Episode 20: Gerry Balcazar and Hugo Ramirez, Vision y Compromiso, “The Movement is Built from the Community of Friends and Neighbors”

In California, only about 30% of children are being taken care of by formal licensed daycare centers while their parents go to work. This means as many as 70% are being taken care of by informal options such as family, friends and neighbors. These FFNs as they are called are going above and beyond to be the “village” for the love of children and desire to build up this next generation. However, they often lack the support and respect that helps them to leverage the important role they have in society. How is Vision y Compromiso validating their critical place in our communities and increasing the training for this large group of caregivers to grow in their role?

In this episode, we talk with Gerry and Hugo and their vision for the leaders in their communities, the Promotores, who have the ability to gather people and to increase the trust in these uncertain times, so that these tremendously important community members can thrive. Often these caretakers are raising kids during long and unpredictable hours and providing so much more than physical care, they are the emotional supports and cultural influencers. This is organization at the grassroots level and you’ll want to listen in!

• What are Promotores and what do they do
• Engaging family, friends and neighbors, especially when they may be wary of government 
• The importance of self-care and self-validation when not always appreciated or recognized in the wider society
• Why network of informal caregivers are so pivotal in our society
• Involvement of the families and feedback they give and how they need to be supported
• Importance of valuing the culture and feeding into cultural traditions
• Training on multiple intelligences so that caregivers feel validated in all the ways they are building into the children
• Training providing empowerment and authority to speak about their education related to child development
• Overlay with the immigrant community and the fear of providing information in current times of changing immigration laws
• The role of Promotores in building trust
• Rural vs. Urban areas and the difference in working with the different communities
• Learning from the insight gathered from within

Links:

Visionycompromiso.org