Strategies for Children is excited to introduce cohort 5 of the Advocacy Network for Early Childhood!

Now in its fifth year, the Advocacy Network takes a new approach to strengthening the advocacy community by bringing together early childhood providers and advocates from across the state, connecting them to each other and to policymakers, and helping cohort members launch their own advocacy projects. 

To date, we have 42 alumni who participated in the first four years of the Advocacy Network, and we’ve featured them and their work on our Eye on Early Childhood blog as well as in videos featured in our Advocacy Network YouTube playlist. 

Advocacy Network members meet monthly to learn about policy, advocacy, and leadership from Strategies for Children staff members, from guest speakers, and from each other. In the past, members have testified at State House events, shared their experiences with Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Commissioner Amy Kershaw of the Department of Early Education and Care, and they have made presentations on The 9:30 Call. 

Now, the members of cohort 5 will make their own unique contributions to the field and to policy making. They are (in the order they appear in the pictures above): 

Alessia DaCruz
Program Chair, Urban College of Boston, Chinatown

Alexus Garcia
Teacher, Goddard School, Charlestown

Bethany Gay
Coordinator, Coalition for Children / CFCE Falmouth and Mashpee

Daisy Stanley
Parent Partner, Boston Public Schools, Roxbury

Daniela Paez
Training Coordinator, Acre Family Child Care, Lowell

Donna Servideo
Pedagogista, Worcester Head Start, Worcester

Edna De Pina
Teaching Fellow/Doctoral Student, ECHD, UMass Boston, Boston

Juanita ‘Nita’ Doss
Afterschool and Summer Program Director, The Elizabeth Peabody House, Somerville

Julissa Abad
Educator and Owner, Family Child Care, Lawrence

Karen Maria JohnHope
Director and Owner, Small Steps Daycare, Lowell

Rhonda Prentice
Teacher, Horizons for Homeless Children, Roxbury

Wren Veatch
Resource Teacher, The Center for Early Education and Care at UMass Amherst, Amherst

“Cohort 5 is off to a great start,”Titus DosRemedios, Strategies’ deputy director, says. “They are a highly motivated group of early childhood professionals, each with clear ideas for advocacy projects and leadership roles they would like to pursue. Our team is excited to support the cohort on its journey this year.”

We look forward to seeing what everyone will accomplish. So please stay tuned: we’ll be catching up with each Advocacy Network member and blogging about their work and ideas. 

And finally a special thank you to our project funder, Boston Children’s Collaboration for Community Health.