You’re Invited to a Community Forum

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Dear <<First Name>>,

Child care is the essential industry that supports all other industries, both today and tomorrow. Quality child care ensures today’s parents can keep working and will be more productive/stable workers.

Arizona’s child care infrastructure continues to deal with a severe workforce shortage. It will continue unless innovative, long-term solutions are found. Basically, if child care doesn’t work, business doesn’t work.

As a leader in your community, your knowledge and expertise can help us address this critical problem. That’s why I am excited to invite you to the:

Central East Community Forum on
Strengthening the Child Care Workforce
April 18, 2023
Eastern Arizona College - Thatcher Arizona
8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

A continental breakfast is included

At the forum, you will join other leaders from Graham/Greenlee, Pinal, Cochise and Gila counties and the San Carlos Apache tribe of Arizona, to learn more about this critical issue and to identify potential solutions. Our discussion will focus on three main areas:

Economic Impact
Creating a Workforce Pipeline
Workforce Development and Retention

Additional logistics and short background materials to help you prepare will be sent to attendees before the event.

RSVP for the Community Forum

Please RSVP no later than March 31, 2023.

I also thought it was important to let you know that we intend to have other Community Forums on this topic, in other regions in the state, throughout the year. If you have any questions about the breakfast and Community Forum, please contact Deanna Carrera, Director of Leadership & Learning, dcarrerra@firstthingsfirst.org.

I hope you will be able to lend your expertise to the Community Forum. With your help, we can find long-term solutions to this crisis, keep Arizona parents working, and ensure their children have a smart start on their trajectory to success!

Melinda Morrison Gulick
Chief Executive Officer
First Things First

First Things First partners with families and communities to help kids have the positive, nurturing experiences they need to arrive at school ready to succeed. We do this through quality early care and education programs, preventive health efforts, and supporting parents in their role as their child’s first teachers. To learn more about our organization, click here.