September 12, 2024 Stand Up for Homeless Children’s Awareness Month Mayor Ed Gainey will join Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-12th, for an event and press conference that will draw attention to the county’s children, youth, and young adults experiencing homelessness. Learn More Stand Up for Homeless Children’s Awareness Month is aimed at showing solidarity for the 3,122 students experiencing homelessness in Allegheny County. There will be a three-minute observance of silence and a press conference during which elected officials will speak. The event will run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1 in front of the Pittsburgh City-County Building. Those interested in attending can RSVP now.
August 19, 2024 Allegheny County Opens Four Low-Vision Tennis Courts Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato recently announced the opening of the county’s first Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) tennis courts at four local parks. Learn More The courts debuted in July at four Allegheny County parks – Boyce, North, Settlers Cabin, and South Park. The courts are designed to accommodate athletes with low vision as well as fully-sighted players and promote inclusivity in the community. Low-vision, or “sound ball” tennis, is played on a slightly smaller court with a slower, foam sound ball that has a rattle inside of it. Players track the ball by sound and, if they have partial vision, using the vision they have. The new courts enable athletes to walk on the court without bringing temporary tape lines each time. Low-Vision Tennis A recent study by Carlow University examined how blind or visually impaired athletes react to different sounds emitted by specialized tennis balls. Psychology professor Jennifer K. Roth, who led the study, is also involved with local and national tennis associations that are drawing attention to the sport and expanding access for low-vision players. The United States Blind Tennis Association, which is based in Pittsburgh, is at the forefront of integrating blind and visually impaired tennis into mainstream sports. Since its inception, the association has conducted training and introduced programming across multiple states. “When I talk about building a county for all, that means places people feel connected to their neighbors and communities and parks for everyone to enjoy, and this project really embodies that ethos,” Innamorato said.
June 17, 2024 Allegheny County Executive Highlights All-In Action Plan for High-Quality Early Care and Education Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato recently joined local legislators and Trying Together to underscore how a growing teacher shortage – driven by low compensation – is closing child care and pre-k programs throughout the state. As a result, working families are experiencing long waitlists to get their child into early education programs. Learn More Innamorato joined county policymakers at the Allegheny County Courthouse on Thursday, June 13 to urge investments in early learning teacher recruitment and retention. Legislators highlighted the need for Pennsylvania to mirror efforts in other states that could help remedy a child care and pre-k teacher shortage as well as ensure that early learning supply can meet the demand from families. “As someone who has advocated for early care and education for a long time, I know that families rely on child care and other early learning programs,” Innamorato said. “If the early learning sector is struggling, it will have negative implications for our working families. The relative scarcity of quality programs have made words like ‘expensive’ and ‘waitlist’ all too familiar for parents with small children.” Innamorato highlighted findings from her office’s All-In Allegheny Initiative survey, in which 40% of 19,000 residents who responded cited access and affordable child care were a top priority. Additionally, 31% of responders prioritized increased pay for child care workers. Innamorato said that the county would advocate to increase wages for child care and out-of-school time workers as well as expand access to short-term and crisis child care and invest and secure more resources in the Allegheny County Child Care Matters pilot program. Low Compensation Driving Shortage Low compensation for early child care and pre-k teachers, who are among the lowest paid positions in the state’s workforce, is the driving factor behind the teacher shortage. According to a March 2024 report from the General Assembly’s Independent Fiscal Office (IFO), the average child care teacher in Pennsylvania earns $15.15 per hour. In a recent Start Strong PA survey, Allegheny County child care programs reported 511 open positions, resulting in 103 closed classrooms. Had the programs been fully staffed, an additional 2,416 children could be served. State Rep. La’Tasha Mayes (D-24th District), a new mother and co-chair of the state Assembly’s Black Maternal Health caucus, said child care and early learning is a broken business model. “I know first-hand the difficult position that early learning providers find themselves (in),” she said. “They are challenged to keep pace with market wages, but they know that the families they serve can’t afford to pay what it would take to accomplish this.” Danielle Daye, owner of the Learning & Education Child Development Center, said that educators are the foundation of programs like the one she operates. She added that they are not being supported on a statewide level. “As we meet and exceed guidelines of quality care and education following Keystone STARS standards, the cost of operating a center of this magnitude far exceeds the income generated to sustain this level of programming and pay livable wages,” she said. “Owners and operators like myself rely on building relationships with our staff and providing positive work environments to attract and retain the very individuals that make our program what it is, and we are losing staff to fields able to provide in this economy.” Parents Struggling to Find Quality Child Care Heather Visensky, the community engagement manager for MomsWork, said she hears numerous stories from mothers about their struggles securing quality, reliable, and affordable child care. “The bottom line is that high-quality and reliable child care is something that is critical to the modern-day workforce,” she said. “When parents stress about not having reliable, affordable and quality child care, their work suffers, their productivity plummets, and they have difficulty advancing in their careers. Most importantly, their overall parenting and mental health suffers being in a constant state of worry and uncertainty.” State Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-38th District) and Duolingo’s Head of Social Impact, Kendra Ross, also spoke at the event about the importance of high-quality early care and education. All of the legislators and speakers in attendance noted that they support a recruitment and retention proposal that would provide monthly payments to providers of up to $440 per child care employee for initiatives such as hiring bonuses, monthly wage increases, benefit packages, or retention bonuses for staff staying for a certain length of time or for staff achieving certain credentials or degrees. Such a program would provide flexibility for providers to choose how to use these funds so that they can have the maximum impact in local communities. The effort would cost the state $284 million.
