The Early Learning Alliance/AFT-OR is a unique, statewide coalition of child care center directors, owners, teachers and staff as well as parents and community leaders who have joined in a mission to improve the quality of early childhood education in Oregon.
ELA's mission
Our mission is to ensure that child care centers have resources to provide living wage jobs; and give families access to high quality, affordable child care. To achieve this goal, we must advance the interests of the key component in a quality education — the workforce that provides it.
A unified organizational voice
We envision a unified organizational voice for the early childhood workforce based in child care centers. As a voice for the child care workforce, we advocate for livable wages, benefits and professional development — but not at the expense of struggling parents or under-funded child care centers. ELA/AFT-OR seeks to shape landmark legislation that would bring greater resources to child care centers and workers throughout the state.
That’s why we are joining together — owners, directors, teachers and staff of child care centers in Oregon — to find funding and public support for early learning. Join our extraordinary organizing effort! Let’s work together to make sure child care centers, and the people who work in them, get the support they deserve.
For more information
contact Elizabeth Joy Zarek, ELA/AFT-OR organizer and longtime early educator, to find out more about the benefits of membership.
Visit these related websites:
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
Washington Educators in Early Learning (WEEL)
