Earlier this month, 300 advocates and early childhood policy experts came to Salt Lake City, Utah, to attend the CONNECT25 conference, hosted by the Alliance for Early Success, to “share strategies, successes, and setbacks with our peers from across the country.”
Among the attendees were Strategies for Children’s staff members Amy O’Leary, our Executive Director; Titus DosRemedios, deputy director; Marisa Fear, the director of policy, and Shaakira Parker, the Early Childhood Policy Pathways Fellow.
“As a first-time attendee, I thought the Alliance’s CONNECT conference was such an amazing experience,” Parker says. “I loved hearing from other states that are facing similar challenges but approaching the work in different ways. The energy felt genuine and supportive, and people were so open to connecting and learning from each other.
“Loretta Ross’s keynote on calling people in versus calling them out really stayed with me, especially her reminder to think about whether we want to be effective or just right. Similarly, the sessions on family inclusion and building coalitions reminded me how important it is to pause and reassess our work along the way.”
It’s an exciting time for the Alliance, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary and continuously advocating for a host of issues including stronger early childhood systems and better maternal health care. Next month, the Alliance will launch its Native Communities Learning Project, an exploration of “the historical and legal foundations of Tribal sovereignty” to increase understanding of “Native Nations as distinct governments.”
The Alliance’s diverse commitments were also evident in CONNECT25. The topics of the conference’s many panels included:
- centering family voices
- moving policy and driving effective implementation
- partnering for change in rural and small towns
- coalition building, and
- understanding how the virtual community of Momfluencers and online educators is reshaping advocacy
In a LinkedIn post, the Alliance’s Executive Director, Helene Stubbins, wrote of the conference:
“We committed to curiosity, humility, courage, and the discipline to reinvent hope every day.
“We were inspired by our founding mothers, Joan Lombardi and Lisa Klein, as well as Loretta J Ross, Amanda Ripley, Celeste Martinez, M.Ed., and Jessica Moyer.
“We remembered that we do not stand alone. That we can lean on and learn from each other. And that big impact takes all of us.”
It was a powerful experience that should help carry early childhood advocacy forward into the coming new year.