We haven’t been updating our blog regularly (since… ever), but we are growing! We’ve had 3 orientations in a row in the last three months– but we’re going back to every other month (with ways to plug in before making it to an orientation). The next one is coming up Saturday, April 22nd from 11-1 in Mosswood park; next after that will be in June, date TBD.
Email us at bayareachildcarecollective (at) gmail.com for details.
Feeling the need to throw yourself into organizing to fend off fear and despair? So are we! Come play with kids with us and feed your soul while supporting the leadership of black, brown, & undocumented mothers in the struggle for liberation. Let’s get organized and get ready.
BACC volunteers provide free childcare for grassroots organizations in the struggle for liberation. We see childcare as a form of activism and recognize mothers and caretakers as vital leaders of every movement.
Our orientations are a two-hour crash course covering 1) why we do what we do / the need for childcare & family-centered movement spaces, 2) childcare practice 101, 3) how BACC works logistically.
Long-term partners include Causa Justa :: Just Cause, LeftRoots (Bay Area Chapter), and La Colectiva de Mujeres in SF. Lately we’ve also worked with Black Teacher Project in Oakland, SRO Families Collaborative in SF, ROC Restaurant Opportunities Center, and the Stop the Santa Rita Jail Expansion Collaborative. We work with any group that is 1) grassroots, 2) primarily led by & composed by low-income women, women of color, or immigrant women or QTPOC families, and 3) fighting for more than reform — as our capacity allows.
RSVP to bayareachildcarecollective@gmail.com. Please bring contact info (email or phone #s) for two references, one of whom may be a close friend or relative.
About Our Expansion Process
The Bay Area Childcare Collective (BACC) has traditionally been a primarily-white solidarity organization. Over the years, we have come to realize that childcare activism is not only support work but is central to our movements and as such should also center the leadership of people of color and others who are impacted by multiple oppressions. Additionally, we’ve come to realize that volunteering with BACC itself is a point of access, as it has led many of us to avenues of fulfilling employment and skill building. Furthermore, our partner groups are working to build black & brown power in unity in the Bay. To meaningfully include children in this work, and offer culturally appropriate curriculum, we believe it is critical to have black & brown childcare providers.
We are looking for new collective members (less time commitment) and core organizers (more time commitment).
About Our History
Since 2002, BACC has provided free childcare to foster the inclusion of families in liberation movements. We partner with groups that:
Our current long-term partners are Causa Justa :: Just Cause, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), La Colectiva de Mujeres, and LeftRoots. We also work with other groups on a case by case basis as capacity allows.
BACC was founded in 2002 by participants of the Challenging White Supremacy workshop series (a precursor to Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden Program). As such, we began as a primarily white solidarity organization founded to support people of color led racial justice organizations. While we continue to center organizations composed of and led by m/others of color and low-income m/others, our own constituency and model has grown from its original foundation.
About Our Current Core Members
The BACC Core (core organizers of the broader collective) is currently down to three (awesome) people, one of whom recently had a baby! While we’re very excited to welcome in a new baby, this means we’ll be temporarily functioning as a group of two. Here’s who we are:
Encian joined BACC in 2008. He had just moved to the Bay Area from the Northeast, where he had had some very special kids in his life. As a transplant with race and class privilege, he felt it was particularly important to support local anti-displacement efforts, while also laying down roots and preparing to stay in the Bay for the long-haul. Encian soon fell in love with working with kids, so much so that he left the nonprofit industrial complex in 2012 to pursue becoming a preschool teacher. He is now happily teaching at a parent-teacher cooperative in Berkeley, and continuing to study early childhood education with the excellent teachers at Contra Costa Community College as well as mentors. Encian is particularly fascinated by children’s fantasy play and the use of storytelling as a method of empowerment and liberation in and out of the classroom. He feels utterly honored and humbled by the caregivers who have trusted him with their babies over the years, and the young people who have opened up and shared their perspectives, imagination and wisdom.
