Educating Young Children Volume 1 – Spring 2025 | Page 12

the Chicago and Chicago Southland Chapter understand working in the city. It has personally kept me grounded to have individuals to turn to who understand the values of NAEYC.

We all act as a resource for each other. For example, through my involvement in the chapter, I was able to discuss with other local educators, professors, and advocates the teaching challenges I faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. We talked about virtual learning, social distancing, and having children wear masks. We talked about challenging behaviors that resulted from the pandemic’ s isolation. None of us had the right answers except to support children and to support families who were overwhelmed with multiple demands. My colleagues’ advice kept me motivated to find new ways to address children’ s needs from a strengths-based perspective. As a group, we hosted virtual events for other ILAEYC members around the topic of educators’ and children’ s mental health, drawing on NAEYC’ s guidance and resources for coping with the pandemic.

It was also through NAEYC’ s 2021 Public Policy Forum that I first learned about how to be an informed and effective advocate for young children. I learned a lot from the Forum and people on my ILAEYC state team as together we curated roles and talking points for multiple virtual congressional visits. It’ s from my first NAEYC Public Policy Forum experience that I began and have continued to meet with my elected officials to share my experiences, discuss issues, and troubleshoot solutions related to early childhood and the teaching profession.