When I am downtown, especially in the commons, I often see homeless people, not many, just a few. Before I started doing volunteer work I was not aware of how many homeless people there really are in our area. And I also had no idea that the face I often saw asking for money or sleeping on a bench, was not the common face of homelessness. As a matter of fact, in Boston the homeless are usually made up of families with children. To get an idea of what it is like your area, you can use this interactive map.
I often wondered what I could even do to help the homeless. There are plenty of ways however, as I have learned over the years. The first is through obvious things like donations to support shelters, or donations of specific items to shelters. There are many places in which a person can work the local soup kitchens or food banks. Some states have building projects which need volunteers, and you can also do a drive through your company to help.
In the past I have worked with an organization called Project Night Night. I was working with a lot of creative people and we were able to fill over 20 bags for the local Salvation Army shelter. The bags consist of books a blanket and a toothbrush/toothpaste for multiple age groups. They send you the bags and materials to organize the drive and when they are filled, you go to the shelter in your area and drop them off.
The MA based organization I have spent the last year with, is called Horizons for Homeless Children. The position I hold is known as a PAL. My duty as a PAL is to go to a shelter once a week and play with the children in our organization's designated play area. During this time, the children are having an active and positive experience free of the worries of life, while the parents undergo either parenting or job training, or look for employment, depending on the facility. There are multiple shifts, I have an AM one as I am a chicken about taking the train by myself in the evening, although I know our center has evening shifts as well. I was placed at a shelter for female domestic abuse victims who had become homeless by fleeing the abuse. The time I am there, the women are attending parenting classes, which is often very warranted after how they, themselves, have been treated . I go in and prepare the room, make sure it was cleaned up after the last pals were there, and there is nothing unsafe. The parents bring the children down and pick them up after the class.
These are just a few places to start, if you are interested. I love to help others and lend a hand, and I feel that if everyone does a little something to help others, this world isn't so bad.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Teacher Unions for Childcare workers?
http://meceu.org/
Ok, so the link above is for the MECEU, which is attempting to initiate a union for Early Childhood Educators. I am on the fence, just kidding, there's no reason this should not be enacted!
Pros of Union Labor-
Collective negotiations for wages and benefits with greater success than asking on your own
Cons of Union Labor-
Sometimes wages can end up raised to unrealistically high levels which ends up creating greater costs for the product, in this case, care for children (honestly, I don't think there is enough money in the world to have your child well cared for).
Then there are strikes, which I don't know if they are pros or cons really. What are your thoughts?
I foresee a Union as a good thing here. In Massachusetts, the average mean income in 2008, according to the U.S. census bureau, was $65,304, while the average income for a childcare worker is $32,120 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2009). Maybe this is due to women still being underpaid, and 98% of early childhood educators being female (http://www.pay-equity.org/PDFs/ProfWomen.pdf).
With the requirements necessary to work in childcare in Massachusetts (http://www.mass.gov/Eoedu/docs/EEC/prof_development/eec_certificationapp.pdf) is it worth the trouble to make the same amount of money as an entry level retail or food service worker who had to meet little to no prerequisites for their job?
Then, is it fair for the children to be cared for by people who are excessively stressed with their issues due to living in or near the poverty line. Many of them have multiple jobs or work unreasonable hours to make up for the lack of pay they get, which can cause them to be overtired, irritable, or just not aware of what they are even doing. The increased stress also has an impact on their health. Increased stress=lower immune system. Do the math:
Low immune system+hours with often ill children=teachers needing time off, money for medicine or health care, or having to work while sick.
The latter is more common as childcare facilities are often understaffed or just staffed enough to function, and many teachers just can't miss a minute on their paycheck.
