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This one-day conference is presented by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Child Care Matters to Everyone is an innovative one-day conference that will nurture your leadership skills and support the development of broader local action networks to support licensed child care and early childhood educators in your community.

Everyone is welcome to attend!  Whether you are an educator looking for a unique professional learning opportunity, a parent who wants to share your child care experience or a concerned citizen who understands the importance of child care and ECEs – you should attend Child Care Matters to Everyone. This conference will provide information and opportunities around working together to understand and take action for child care in your community.

Be inspired by our panel of local change-makers as we work towards building relationships with new partners that will strengthen licensed child care and ECEs in your community.  

Panelists include:

Jane Wedlock, Manager of Community Engagement and Research, United Way York Region
Shawna Lee, Canadian Trainer, Triple P International, PhD Candidate, Applied Educational Psychology, University of Western Ontario
Jane Realmo, RECE, Professor, ECE and Bachelor of Child Development program, Seneca College

Panelists will use their extensive experience to discuss:

• Engaging people to work on a specific issue
• How the state of child care in Ontario impacts the work they do and the community that they serve
• Possible solutions from their perspective
• How we can work together to bring about change
• Learn, through action-based workshops, leadership skills and techniques that will help you develop and implement strategies to further your action plans.

The following workshops are confirmed:

• Answering Tough Questions about Child Care

“Why should I pay for other people’s children?” “Isn’t a national child care program too expensive?”  This workshop focuses on answering questions and challenging the arguments against investment in child care. We will practice effectively crafting our messages to change the minds of our opponents and build broader support for the value of child care.

• Making Change with Little to No Resources

This workshop centers on the difficulties many people face when wanting to create change with little time and fewer resources.  What can we do when we work long hours, have obligations, families and careers? How can we make change when we are just a few voices, with little support, few resources and limited access? We will explore a variety of tools and tricks that will help build awareness, support and a following for your cause.

• Finding your voice: Using Your Personal Story to Advocate for Change

In this workshop we will discuss and practice strategies that use the strength of our personal stories to advocate for change in our communities and to decision makers.

• Professionalism: what is it and why is it important?

This workshop will focus on our role as "self-regulated, equal pay for equal work worthy" educators. Does what we do and how we do it influence how others perceive our role in the education continuum? What is our responsibility in this outlook? Together we will look at the research, the impacts, and the expectations of being professional registered early childhood educators in Ontario. Professionalism: what is it and why is it important? - Elaine Winick, PhD, M.Ed., RECE, RTI

Selection of workshops will take place during morning registration.

This conference is presented by the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care and the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario with the support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

AECEO/OCBCC Members $18  Non Members $20  Students/Unwaged $15

Your registration fee covers the cost of lunch and materials.

If finances are a barrier to your participation please contact [email protected]

 You can also register using this Registration Form and sending it in the AECEO by email, fax or mail

 If you have any dietary restrictions please contact Lena DaCosta at [email protected]