Photo: Alyssa Haywoode for Strategies for Children
This week, there are two important events that will help boost early childhood advocacy efforts.
The first event: Strategies for Children is adding a new, one-hour webinar to its Advocacy 101 series.
These conversations about the basics of early education and care advocacy are grounded in the current context of reopening child care programs, and you can watch live on three dates (click on the date to register for that session):
Advocacy 101: Reopening Child Care
Tuesday, June 16, 2020, at 4 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17, 2020, at 5 p.m.
Thursday, June 18, 2020, at 11 a.m.
Amy O’Leary, the director of Strategies’ Early Education for All Campaign, will discuss reopening as well as ways to get involved in local, state, and federal advocacy. Amy will talk about who to call, what to say, and when to take action.
The second event:
Local Voices Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes community-wide understanding through public conversations, is working with the Massachusetts Association for the Education of Young Children (MAAEYC) to collect COVID-19 stories from the providers, administrators, business owners, parents, and advocates in the early education field.
The goal is to amplify the voices of the early childhood community.
The stories will be recorded (audio only) and made available to participants, policymakers, and local media outlets.
To participate, register for one of the following four Zoom calls (they’ll run for one and a quarter hours):
Collecting Stories
Please participate in both these events.
Your voices are essential for helping policymakers make informed decisions.
As Massachusetts State Senator Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett) said last month during a Zoom call with the early education community, “When you can’t come to the State House and have face-to-face meetings because of the coronavirus, you wonder sometimes if your advocacy is working. I want to tell you that it is. Your words are not falling on deaf ears. There is a lot of appetite for change.”
“Thank you for all that you do every day, for your advocacy, and for what you do for families. You make my job easier.”
Eye on Early Education is a blog of Strategies for Children, an organization that works to ensure that Massachusetts invests the resources needed for all children, from birth to age five, to access high-quality early education programs that prepare them for success in school and life. The blogger, 
eyeonearlyeducation.org 
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