What is Walk the Talk?

Walk the Talk is an annual fundraiser for the National Association for Family Child Care during the Week of the Young Child. The purpose of Walk the Talk is to raise awareness and promote quality of family child care. Proceeds from the fundraiser will go to NAFCC’s scholarship fund and association support.

Why should I Participate?

There are many advocates of family child care who are very passionate that young children should be taught in a home environment. If children can’t be home with their parents, the next best place for them would be in a home away from home, in family child care. However, many parents haven’t heard of family child care or they have only heard of unlicensed horror stories of home care. NAFCC wants to help educate America that family child care is quality child care. That licensed and accredited providers can provide the best possible care for their children and it is not only an acceptable form of child care, but the preferred form of child care for most families.

Additionally, all members who successfully complete* the Walk the Talk program, will be given a scholarship for a NAFCC membership and will also qualify for scholarships through the NAFCC scholarship fund. Scholarships may be used for accreditation, conference, or to upgrade their membership to the NAFCC Professional Membership.

How does it work?

Walk the Talk is structured after your average grade school walk-a-thon. NAFCC has put together a simple formula to help each participant raise $1250.00. Participants are asked to choose 25 friends to be their group leaders. Your group leaders can be anyone you want. They could be parents in your program, your family, your neighbors… Then each group leader is asked to get 10 pledges from their friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc… To follow the NAFCC formula, each pledge only needs to be $1.00 per lap and the person walking needs to walk 5 laps.

Depending on the area you are in, an association may host the fundraiser and you would just need to take your group to the hosted location and walk your laps. If you aren’t near a hosted location, you can set up your own location. We encourage you to avoid public streets as you may need to get city permits. Good options are parks, schools, or public walking trails. Make sure you have checked that the space is available and open on the day you choose.

All Walk the Talk events should occur in during the Week of the Young Child, April 12-18, 2015. For safety reasons, all events should take place during daylight hours. After your event, all paperwork and funds raised are due to NAFCC by April 24, 2015. Instructions for submission will be provided. You will be notified of your scholarship before May 1, 2015.

*Successful completion of the Walk the Talk Fundraiser is raising at least $500.00.