people have really great ideas. So it's important to lean on each other.

I think too, being a small state, I think we are so connected. Right. It's not like a big state like Texas. What happens in Lincoln, Matt is in Warwick. Right. So I, I think that is an advantage.

Yeah. And I mean, if you're a member and you're like, how do I stay connected? Like, who do I reach out to? It's literally me. Like, you email me directly. It's not like we're this huge organization where you're gonna get lost in a, in a, in an environment.

Especially when we were like one of the first scientists to go through Bright Stars. You guys were a wealth of knowledge and we're super helpful with, you know, any parts of the application we were stuck with or understanding the eckers or the iters better or. Because I remember the first time I was like, wait, I have a thousand books. Yep, but you're missing five in fantasy. Right. But yeah, you know, because I was like, I was so mad when I first got my, when I first got my, my inner's back or my, I think it was my actress. And I was like, what do you mean? So you, you, you, you know, you really are great at helping people understand, you know, the minutiae of the scales.

Yeah, I think that's a really like, great reason why we keep the quality rating and improvement system at the affiliate. And it's because, you know, as a membership organization first, we are working towards a shared goal. So I think that really governs our philosophy about going through the QRIS process because there's a lot of recognition about how stressful it is and how intrusive it can feel. And it just. We're a collective of educators and this is just part of the reality. And we, what we really hope you understand is that what we're observing, what we're seeing, that data that we collect, you know, we turn around and we use it in our advocacy because there are some things that are out of our individual control as centers. And you know, we say, hey, like, this is not on this individual teacher. Like, the industry needs additional investment. And here's some data informed reasons as to why, like, that's why it's so important to me. So it really is like a central philosophy of ours to just navigate you through that process in a way that is, Reduces stress as much as we can because at the end of the day, it is still another body in a teacher's classroom for three hours.

I think there's A couple pieces of business advice that I would give. The first thing is the more frequently you visit a classroom with a clip book and a notebook and take notes, the more comfortable your teachers get with that. Right.

Secondly, as a teacher, we believe in observation.

Yeah.

Right. For growth, do we not? Is that not part of our values? Right. So that's essentially the way that I take it, is you. You get that observation feedback, you look at it and you say, how can I use this to grow? Because that's the whole point. The point of it is, folks, to improve the quality.

Yeah.

It isn't for your ego. It isn't to market to more families. Those are byproducts of it.

Yeah.

The number one goal of that is to improve the quality for your children, your community and your staff.

Yeah. Because we know. We know what it can. What the impact can be. Yeah.

But, yeah. So, you know, don't take it personal, which I know is hard, like I said, because I love books. And literally, I. I mean, I have 500 books in my, you know, I'm only supposed to have 20. At 500 books, I'm like, what do you mean? Right. But, so, but the more you go through it, you know, and you eventually move up, which is, you know, the intent. You started two, you move to a three, you move to a four, you're almost at five. There is some satisfaction. Yeah. In the work of it. So it's the process, like anything else, a journey of anything else. Right.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I also wanted to say I appreciate, and I'm sure many of those folks that are getting retention bonuses this week. I appreciate the work that you guys have done to get that money to Rhode Island. So then, you know, that trickles down to the teachers. And I know that the staff really appreciate it. I mean, we're, you know, we're rolling into. Right. Right before Christmas. I'm sure that. That, you know, that money helps, you know, in certain ways. So.

And that is a byproduct of just interacting with teachers through the QRIS process, interacting with teachers through the scholarship program. And really that affords us.

We're like a story bank at the end of the day. Right. And we give really informed testimony about, you know, what is going to be beneficial to the workforce. Because, you know, we're in here all the time and we're. And we're talking to you, and it's so important that, like, a layer of your quality improvement work is saying where you need help, because we turn that around as a NACC affiliate and we work towards that together if it's not something that's policy related. I mean, NACC is such a wealth of resources that I have literally, like, built my philosophy, built my career, and have been something I've tapped into at literally every juncture. When I think about just individual teachers that need support. I mean, talk about an arena where you can feel safe and secure and just ask very plainly what kind of help you need on the social media platform that they host called hello on Hello. Like, teachers are honest. They're like, this is where I am struggling. Yeah. Can you. Can we help each other? And you just see floods of comments under this teacher's, like, little. What they're experiencing now.

Do. Do business owners, like business owners, meaning facility owners, have access to that feedback? Or is that just go to you.

Guys, the feedback from nacy?

Yeah.

So it's like a public posting. So if a teacher. It's like a. It's like a social networking website.

