San Mateo County-based Latino nonprofit organization Upward Scholars announced last Thursday that it has launched a program to support immigrants seeking careers in early childhood education.
The academic and career support initiative, called TeacherUp, seeks to help county residents enroll in college, connect with employers, and receive comprehensive support like stipends.
The program builds on the 2018 workforce development pilot called the Teacher Pipeline Project, developed by the Community Equity Collaborative to address the shortage of early childhood educators in the Bay Area peninsula, which was supported by local community colleges, schools, non-profit organizations, and legislators.
The project also successfully pushed state legislation to increase awareness of the challenges and financial barriers residents face when pursuing careers in early childhood education, which disproportionately affect women and people of color.
Community Equity Collaborative Executive Director Dayna Chung said now is the time to invest in an equitable learning workforce amid worsening educator shortages.
“Early childhood educators are an essential ingredient in the human infrastructure that supports healthy families and strong local economies,” Chung said. "Unfortunately, COVID-19 revealed and exacerbated systemic inequities, including poverty wages that drive the shortage of early educators and force an estimated one in three parents to take time off or quit their jobs."
TeacherUp also plans to provide students with tutoring, scholarships, laptop computers, food stamps, transportation assistance and other services from other Upward Scholars programs, such as NannyUp.
"With its roots in the Teacher Pipeline Project and its future with our organization, TeacherUp will provide real solutions to early childhood educators who can benefit from our history of providing academic and career support for adult immigrants from low-income homes," explained the Executive Director of Upward Scholars, Linda Prieto.
With information from Bay City News.
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