Coming October 26 Online: Child Care in Whatcom County
It is often said that children are our future, yet families in Whatcom County struggle to find affordable child care and access to children’s behavioral health services. Currently there are 5,000 fewer openings in child care settings than needed to satisfy local demand. Our K12 schools estimate that less than half of incoming kindergartners arrive at school “ready to learn”.
Panelists will explore the need for early learning programs, childcare, and support for vulnerable children and the ways that Proposition 2022-5 Children’s Initiative Levy Lid Lift (also known as the Healthy Children’s Fund) is intended to meet these needs. We’ll consider the business impacts of this levy (and of a workforce impacted by access to child care) as well as any challenges or limitations to the proposal so that you can be an informed voter on election day.
Land Acknowledgement
The Board of the Bellingham City Club has adopted the following land acknowledgement to introduce its public programs:
We begin by acknowledging, with humility, that the land where we are today is the territory of the People of the Salish Sea. Their presence is imbued in the waterways, shorelines, valleys and mountains of the traditional homelands of the Coast Salish People, and it has been this way since time immemorial.
For information about the land acknowledgement adopted by the Lummi Business Council, click here.
For a video about the Ferndale Public Schools land acknowledgement produced by Ferndale School District, Children of the Setting Sun, and the Lhaqtemish Foundation, click here.