So what I'm gonna say, because my brain is always in the business realm and the teacher realm, like, that's. My left side is business, my right side is teaching.

Yeah.

If you're wondering why people are leaving, hop on to that platform.

Yeah.

And you'll be able to get a lot of feedback on what teachers are looking for. Because I think everybody's looking for the same thing. I think centers are looking for great teachers, and great teachers are looking for centers. And there's no magic. There's no magic pill, guys. There's no. It's. It's very cut and dry. So I would say that would be a great place to. To do some feedback. Read through that and say, okay, what are we doing? What are we not doing? How do we retain great teachers? How do we get great teachers and talent into my program? Right. So I would say on top of advocacy, but just another way, because that's the only way my brain works. As a business owner in the child care industry, that would be 100%. I would be looking for what? You know, the talent force has changed.

I am so well aware of just the staffing challenges in childcare right now. And one thing that I've heard people do is and provide an annual NIECY membership as an employee.

Love it. Yep. So let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. A plus. A plus. So really, as a NACI member, you are coming together to do three things. You're deepening your knowledge of early childhood education, which we're kind of touching on. There's a wealth of resources. You Receive a free subscription to the magazine of your choice. They have a few publications. Whether you're kind of a classroom teacher and need some curriculum ideas, there's a publication for that. Or you're kind of program leadership. Or like me, when you're more of an advocate. And there's kind of a broader issues magazine that you can subscribe to. I love both of them. It makes me miss the classroom when I read the teaching. Yeah. Where I'm like, oh, like, I would love to go do that.

But you can come visit anytime at our school. School. And dance around and be careful. Door's always open.

Okay. All right. And then so with all of these resources, you know, and you have access to the social platform. So the second thing that we're really doing is meeting and growing as a profession. One of the projects that NACY is running is something called Power to the Profession, which is one of my favorite initiatives. Because what it's doing is really defining, using the membership, defining as a collective, what it means to be an early childhood educator. I think that we need that universal definition of who we are as professionals. And NACI kind of, like, really hugs you, envelops you, and it's like, yes, join us. Like, what is your perspective? We need to just better define who we are. So, like, you know, we know what to ask for, and we know what the qualifications should be. It's just. I love the work because it is really elevating us, as in professionals with a very distinct set of expertise that is so important to children's lives. So it's really about kind of coming together as a collective and becoming a profession and having the confidence to call ourselves a professional. The third thing that we're doing, and I think that Rhode Island AUIC does this well with all of our contracts, like bright stars, is that we're ensuring quality for children and educators. So this is not just we're advocating for children. I think a really important pillar for NAIC is also advocating for the workforce.

Higher wages.

Amen.

Right. Free pd, free going to college. I mean, none of those things were around when I started. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So.

And there are some consumer benefits. I mean, a lot of professional organizations do this, but you can hit up our website and kind of see who we've partnered with. As a national member, I'm not even, like, I'm not even trying to be a commercial, but I did save a bunch of money on my car insurance. Because. Because NACY kind of gives you a member benefit of discounted insurance. So, like, there's a lot of big businesses. I think that the other one is Office Max. You got a, a discount through Office Max and Rhode Island UYC likes to build on that. So one thing that we've done locally is partnered with the Greater Providence YMCA for discounted memberships and we've with BJ's Wholesale Club for discounted memberships for members. So once you get that little like n member card you actually it's a little bit of a key to some, some good savings. I really appreciate all of that and honestly like I could not sit here and list all of the benefits because you know, depending on where you live, there are so many.

Right. So visit the website and you get and you can get that info. So tell us just a little bit about the new family membership.

Family membership is really cool. So obviously kind of like I said at the top.

Some children in these like really critical years of development are with a family member during their core day. And that doesn't really change the neuroplasticity, which is a big word that basically means they're really susceptible to learning and they're very spongy at this age. So really what NACI does is for family memberships is first of all, if you are accessing childcare, it's an opportunity to join the advocacy movement alongside your child's educator. Parents have a very unique, expect like a very unique experience accessing childcare, whether it be through affordability or which we all know, or recognizing that like wow, like my child's teacher is such an important part of my village. Why doesn't she make the same salary as a kindergarten teacher? And I believe she should. So that is an opportunity for parents to join. But it also gives you the same access to all of the resources for honestly a smaller price than a standard membership. For $35 a year a family can join Nacy have access to all the same activity opportunities. I think it's a great thing for if you're maybe a sibling or not. I mean like, you know, an adult sibling, like a grandparent or a stay at home parent who is just kind of spending the day with these kids. You, you have the same access to all the resources around their brain development at this time. Yeah, so.

