Our children in Sonoma County face a multilayered crisis that demands action: multiple disasters, the pandemic and skyrocketing expenses. Outdated systems require fruitless searches for affordable, safe, quality child care. Parents also struggle to access vital pediatric, perinatal, and mental health care services.
As CEO of Sonoma Community Action Network and former chief of Pediatric Medicine for Kaiser, we have seen these struggles firsthand: A child with delayed hearing screening until the age of 7 who finds out they are deaf in one ear, children displaced and traumatized by wildfires who wait for months to access therapy and children consistently not ready for kindergarten, all of which is directly correlated to low third grade literacy and high school graduation rates.
These gaps are even greater for our most vulnerable residents including Black, Latino, Indigenous and immigrant communities continually subjected to systemic racism that directly affects income, access to care and health outcomes.
Fortunately, there is a solution, the Sonoma County Child Care & Children’s Health Initiative, Measure I on the Nov. 5 ballot. Measure I is a community opportunity to provide $30 million annually to strengthen and expand our early care and education system, improve childhood health and development outcomes and ensure that all Sonoma County children can thrive.
Sixty percent of Measure I sales-tax funding will be dedicated to increasing wages for child care and early childhood education providers and to improving access to affordable, quality child care for all. These providers play a critical role in child development while often living in poverty. Measure I sets the foundation for a stronger, more resilient Sonoma County now and for future generations.
Forty percent of the funding will expand essential children’s health and mental health programs and services. Whether it’s trauma support, protecting critical brain development or specialty treatment for complex conditions, Measure I will help ensure that young children have timely access to responsive care.
From working with organizations that serve the whole family, we know it is rarely possible to change the conditions of a child’s life without providing support to a child’s caregivers. By investing in the care and health of our most vulnerable we create benefits for our entire community.
We see the struggles of Sonoma County children and their families daily, and every day without action is another day that families are forced to make impossible choices between work, child care, paying for health care or putting food on the table. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have an opportunity to make a real difference for the children and families in our community by voting yes on Measure I so that we build a stronger, healthier future for all of Sonoma County.
Cynthia King is CEO of Community Action Network of Sonoma County. Jose Morales is a former chief of Pediatrics for Kaiser Permanente and former First 5 Sonoma County commissioner.
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