“Parents Know Best” highlights work of Parent Voices Oakland

Photo courtesy of Parent Voices Oakland

Parent Voices Oakland (PVO), in partnership with OSSS, was recently showcased in a national case study for its groundbreaking family-led data collection and advocacy.

Tanisha Payton, Leadership Development and Research Manager with Parent Voices Oakland, and Priya Jagannathan, OSSS Director, were interviewed for a case study: “Parents Know Best: How Family-Led Data Collection and Advocacy Lead to Increases in Early Childhood Funding in Alameda County”. 

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The case study presents the lessons we collectively learned in advocating for county funding for early childcare programs, including: promoting family and community leadership, using data to better understand family engagement in early childhood programs, fostering inclusive training for family, friend and neighbor caregivers, and empowering families to lead development of tools and resources.

Quoting from  case study: “Parent voices were critical to getting the [county] ballot measure passed. It would not have been possible without the community organizing by Parent Voices Oakland (PVO), a parent-led organization dedicated to increasing access to affordable childcare. In 2017, PVO used funding from Oakland Starting Smart and Strong… to learn how almost 600 families in four majority Black neighborhoods in Oakland accessed childcare. The resulting report directly informed the creation of the ballot measure and has been a catalyst for continuing systems-wide changes to early childhood programming in Alameda County.” 
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The case study was published by the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality (NICHQ) as part of their Early Childhood Health Equity (ECHE) Landscape Project.