The Early Childhood Agenda is launching a new Instagram account! @EarlyChildhoodAgenda. Inspired and curated by Agenda workgroup #8, the account promises to be a fun, informative way to share the many features of high-quality early childhood programs.
Posts will appear this month and throughout the fall.
Workgroup #8 of the Agenda focuses on public education about early childhood. The account’s hashtag, which borrows from the way Bostonians talk, is #WickedSmartStart.
The posts will feature themes, among them the importance of the first 2,000 days of life when babies’ brains are growing rapidly as well as the importance of playful learning, and nurturing environments.
The Instagram campaign draws on the work and insight of Hilary Odoy, who has been an early childhood professional for over 30 years; Liz Hogrell, a former preschool teacher, a Lived Experience Leader for working group 8, and a program coordinator for the Norwood Coordinated Family and Community Engagement (CFCE); and Patty Freisan, a parent and Lived Experience Leader who is involved with the Watertown CFCE.
“Right now, social media is everything,” Freisan says, explaining that she hopes the Instagram account will catch a lot of eyes. “You want to see what’s going on in the world, you go on social media.” Freisan recalls that as an immigrant and a single mother during the the pandemic, she struggled to find the information she needed as a parent.
Hogrell says that the audience for the Instagram account is “Anyone who had an investment in the life of a young child. That includes caregivers, parents, teachers, and child care providers as well as health care providers. The goal is to include anyone who wants to learn about early childhood.”
And Odoy adds, “It’s really important to have this be a campaign of dialog. We really want to have people tagging us and sharing their pictures and talking about their experiences. And we want to see those light bulbs go off; we want to have evidence of those aha moments.”
So follow the Instagram account, and please like, share, and comment on the posts. We hope the account will be a step toward increasing community understanding about high-quality childhood programs.