Rachel is a white queer Jewish woman who grew up in the Bay Area and joined BACC soon after returning to the area in 2012. Having grown up very much a part of an intergenerational community and experienced empowering community spaces from a young age, Rachel was excited to help support and prioritize such communities within liberatory movements. This, in combination with a commitment to supporting local grassroots racial justice organizing, led Rachel to BACC. Rachel was and continues to be deeply moved by participating in movements that center the organizing of m/others of color and prioritize families and children as central to movements for all of our liberation. Rachel loves getting to play ‘as one of the kids’ and is continuously inspired and rejuvenated by time spent playing and in conversation with the kids of BACC–from learning about young people’s experiences of gentrification to receiving reminders that “grown-ups can choose to play too.” The connections Rachel has built with kids and parents within BACC are central to her local organizing and continually inspire and motivate her to build and play our way into a new world.
About Who We’re Looking For
The Bay Area Childcare Collective (BACC) is looking for new members to help us build our collective and support local grassroots economic, racial and environmental justice groups. This is a great opportunity to build your childcare and leadership skills (and resumes), while supporting local grassroots organizing.
We are especially looking for folks who reflect the communities of the parents and children we work with, who are primarily African American and Latin@. We’re also looking for new members who have the following:
To Get Involved
Come to our next orientation on Sunday October 26th, 6-8pm (location TBD, BART accessible or rides will be provided). To RSVP, send us an email at bayareachildcarecollecive@gmail.com. If you can’t make it and/or have questions and/or the time has passed, please email us.
In community,
The Bay Area Childcare Collective Core
HELP US SPREAD THE WORD!
The Bay Area Childcare Collective (BACC) is looking for new core organizers to help us build our collective and support local grassroots economic, racial and environmental justice groups. This is a great opportunity to build your childcare and leadership skills, while supporting local grassroots organizing.
Our current long-term partners are Causa Justa :: Just Cause, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), La Colectiva de Mujeres, and LeftRoots. We also work with other groups on a case by case basis as capacity allows.
We’re excited to welcome new core members to participate in:
The time requirement is in the range of 10-20 hours per month, depending on how many projects you decide to take on.
Interested? Come to our “So You’re Interested in Joining the BACC Core?” shindig on Sunday, September 28th from 5-7 pm. Food, fun and information will be provided. Location TBA (East bay, BART accessible). RSVP to bayareachildcarecollective@gmail.com. Let us know your dietary restrictions and access needs, including childcare. If you can’t make it but are interested, drop us a line anyway and we’ll follow up with you. Current collective members are encouraged to attend as well as folks new to the collective!
>>Read on to learn more about our history, current core members, and expansion process!<<
About Our History and Current Core Members:
Since 2002, BACC has provided free childcare to foster the inclusion of families in liberation movements. We partner with groups that:
Our current long-term partners are Causa Justa :: Just Cause, POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), La Colectiva de Mujeres, and LeftRoots. We also work with other groups on a case by case basis as capacity allows.
BACC was founded in 2002 by participants of the Challenging White Supremacy workshop series (a precursor to Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden Program). As such, we began as a primarily white solidarity organization founded to support people of color led racial justice organizations. While we continue to center organizations composed of and led by m/others of color and low-income m/others, our own constituency and model has grown from its original foundation.
The BACC Core (core organizers of the broader collective) is currently down to three (awesome) people, one of whom recently had a baby! While we’re very excited to welcome in a new baby, this means we’ll be temporarily functioning as a group of two. Here’s who we are:
Encian joined BACC in 2008. He had just moved to the Bay Area from the Northeast, where he had had some very special kids in his life. As a transplant with race and class privilege, he felt it was particularly important to support local anti-displacement efforts, while also laying down roots and preparing to stay in the Bay for the long-haul. Encian soon fell in love with working with kids, so much so that he left the nonprofit industrial complex in 2012 to pursue becoming a preschool teacher. He is now happily teaching at a parent-teacher cooperative in Berkeley, and continuing to study early childhood education with the excellent teachers at Contra Costa Community College as well as mentors. Encian is particularly fascinated by children’s fantasy play and the use of storytelling as a method of empowerment and liberation in and out of the classroom. He feels utterly honored and humbled by the caregivers who have trusted him with their babies over the years, and the young people who have opened up and shared their perspectives, imagination and wisdom.
