Lisa Finaldi, the Community Engagement Leader with the Family Forward NC and NC Early Childhood Foundation will come speak to the LWV during the regularly scheduled Women’s Right Committee on May 24th at 5:30p. Come hear how those organizations are supporting community collaboration with business leaders to build a strong foundation for lifelong success for North Carolina’s children. Her focus is the Family Forward NC and Campaign for Grade-Level Reading initiatives.

 

At the NC Early Childhood Foundation, they are tackling one of the greatest challenges facing NC: only 32 percent of children read proficiently by the end of third grade. Disaggregated literacy data shows the racial inequities—44 percent of white children read proficiently, but just 17 percent of Black children and 21 percent of Hispanic children do. 

 

Through our Family Forward NC  (FFNC) initiative, they are working toward a vision for a prosperous and resilient North Carolina where employers value and create family-friendly workplaces, resulting in healthy children who have a strong foundation for academic and career success and who can build the knowledge and skills they need for future work.  Their certification program promotes paid family leave, affordable childcare, sustainable wages, flexible work scheduling, and accommodations for breastfeeding, pregnant workers, and babies at work.

 

The Women's Rights Committee works on a range of issues impacting women rights including, but not limited to, the gender pay gap, violence against women, reproductive rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment. Any LWV-Wake member is welcome to join the committee or attend a meeting. (Make sure you log-in to the member portion of the website and then click on "Register Now" to register for the meeting. Simply adding it to your calendar will not register you!)