So that's a great resource for parents.

Amen. So even if you are, you know, that family, family friend, neighbor care or maybe a nanny, like yes, like the profession is, you know, we're often talking about childcare and family childcare homes and after school programs. But hey, like there's room for family Friend and neighbor. Absolutely. And that doesn't mean, you know, just because they're not in a typical school setting that there's no way to capitalize on the really critical development that's happening. So access to all the media, access to the advocacy campaigns and really honestly just a way, if you're a parent that is paying into this, I mean there's benefits for the workforce. You know, if you grow our membership, we put all that money as a nonprofit, all that money goes right back out to serving the community.

Sounds like a great investment. So how long is a membership good for?

One year.

Okay, and so what's the renewal process look like?

It is all online, but kind of again, because we're Rhode island and we're small enough, you can just email me, but it's all online. It's a pretty user friendly system and you just enroll@naeyc.org okay.

And so if you are a business who is maybe not a child care business, but a business who believes in what we are doing here, you could be a business sponsor.

Yes. So we at Rhode Island UYC are totally open to any donation that would kind of benefit the child care providers in any way. We would use a donation like that to maybe fund a trip to the annual conference or public policy forum. I'll have an aside about public Policy Forum in a minute. But you know, you could fund an educator's trip to D.C. you could sponsor some memberships so that your child's teacher could have access to these resources. We're definitely open to philanthropic sponsorship.

Yeah.

Any junction.

And I would say if you are a B2B business and you sell furniture, office of any anything that you feel that your service would benefit either a school or a child care program, I think that totally makes sense to be a sponsor and get your business in front of the eyes of every child care program in the state for sure. From a, from a business.

And we have an amazing network. If you wanted to say, like, hey, I am a Warwick business. My employees use this, provide like these providers. We can really kind of drill down and see, you know.

Who'S providing these services in Warwick, what do they need? We can really just act as a.

That's awesome.

As a network for you too.

And then for those people who are really, that's you out there who are really excited and pumped up after this video and you are interested in maybe being a board member or being a more active member, helping with whatever they need, stuff in envelopes, putting, putting stamps on like whatever they need there, right? Because you guys do a lot of. Do a lot of work. Definitely. I would say visit their website. I have been a board member for just a short time, it feels like. Although it was a long time, but because of COVID we didn't get to do much in person stuff, which really. Yeah, yeah, that was me. But yeah. So you want to talk about public policy before we wrapped up, so go ahead, do.

So one of the events that there happens every year is Public Policy Forum. And this is when we take a group of professionals to Washington, D.C. and we literally, after, like, you know, a day or two of some really intense professional development about how to conduct these meetings, we go to Capitol Hill and we meet with our congressional delegation. So it has been a really cool experience to, like, go into those Senate office buildings, go into those House of Representatives office buildings, and have an actual meeting in a very, you know, prim and proper boardroom. And then our delegation has always been so supportive. So, you know, you kind of get, oh, do you want to, you know, do you want to go have a Capitol tour? And I just think it's a really cool way to explore the intersection of your work and public policy. It's like a crash course. But we are there every year, and a big thing that we do at Rhode Island AUIC is build those relationships with legislators. I mean, the advocacy. You're welcome.

Thank you.

The advocacy piece is such an important part for me, and it's so close to my heart because really, the work that I was doing before, mostly with Bright Stars, was just a lot of.

I mean, it's tough to be a child care provider. It's a lot of emotional baggage. Like, you hear so much about how programs are struggling, whether it be financially, whether it be retaining staff.

I cry in a lot of videos when we talk about it with Derek, when you talk about going through COVID 19 and all of the. All of. Just the emotional stuff of it all.

Yeah, just the stress. Just the stress. Being a childcare provider, like, I want you to have a group that you can join where you feel heard and valued first and foremost. But also, I took all of that, and it took a few years of me just being like, wow, like, this is a really universal experience. Like, something needs to be done about this. And Nacy has really given me a lot of the tools I've needed to be the advocate. I am so awesome. If you just have that innate drive to affect change in that way, like, let these people be your mentors. Because, I mean, the career I've built and the career that you have really kind of praised me for just now is like, it's built on all of the everyone that I've met through this organization. I've been a NASI member the entire time.

Yeah.

That is the direct connection for me.

Yep. So what is the website for us in Rhode Island?

R I a e y c.org okay.

So thank you for tuning in today. This has been Child Care Director's Chair. Please like and subscribe if you like this content and want more. Thank you. See you soon.

Thank you.

Bye.

Thanks, Erica.