Rachel is a white queer Jewish woman who grew up in the Bay Area and joined BACC soon after returning to the area in 2012. Having grown up very much a part of an intergenerational community and experienced empowering community spaces from a young age, Rachel was excited to help support and prioritize such communities within liberatory movements. This, in combination with a commitment to supporting local grassroots racial justice organizing, led Rachel to BACC. Rachel was and continues to be deeply moved by participating in movements that center the organizing of m/others of color and prioritize families and children as central to movements for all of our liberation. Rachel loves getting to play ‘as one of the kids’ and is continuously inspired and rejuvenated by time spent playing and in conversation with the kids of BACC–from learning about young people’s experiences of gentrification to receiving reminders that “grown-ups can choose to play too.” The connections Rachel has built with kids and parents within BACC are central to her local organizing and continually inspire and motivate her to build and play our way into a new world.
About Our Expansion Process
In the past, when we had larger cores of 5-7 people, we were able to not only support our partner groups more fully but also develop special projects like our Radical Coloring Book and Transformative Justice & Childcare Practice workshop and zine. We are currently hoping to grow the core back to that size.
Over the years, we have come to realize that childcare activism is not only support work but is central to our movements and as such should also center the leadership of people of color and others who are impacted by multiple oppressions. Additionally, we’ve come to realize that volunteering with BACC itself is a point of access, as it has led many of us to avenues of fulfilling employment and skill building. And, we also recognize that because we serve largely Spanish-speaking low-income communities of color in our work, having a majority white member base and an all white leadership team limits our capacity to offer culturally appropriate curriculum for the communities we serve. Because we want to see BACC grow in this capacity, we are prioritizing Spanish-speaking people, low-income people, people of color, parents and/or older generations in our search for comprehensive leadership.
Where We’re Headed
Rachel and Encian are learning as we go in this transition process and don’t have a set agenda for what will come out of it. More than anything, we are excited about supporting the sustainability of BACC in whatever form it takes.
Again, if interested come to our “So You’re Interested in Joining the BACC Core?” shindig, Sunday, September 28th from 5-7 pm. Location TBA (East bay, BART accessible). RSVP to bayareachildcarecollective@gmail.com. Let us know your dietary restrictions and access needs, including childcare. If you can’t make it but are interested, drop us a line anyway and we’ll follow up with you.
In community,
The Bay Area Childcare Collective Core
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The coloring book “Land for the People” is now officially sold out! As in, we’ve run out of our stockpile of hard copies from the days when we had free printer access. We have an infinite supply of PDFs to send out, fortunately, so please email us if you’d like one. (bayareachildcarecollective (at) gmail.com.) You can still donate–optional–but funds will now go into our general fund, which pays for projects like printing flyers and sending local organizers & kids to the Allied Media Conference. See the button, below. Also, please get in touch if you have printer access and would like to help print more books! While we’re posting, we’d also like to announce our acronym’s pronunciation change! At last, a less awkward way to say BACC. The new way is like this: “Back-Sea.” We like to envision doing the backstroke in a calm, warm ocean as we say it. Ahhh. Happy new year from your friends at BACC (it’s spelled the same, but don’t forget! Visualize it!)
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The CA Domestic Workers Bill of Rights is going before the state legislature again in 2013. The BACC sent the following endorsement letter to our Assemblymember. Your organization can do the same. To find out more about the Bill of Rights and how to support, check out this link: http://www.domesticworkers.org/ca-bill-of-rights
March 31, 2013
Assemblymember Roger Hernandez
P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0048
RE: SUPPORT for AB 241 (Ammiano) Domestic Worker’s Bill of Rights
Dear Assemblymember Hernandez:
The Bay Area Childcare Collective is pleased to support AB 241 (Ammiano), which would extend equal rights to domestic workers and standardize an industry made largely invisible.
At least 200,000 of California’s domestic workers, comprised of housekeepers, nannies, and caregivers for children, the elderly, and the disabled, work in private households to care for the health, safety and well-being of many Californians’ families and homes. Domestic workers are the backbone of the economy yet they have been excluded from basic labor laws. This bill seeks to provide domestic workers with equal labor rights and industry-wide standards so that they can provide quality care to the individuals and homes with which they are entrusted.
