Small communities’ voices matter

Rural areas need representation in the implementation of the Early Education Department

The new Early Childhood Education and Care Department is an opportunity for New Mexico to shine for our children and our families. The programs that are being brought together are those that provide education for our young citizens as well as their parents. The department will have pre-K and child care, but it also will have others such as home visiting and early intervention, which are programs that are often not understood.

We know traditional education within four walls with small chairs, science and art centers, story time and learning through play. We see on social media all the time about how our children need opportunities to explore and create. However, we often don’t see or hear about what our parents/caregivers need in order to support our young children for the future.

We, you and I, are the caregivers who are entrusted to raise and nurture our children into well-adjusted adults who will be making decisions for each of us someday . ...

How do we support the many different types of families or caregivers that are a part of the lives of our children every day? How do we support the educator in the child-care classroom? How do we support the grandmother who has just become the primary caretaker of her grand baby? How do we support young parents who are learning to be on their own and now have started a family? How do we support the single parent? The older parent? The “I seriously don’t have a clue” parent? Our families are as diverse as our landscape. What they all have in common is they are raising our future.

We as a state have stepped in with this program or that program and provided support to different degrees to different populations through different agencies. With the new department the “collective think” has more of an opportunity to naturally occur. My hope is this new department is set up to stop the “busy” and focus on the “betterment” for our children and families. It isn’t about creating more government; it’s about bringing together those who have been working within the early childhood field and creating a stronger opportunity for success for our families.

There will be challenges resulting in opportunities to ensure our smaller communities’ voices are as equal to the voices within Albuquerque or Santa Fe. We see the celebrations in Santa Fe and Albuquerque but not necessarily the celebrations in Cibola County or Socorro.

Our communities within all our counties as well as all our children’s programs need to have not only a seat at the table but also a voice. It is easy to look at (the) metro (area) or Santa Fe to determine what happens next rather than ensuring the voices of the rural frontier areas are heard. Just like we need to focus on the needs of all caregivers, we also need to recognize the importance of each program and the support that is offered. These programs, which are smaller but no less important, will find themselves educating others in the new department about their programs.

This in turn will serve as a larger platform to educating families within the state about more resources. With solid leadership that recognizes the big picture, small picture and all the in-between pictures, this can be done. This is our opportunity to organize our early childhood community village and give everyone a seat and a voice at the table while providing supports, education and resources for our caregivers. In so doing, we win now, and we win in the future with stronger families ready to lead their families and their communities on a path of stronger advocacy, better education and healthier relationships.