In a study done by the National Institute for Early Education Researchabout Pre-K teachers salaries it was found that The highest median hourly wages were reported by teachers in Maryland ($29.07), Pennsylvania ($28.19), Michigan ($27.62), and New York ($25.32) all states where a large proportion of programs are in public schools. The lowest median hourly wages were reported by teachers in Florida ($10.07), New Mexico ($10.96), Hawaii ($12.66), and Massachusetts ($12.95). They also found that 14% of teachers reported an annual salary below the federal poverty threshold, and 71% earned a salary less than 200 % of the federal poverty threshold, a measure widely regarded as the line below which families are considered low-income. In 11 of the nations 52 statewide prekindergarten systems, more than one-third of the teachers earned a salary below the federal poverty threshold, the worst being Alaska (59 percent below the poverty level), Florida (46 percent), Washington (44 percent) and Delaware (42 percent).
As a teacher in Massachusetts, making a mere 10$/hr with 7+ years of experience as a teacher 4 years as an assistant director, and a proud owner of BA in Psych., I can attest that preschool teaching is not earning a living. If it were not for my love of working with children and my loyalty to my employer, I would run far away right now. Instead, I am attempting to find ways to make changes in the industry and trying to find other ways to make money. No luck with that so far, but I don't give up easily.
Ok, so the link above is for the MECEU, which is attempting to initiate a union for Early Childhood Educators. I am on the fence, just kidding, there's no reason this should not be enacted!
Pros of Union Labor-
Collective negotiations for wages and benefits with greater success than asking on your own
Cons of Union Labor-
Sometimes wages can end up raised to unrealistically high levels which ends up creating greater costs for the product, in this case, care for children (honestly, I don't think there is enough money in the world to have your child well cared for).
Then there are strikes, which I don't know if they are pros or cons really. What are your thoughts?
I foresee a Union as a good thing here. In Massachusetts, the average mean income in 2008, according to the U.S. census bureau, was $65,304, while the average income for a childcare worker is $32,120 (Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2009). Maybe this is due to women still being underpaid, and 98% of early childhood educators being female (http://www.pay-equity.org/PDFs/ProfWomen.pdf).
With the requirements necessary to work in childcare in Massachusetts (http://www.mass.gov/Eoedu/docs/EEC/prof_development/eec_certificationapp.pdf) is it worth the trouble to make the same amount of money as an entry level retail or food service worker who had to meet little to no prerequisites for their job?
Then, is it fair for the children to be cared for by people who are excessively stressed with their issues due to living in or near the poverty line. Many of them have multiple jobs or work unreasonable hours to make up for the lack of pay they get, which can cause them to be overtired, irritable, or just not aware of what they are even doing. The increased stress also has an impact on their health. Increased stress=lower immune system. Do the math:
Low immune system+hours with often ill children=teachers needing time off, money for medicine or health care, or having to work while sick.
The latter is more common as childcare facilities are often understaffed or just staffed enough to function, and many teachers just can't miss a minute on their paycheck.
In a study done by the National Institute for Early Education Researchabout Pre-K teachers salaries it was found that The highest median hourly wages were reported by teachers in Maryland ($29.07), Pennsylvania ($28.19), Michigan ($27.62), and New York ($25.32) all states where a large proportion of programs are in public schools. The lowest median hourly wages were reported by teachers in Florida ($10.07), New Mexico ($10.96), Hawaii ($12.66), and Massachusetts ($12.95). They also found that 14% of teachers reported an annual salary below the federal poverty threshold, and 71% earned a salary less than 200 % of the federal poverty threshold, a measure widely regarded as the line below which families are considered low-income. In 11 of the nations 52 statewide prekindergarten systems, more than one-third of the teachers earned a salary below the federal poverty threshold, the worst being Alaska (59 percent below the poverty level), Florida (46 percent), Washington (44 percent) and Delaware (42 percent).
As a teacher in Massachusetts, making a mere 10$/hr with 7+ years of experience as a teacher 4 years as an assistant director, and a proud owner of BA in Psych., I can attest that preschool teaching is not earning a living. If it were not for my love of working with children and my loyalty to my employer, I would run far away right now. Instead, I am attempting to find ways to make changes in the industry and trying to find other ways to make money. No luck with that so far, but I don't give up easily.
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