April 29, 2024 Trying Together Exec Director Touts Importance of Child Care Access on Our Region’s Business Trying Together Executive Director Cara Ciminillo was featured on WPXI’s Our Region’s Business segment on Sunday, April 28. Ciminillo discussed the importance of child care access after the issue recently topped a survey from the Allegheny County Executive’s office. Learn More During the segment, WPXI’s Bill Flanagan noted that a lack of access to affordable child care could be the biggest barrier to building a workforce pipeline in the region. Ciminillo joined Kendra Ross, Director of Social Impact at Duolingo, and Dan DeBone, President & CEO of the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the issue. Ciminillo said Trying Together works to support child care workers in the field as well as improve quality and advocate on their behalf. “The crisis existed before the (COVID-19) pandemic, but the pandemic really just squeezed it,” she said. “All the other sectors have been able to move up their wages, but child care is really limited in its ability to do that. We know this is because families can’t afford more. The average infant-toddler child care slot is $12,000 per year. So, you can’t put more of those costs on families – they’re struggling already.” Ciminillo said the provider workforce doesn’t bring in enough money from state subsidies to augment that revenue formula. “The tax credit is great, but if you have 100% of the tax credit but you don’t have the staff to support the children who need the care, you can’t use the tax credit,” she said. “It’s really important that we invest in recruitment and retention of the workforce.” Ross said Duolingo was trying to provide grant money for child care organizations that don’t have enough resources. DeBone said the chamber of commerce advocates for legislation to help early child care programs. Last year, Trying Together partnered with Duolingo, the Early Excellence Project, and Candor & Co in the creation of a new program called “Early Learners First.” The program’s goal is to strengthen and enhance Pittsburgh’s early education system by investing in local child care programs. Duolingo, headquartered in East Liberty, pledged $1 million to the program. Trying Together also is a member of the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce and has partnered with the chamber to host informational sessions about the impact child care has on the economy. Affordable Child Care Access Tops Survey In the recent All in Allegheny Community Survey, increasing access to affordable child care and care for older adults to make it easier for workers and people participating in workforce training programs ranked first. The Allegheny County Executive’s office invited county residents to share their ideas, priorities, and needs with County Executive Sara Innamorato’s office through the survey. According to the survey results, affordable child or family care options was the top priority for 50.8% of all respondents. Other top issues included reduced-fare public transit, the creation of good-paying jobs, and protecting worker’s rights. To listen to what Ciminallo had to say, watch the Our Region’s Business segment. For more information on Trying Together’s advocacy regarding access to child care, visit our Public Policy Agenda page.
April 22, 2024 Affordable Child Care Access Tops List in County Exec’s Survey Increasing access to affordable child care and care for older adults to make it easier for workers and people participating in workforce training programs topped a survey from the Allegheny County Executive’s office. All in Allegheny recently invited county residents to share their ideas, priorities, and needs with County Executive Sara Innamorato’s office through a survey. Survey Results According to the survey results, affordable child or family care options was the top priority for 50.8% of all respondents. Supporting reduced-fare public transit (34.9%) edged out incentivizing the creation of good-paying jobs (34.8%) for second place. Protecting worker’s rights came in fourth place (28.3%). Expanding guaranteed income programs ranked fifth (23.3%) among respondents. The survey was conducted between November and April and received a total of 16,973 responses. It was translated into nine languages. Categories in the survey included Economic and Community Development and Education, Workforce, and Youth Development as well as Health and Human Services; Housing for All; Infrastructure; Open and Accessible Government; Safety and Justice; Sustainability; and Vibrant Democracy. About All in Allegheny All in Allegheny is a large and inclusive community engagement process that aims to understand what people from every part of Allegheny want from county government and build an action plan for county government to deliver on community needs. Innamorato named nearly 200 leaders to nine policy committees that will inform her administration’s governing agenda. Trying Together Executive Director Cara Ciminillo is co-chair of the Robust Education, Workforce Development, and Youth Investments Committee.
