President of the Child Care Action Campaign, Faith Wohl, spoke to Boston employees and families recently at a breakfast in her honor. She offered 10 primary lessons that she had learned during her time spent as an expert in the work-life field and most recently as head of the primary child advocacy group of the United States, The Child Care Action Campaign.

Wohl’s model lessons, including "work/family is a test of the values of a corporation," and "work/family is an issue for men as well as for women," illustrated how the burden of balancing work and family is no longer entirely that of the employee, but rather the employer and the organization’s creation and maintenance of an accommodating and flexible work environment. Wohl articulated an energizing verbal time line of just how far the work-life field has come as well as a sobering description of how far it still has to go.

Faith Wohl is a person with exceptional insight and expertise in the work-life field. For 20 years, Faith was at Dupont where she pioneered the company’s initiative to help employees balance their lives and careers. She then worked in Washington as Director of the Office of Workplace Initiative for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). In this position, Faith oversaw the operation of over 100 child care centers in federal buildings across the nation. In December 1997 she became President of the Child Care Action Campaign, a national non-profit advocacy organization.

"Every Child Deserves Quality Early Education and Care: Child Care Resource and Referral services work to make this happen" was the message in the Great Hall of the State House on Thursday, November 4^th, when the fifteen child care resource and referral agencies (R&Rs) in Massachusetts came together to focus attention on access to quality care and pending child care legislation.

Organized by the Child Care Resource Center, the event was attended by over 60 representatives from legislative offices across the Commonwealth. Participants met staff from their local R&R and gained valuable information from fact sheets and legislative summaries that the R&Rs provided. These highlighted such driving issues as the 13,000 children on the Massachusetts child care subsidy wait list and the problems that exist with informal child care. Other major topics included seven pieces of key child care legislation currently under review.

Dr. George Askew, Director of Community Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center and Chair of the Public Policy Committee of the Board of the Child Care Resource Center, opened the event with remarks on the condition of child care in Massachusetts, citing the state’s number of children waiting for child care. The Child Care Resource Center’s Executive Director, Marta Rosa, followed up by thanking those Legislators who attended the event and reinforcing the message that 1 out of 8 children are in a poor child care setting.

In honor of their commitment to early education and quality care, Speaker Finneran and Senator Birmingham were awarded framed drawings from child care centers in their districts of Dorchester and Chelsea. Senate Majority Leader Linda Melconian, who accepted the award for Birmingham, remarked that, "The largest resource in our community is children, and a legacy we can give them is education in order to be successful in life. Senator Birmingham has made that his signature issue."

Representatives Kay Khan and Jarrett Barrios, the Legislative sponsors of the event, offered thanks to CCRC for the breakfast and encouraged citizens to continue to make their legislators aware of child care issues and the basic importance of children. Their parting words were, "Keep up the fight!"

The Child Care Resource Center and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay have announced a new child care subsidy program, the William O. Taylor Fund for Children, which will provide financial assistance to 15 – 20 low-to-moderate income working families. The aim is to help families who earn too much to qualify for state assistance, yet too little to afford a quality program. Families that are chosen to receive the assistance will be funded for up to three consecutive years.

"The quality of child care – which affects children’s lifelong learning – is too important for families to skimp on," said Marian L. Heard, President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. "But many working families have no choice when their paychecks barely cover needs like housing, health care, food, clothing and transportation."

The Child Care Resource Center will select the families and administer the program, which is open to families who:

• have a dependant child, up to 15 months old.
• have an annual income of between 50 and 100 percent of the Massachusetts median.
• are working full-time or are working part-time and enrolled in a degree program part-time.
• live in the United Way of Massachusetts Bay service area.

The funds for this program come from the United Way’s William O. Taylor Fund for Children. Last year, local business and civic leaders gave over $300,000 to the United Way of Massachusetts Bay to honor William O. Taylor, retired chairman and chief executive officer of the Globe Newspaper Company. The United Way established the fund to recognize his contribution to the United Way and other nonprofit organizations.

The Child Care Resource Center has received more than 30 applications for the 15-20 possible slots. Funds pay a portion of the child care cost, based on a sliding-fee scale. Admission is free and on a first come, first serve basis.

To join the waitlist or get further details, call CCRC at 617-547-1063 x205.

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