The Bay Area Childcare Collective was formed in 2002 in response to the very real need for childcare among social justice organizations. We are an all-volunteer organization providing free childcare for grassroots groups of women of color, so that poor and working-class mothers can be active in struggles for social and economic justice. We work closely with two San Francisco organizations representing domestic workers: The Women’s Collective and POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights).
We understand our work as part of a long-term effort to build multi-generational movements with parents, women and children at the center, and for this reason we fully support AB 241. This bill simplifies the law and provides uniform protection to all domestic workers. We believe this uniformity will increase the quality of care and standardize the industry, benefitting domestic employers and workers alike—and benefitting the children of both employers and workers.
Domestic workers are the bedrock of our society – they do the work that makes all other work possible. We strongly support AB 241 to not only protect this significant and valuable workforce but also invest in the well-being of California’s families and homes. Thank you for your time and consideration of our position.
Sincerely,
The Bay Area Childcare Collective
CC: Assemblymember Tom Ammiano
Hello friends!
It’s been an exciting summer, and we are busy gearing up for an exciting fall! For those of you who missed the many facebook updates about it, we had an awesome time at the GIFT Conference– Money for Our Movements in early August. We got a whole junior ballroom at the Marriott all to ourselves, and it was awesome! Plus a separate suite in the hotel for the littlest ones. It’s pretty amazing what a group of creative and industrious young people can accomplish with their own space, a couple of hours, and some beads, clay, and construction paper. The kids we hung out with made and sold necklaces, paintings, and figurines to conference attendees and were able to raise over $160 to donate to No More Deaths. We asked what they wanted to raise money for on the first day of the conference. They spent some time discussing it and agreed that they wanted to help people cross the desert without dying. I wish I had a video of 9 year old Jesus getting up in front of a crowd of 500 conference attendees in the huge Marriott ballroom and explaining that no one should die trying to make the journey to the US. You just had to see it. The kids stood outside the room while adults were filtering in and out and made their pitches to complete strangers about why they should buy a painting to support No More Deaths. I left feeling exhilarated and inspired by their confidence and enthusiasm to put themselves out there for a worthy cause.
But if you couldn’t make it, don’t get upset! There are lots of other exciting opportunities coming up, and one in particular I was hoping I might get some feedback on. We’ve been thinking for a while about doing a workshop and/or series of workshops, cause workshops are super fun, and there is so much to learn about childcare that doesn’t just relate to what games to play or how to change a diaper (ha! trick question- we leave the diaper changing to parents!) So if you were to close your eyes and imagine your dream childcare collective workshop, what would it be about? Or if you are thinking, “psshaw, I don’t need to attend a workshop, I need to lead one! I’ve got so much to say!” Then please, speak now! Would you like to collaborate and lead a workshop? If you have ideas, or want to get involved send us an email! You can send to epastel@gmail.com.
So I know I said there were lots of other exciting fall happenings, and there are, but I am getting sleepy and feel like this post is getting kind of long. You can check out our calendar and see what’s available to plug in to coming up.
Lovingly yours,
The Bay Area Childcare Collective
Thank you, special guests, for taking time out of your busy schedules and appearing in this video.
UPDATE: COLORING BOOK SOLD OUT, PDF AVAILABLE at http://intergalactic-childcare.weebly.com/books-coloringchildrens-books.html
FUNDRAISER FOR LA COLECTIVA IS OVER
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“Land for the People// La Tierra Para La Gente, A Radical Coloring Book” is now available to order online, by mail, or in person from core members! Get your coloring book now for a sliding scale donation of $2-$20+, which will go entirely to La Colectiva. La Colectiva’s parent organization La Raza Centro Legal has been threatened by massive budget cuts this year.
If you would like a copy, please email the BACC core at
bayareachildcarecollective@gmail.com with the amount of your donation and the intended method of your donation (online, check by mail, or in-person), as well as whether you prefer a printed or online copy. Please include your phone number if you would like to arrange an in person exchange and your address + an extra $5 for shipping if you are requesting a copy by mail. Use the donation button below if you would like to make your donation by credit card online.
