This week, The Early Childhood Agenda hosted its fall convening. The meeting, held on Zoom, was a chance to reflect on the progress that has been made and to think about long-term goals.
To set the stage, Amy O’Leary, Strategies executive director, explained that a strategic planning process that Strategies’ staff conducted in 2021, led to the idea for The Early Childhood Agenda.
“We didn’t have quite that name at that time. But what we knew… is we didn’t just want it to be a budget agenda or a legislative agenda,” O’Leary said at the convening. “We really learned through Covid to see all the different pieces that we knew intellectually, but got to see on the ground, around housing, around food insecurity, about the connection of health, about public awareness. So as we launched The Early Childhood Agenda, the engagement of the field that we had seen through The 9:30 Call, we knew was possible.”
A key theme of the convening is that early childhood system building is a marathon and a relay race. There’s a long-term component and there are shorter laps that lead to near-term victories, and everyone can contribute to these races in their own unique ways.
“The Early Childhood Agenda has been meeting for over two years now,” Marisa Fear, Strategies’ director of policy, said. “We see the need for collaboration like this. We see the need for connecting individuals, organizations, and coalitions that are working on issues in early childhood to ensure that we’re making progress together, that we’re working toward a shared vision.”
Early on during the convening, participants went into breakout rooms to discuss several guiding questions, including:
• Marathons and relay races both have a finish line. What is one thing that you are working towards for your “finish line?”
• How do we take the spirit of change from the past four years into the future?
• What can The Early Childhood Agenda do to help achieve your vision for the future?
Fear also shared an update on the Agenda’s work, including recent meetings with several partner coalitions whose work has a direct or indirect impact on early childhood.
In a structured conversation, the six Agenda workgroups each shared updates on the progress they’ve made and on the recommendations they plan to make, and they received feedback from other participants.
The workgroup topics are:
• Workforce Compensation
• Developmental Monitoring, Screening, Referrals, and Delivery of Services
• Quality Improvement Infrastructure
• Local Infrastructure and Partnerships
• Public Education Campaign, and
• Linking Health and Early Childhood Systems
The slides summarizing the workgroups’ efforts are posted here.
It’s hard work keeping all The Early Childhood Agenda activities going, which is why Strategies’ deputy director Titus DosRemedios emphasizes the importance of making progress through partnerships and collaborations.
“SFC wants to build bridges, not gates,” he says, “In this way, we can avoid being gatekeepers or bottlenecks in the important work that lies ahead.”
Holding the door to collaboration wide open, DosRemedios encourages anyone who wants to help shape The Early Childhood Agenda’s future to fill out the fall feedback survey. Insights drawn from the survey will help Strategies reflect on the past two years and assess what’s working, what isn’t, and how to move forward. The survey should take 10-15 minutes to fill out, and responses will be kept confidential.
Looking ahead, the next meeting of the Early Childhood Agenda will be on Thursday, December 5, 2024, from noon to 2:30 p.m. Stay tuned for more details.
There will also be a spring convening that will be held in person.
For more information, contact Marisa Fear at [email protected].