CCPT's Provider Collaborative Project
            The Provider Collaborative Project of Minnesota Child Care Providers Together/AFSCME, is funded by grants and “in kind” contributions.  The concept grew out of our search for a “model” for the organization of child care providers we were creating.   As everyone at this conference knows, there is no “ready-made” model for our organizations to emulate.  We needed (and still need) to create a mission and structure that overcomes the isolation of child care providers and enables us to engage in collective action to achieve some measure of economic justice for ourselves.   We place a high value on collective action because without collective action we would be duplicating association-like organization which provides services but cannot provide the path to true empowerment that democratic collective action creates.