Who we are
Child Care Now is dedicated to advocating for a publicly funded, inclusive, quality, non-profit child care system. Our organization is non-profit, membership-based and regionally representative.
Where We Began
We were founded after the second national child care conference held in Winnipeg in 1982. There, over 700 delegates from all provinces and territories called for an effective voice to pursue child care issues at the federal level and promote a broad consensus within all regions of Canada. Although incorporated under the name Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) / L’Association canadienne pour la promotion des services de garde l’enfance, in 2017, we decided to carry on our work under a new name: Child Care Now in English and Un Enfant Une Place in French.
Today, Child Care Now continues to work with provincial and territorial child care organizations and a broad range of other groups including unions, anti-poverty organizations, employers, municipalities, and those advocating for human and women’s rights. In 2013, we worked with our allies to develop the Guiding Principles for Child Care Advocates drawing on our extensive experience building partnerships through the last 30 years.
Our Structure
We are supported by a broad membership base of individuals, families, child care programs, regional and pan-Canadian groups and organizations, and are overseen by a voluntary Board of Directors.
Our central office is located in Ottawa.
What We Stand For
We believe…
- Child care is a cornerstone of progressive policy for children and families.
- Children and families have the right to access a child care system supported by public funds.
- Canadians deserve a comprehensive and affordable child care system that is high quality, inclusive, and non-profit.
- Families deserve a range of child care services for young and school age children.
- Those working in child care must have decent work, wages and working conditions.
What We Do
Public Education
We keep Canadians informed about the latest news on child care issues and advocacy — federally and across the country.
Child Care Now prepares a range of fact sheets, backgrounders and briefs on key issues. Our staff and leadership speak at conferences, deliver workshops and speak on the issues in the news media.
Political Action
Child Care Now organizes activities, initiates campaigns and works with other pan-Canadian organizations to raise the profile of child care as a political issue and generate support for our aims.
We develop proposals for federal, provincial and territorial government action, advocate through briefs and submissions to government and lobby all major federal parties. We respond to the growing threat from commercial child-care chains and we work with partner organizations to support initiatives that encourage the well-being of Canadian families including social justice campaigns related to poverty, women, education and health.
Recent Advocacy Campaign
Vote Child Care 2015, brings together child care advocates and supporters from across Canada to promote the vision endorsed at the ChildCare2020 Conference.
Recent Project
Child Care is a Right, a project that returns to the roots of the women’s movement to explore child care from a women’s, children’s and family rights position. The core of this project is to explore Canada’s international treaty obligations to women, children and families as they pertain to child care. It focuses on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and related General Comment #7, the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In partnership with Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC).
Our Key Activities
- Promote a vision of early childhood education and care (ECEC) based on child care as a right of every child
- Monitor and respond to policy developments
- Raise public awareness of child care
- Support provincial and territorial initiatives in line with our policy aims
- Work with federal opposition parties to keep child care on the public agenda
- Respond to the growing threat of commercial child care chains
Past Campaigns
- Rethink Child Care, a multi-year campaign aimed at making public and non-profit child care a priority in the 2015 federal election.
- WeNeedChildCare.ca, a campaign to inspire action on child care through the sharing of child care stories and needs online. 2010/11
- Code Blue for Child Care, a Canada-wide campaign to save the bilateral child care agreements and build a real pan-Canadian child care system (2006/07), and to keep advocates and families informed and updated during the 2011 federal election.
- Building Blocks Campaign, CCAAC’s first campaign to work with a broad coalition to get the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of child care to negotiate a good child care agreement. 2004/05
Past projects
- Rethink Child Care, a multi-year campaign aimed at making public and non-profit child care a priority in the 2015 federal election.
- WeNeedChildCare.ca, a campaign to inspire action on child care through the sharing of child care stories and needs online. 2010/11
- Code Blue for Child Care, a Canada-wide campaign to save the bilateral child care agreements and build a real pan-Canadian child care system (2006/07), and to keep advocates and families informed and updated during the 2011 federal election.
- Building Blocks Campaign, CCAAC’s first campaign to work with a broad coalition to get the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers of child care to negotiate a good child care agreement. 2004/05
