Brigitte Willis is a family child care director/owner in Grovetown, Georgia. Brigitte completed her undergraduate studies at Appalachian State University (Boone, NC) as a Finance major. Since 2018 when she opened her program, A Better Day Christian Learning Center (ABD CLC), Brigitte has taken advantage of leadership opportunities that emerged during the global pandemic. 

Brigitte is currently serving as treasurer with BCDI-Atlanta (Black Child Development Institute) and is the immediate past-president of GAEYC. Brigitte seeks opportunities to be challenged, grow, and learn so that we can better meet the needs of the ECE professional. She has presented at regional, statewide, and national conferences. Brigitte is always open to gaining different perspectives of the ECE industry so that all of the advocacy work that is being done now can materialize in our lifetime. 

What is your personal experience with the child care crisis? 

During the COVID-19 global pandemic, the world was in crisis mode for years. We are still trying to understand all of the harm that was generated during that time period. Learning loss, social/ emotional deficits, and regression in communication skills as some of the factors that we can tell that were negatively impacted with this period of isolation and uncertainty. Many family childcare homes were open to the public and wanted to assist each family as much as we could with a stable, loving environment that had a consistent schedule in all of the chaos prevalent in other areas of life. The educators took this role on proudly because the public, finally, saw us as essential workers, and we brought value to a civilized society.

We continue to provide high quality childcare to each enrolled family and provide the families with resources to meet their ever-changing needs. We need for the public to inquire more about what our jobs actually entail. We are in place to partner with families and not to be babysitters. We take the time to get to know each child, their families, and create lesson plans that help the child to thrive and expose any areas of deficiency. We gladly wear so many hats, and we choose to do it daily from a place of love for ourselves and others.

What does your dream child care system look like?

My vision for the ultimate child care system is that the community live up to the high moral standards of character, integrity, respect, and trust. The system should be welcoming to all regardless of any protected group or culture. The environments must be inclusive and promote continual learning on how to improve and sustain high quality childcare programs in the area of staffing, pedagogy, and materials.

The staff should be treated with respect and years of service should be valued as a level of expertise with the QRIS assessments. The staff should be able to earn a living wage and have benefits and incentives to help them perform their jobs at a high level. The parents must have some relief on the cost of high quality childcare by the state and federal policies that mandate a fund to be established to help subsidize childcare tuition so that the financial obligation is actually viewed as a public good that is valued in the general public. We can work together to meet the needs of all and end the division of othering in order to have your needs met.