All Topics

Sparking Change Storytellers in the News

Chantelle Mitchell

WCSC-TV

“So even though it may feel like two years is enough, you’ve got to think about so many families that have been impacted”

Read here

Alma Patricia Ortiz

Telemundo Nuevo Mexico

“Ahorita estamos en una incertidumbre, en una cuerda floja”

Watch here

Sandra Ibarra

Univision

“Quieres enseñar y darles una educación de calidad a los niños, pero sino se te remunera es muy triste y te sientes desvalorado” 

Watch here

Merline Gallegos

Radio Bilingue

“Es fácil opinar, pero no siempre se ponen en nuestros zapatos, que vean lo que van a batallar nuestras familias al dejarnos sin trabajo”

Listen here

Christine Matthews

Forbes

“I’d tell them the hours I could work when I had child care covered from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and they’d give me that schedule because I’m a good worker”

Read here

Christine Matthews

WBUR

“Unfortunately, with being a mom, a single mom, you know I have to do what I have to do, I had to go to a job that offered me less money and more on the schedule that I needed”

Listen here

Sandra Ibarra

Voz de América

“Es una cosa tan hermosa trabajar con pequeños, te cambia la vida y cambió mi perspectiva”

Read here

Alma Patricia Ortiz, Patricia Bustillos Ramirez, and Felicitas Torres Meza

Voz de América

“Tengo 28 años trabajando en las guarderías y no sabe cuántas maestras buenas, dedicadas, profesionales, se han ido a trabajar al fast food porque pagan más y ellas necesitan el dinero. Es triste, es triste ver como entonces nuestros niños se están quedando sin buenas maestras porque ellas tienen que buscar un mejor salario. Es muy triste”

Read here

Patricia Bustillo Ramirez

The New Republic

“She is the matriarch of a household in New Mexico that includes her daughter and her daughter’s child, as well as her son and his wife and their child. They all struggle to work and pay the rent together”

Read here

Merline Gallegos

National Women's Law Center

“Even with four kids of her own, Merline A Gallegos takes money out of her paycheck every week to buy food and clothing for the children in her care whose families cannot afford it”

Read here

Merline Gallegos

23 ABC Bakersfield

“Now we are coming back into this cycle of, well, shall I keep on working? Should I shut down? How can I secure the funding to continue paying our staff — because we need help,”

Read here

Merline Gallegos

OLE NewMexico

“It’s a cycle of… Do I keep working? Do I shut down, because we need help”

Watch here

Merline Gallegos

Albuquerque Journal

“Study after study has shown when we fund access to quality early education, we are funding a safer future”.

Read here

Raynique Syas

The Cut

“I knew once I got a stable house that was mine and affordable to me, I’d be able to do other things,”

Read here

Merline A Gallegos, Raynique Syas, Chantelle C. Mitchell, Patricia Bustillos R,

National Women's Law Center

“It felt empowering to use my voice to encourage accountability and policies that serve our communities’ best interests. And to do so with my baby in my arms!”

Read here

Alma Patricia Ortiz

Nuevo Mexico

“Some of the needs is that there is still no affordable child care. There’s quite a waiting list”

Watch here