Earlier this month, Strategies for Children hosted The Early Childhood Agenda’s Spring Convening at Polar Park in Worcester, Mass. Over 130 people came from across the state, to meet in person, learn from each other, and inspire one another.
Launched in the fall of 2022 with Zoom conversations about five, early childhood action areas, The Early Childhood Agenda has grown into a statewide effort to build a future where every family has easy access to high-quality early childhood programs and services.
Much more than a meeting, The Agenda’s Spring convening at Polar Park was a unique opportunity to actively engage and build community—and see our collective efforts reflected on the JUMBOTRON!
We’ve posted the event photos and the workshop posters. By Googling #theagendaatpolarpark you can pull up the social media posts. And we even created a Spotify playlist for the event!
As Marisa Fear, Strategies’ director of policy, shared in her welcoming remarks, The Agenda’s success is driven by eveyone’s participation.
“This statewide initiative relies on established partnerships while also forging new relationships, utilizing a carefully designed process,” Fear explained. “Our approach is distinct as we rely on our partners’ strengths, relationships, content expertise, and lived experiences. We view our role as organizers who bring together coalitions and communities within early childhood, fostering collaboration and maintaining the cohesion of these vital networks. In addition, we provide a statewide facilitation structure that builds consensus around policy solutions.”
At the event, we brought the Elevating Voices Continuum to life using yellow circles on our name tags for our 1s, 2s and 3s, and it felt great to do so in person instead of in Zoom boxes!
We want to thank our event sponsors: the Small Grants and Projects Fund of Greater Worcester Community Foundation, Eastern Bank Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Massachusetts Business Roundtable, and Edward Street. We are grateful for your commitment.
We also want to thank you! Whether you were involved in the early days of The Agenda’s development, attended the Kick Off at the State House in January 2023, participated through workgroup meetings or convenings on Zoom, or joined us for the first time at Polar Park, we are grateful for your time, trust and support.
You can continue to connect and collaborate with us by:
• joining a coalition and/or workgroup to help move The Agenda’s priorities forward and ensure that all children and families across the Commonwealth thrive
• attending a meeting or event, or
• joining The 9:30 Call to learn more about SFC’s daily check-in for the early childhood community and sign up to receive the weekly schedule and Zoom link
And stay tuned: we’ll be announcing the next convening of Early Childhood Agenda, which will be in the fall.