The Child Care Aware of Minnesota (CCAoMN) Access Ambassadors workgroup ensures that all CCAoMN staff have the tools, knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the child care system. The Access Ambassadors is comprised of CCAoMN staff from diverse backgrounds and all areas of expertise, from both the Twin Cities and from Greater Minnesota, and includes our partners at MNTRECC (Minnesota Tribal Resources for Early Childhood Care).

The Access Ambassadors serve as a resource for the system and work to ensure that our programs, practices, and policies are grounded in equity. The role of Access Ambassadors is to:

• Support the ongoing conversations about access, equity, race, and culture throughout the Child Care Aware system
• Improve the system’s capacity to respond to diverse constituencies with programs and services to meet the community’s needs
• Identify and prioritize new initiatives to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion across the system
• Act as equity advocates to raise awareness of the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion within the system

We have developed a new workplan for 2021, and are enthusiastic about the possibilities of creating change through meeting both our short- and long-term goals. As former President Barack Obama once said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”