In order to better showcase our incredible community of activists, organizers, and changemakers, ICL will be sharing profiles of members of our outstanding facilitation team. First up: Erin with the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario (AECEO)!
Erin is an incredible organizer, writer, and advocate with AECEO and a star of the Decent Work Campaign. Erin and the AECEO have been working tirelessly in the fight for better childcare in Canada. In an online rally they brought together over 1500 ECEs and 20,000 participants to demand meaningful and sustainable change, and the government listened. In the recent Throne Speech, Prime Minister Trudeau made a commitment to “a significant, long-term, sustained investment to create a Canada-wide early learning and childcare system.”
Erin has been a part of the ICL family since her days campaigning with Olivia. She began her road to becoming a facilitator after realizing the ECE sector drastically needed real and meaningful changes. When the opportunity arose, she completed training with the ICL to gain the skills to make those changes happen. Erin is a vibrant, energetic, caring, and compassionate human who throws herself into everything she does full steam. Even as the global pandemic has created barriers for others, she has been tirelessly working at tearing those barriers down.
While Erin is passionate about her community, she also has a great passion for travel. But travel during the pandemic has been difficult, if not impossible, for many of us to do. Erin, however, missing her frequent visits with family across the world, would not be stopped. Looking online, she stumbled across an old vintage trailer. The interior was rotting, the plumbing was leaky, the electrical a certifiable health risk. But Erin could see beyond the trailer’s rough appearance to the quaint vaca-home hidden within. She purchased it immediately, and with no handiwork skills to speak, set about transforming what could have been chow for the compactor into a labour of love. Using the same grit and determination that makes her a brilliant advocate in her professional life, Erin used a system of trial and error -with the help of a few DIY youtubers when things became too difficult- to transform her dream into a reality. Within no time Beulah Isenwerth was tumbling down the backroads of Ontario in search of scenic getaways -ones with wifi of course so that Erin could continue to work.
Erin never backs away from a challenge and always finds a way to make what she wants happen. She is an outstanding part of our facilitators family and an all-around wonderful human-being. If you see Erin and Beulah Isenwerth cruising around on a crisp autumn day, don’t forget to honk and wave.
Please join Erin, AECEO, and the thousands of people who will be organizing for ECE Appreciation Day on October 22, 2020. We have the momentum. Now is the time to continue our demands for decent work and universal childcare. Together we can make this happen!
Beulah Isenwerth, looking lovely.
