For the past two months, I have had the great opportunity to be a summer intern with Strategies for Children (SFC) through the Early Childhood Policy and Leadership certificate program at Boston College’s Institute of Early Childhood Policy. From the first staff meetings with Amy, Titus, Marisa, Nery, Marge, and Jenna, I have felt welcomed as a member of the team.

During these staff conversations, the team has often discussed how advocacy work is relationship-based. And being included in various meetings since the start of the internship has helped me to see these relationships in practice. The meetings with partners and collaborators are imbued with the feeling of “we:” the goal is shared, the work is shared, and the information is shared. If one person or organization does not know information or feels that someone else may be a more helpful resource, Strategies staff connect people with one another, with organizations, and with resources. Sharing time, information and resource, during meetings and in follow-up emails highlights Strategies’ culture of connection and respect.

The projects I have participated in also reflect this sense of teamwork and shared goals. One project involved collaborating with a team of community partners in Haverhill, Mass., to design a family survey to help inform early childhood partners about families’ early education program and resource needs and to be a tool that Haverhill could use annually. Each meeting with the community partners gave me more insight into how to create and administer a survey. Additionally, I was able to attend a recent Boston Opportunity Agenda Birth-to-Eight Data Committee meeting where surveys were discussed. The themes at the meeting echoed ideas that the community partners had recommended: keep the survey short, have the intended audience test the survey, and have paper and digital options.

Another “Relationships Slide Deck” project I have been working on grew from my initial experiences in meetings as a new intern. During team conversations, staff members would mention names and organizations with which I was unfamiliar, and I would take notes and ask about them later in my supervision meetings. Wondering how I could support both my own learning and that of future interns, I decided to create a slide deck reference guide of SFC’s key relationships. The team has supported this ongoing project and offered their insights. I hope that future interns and staff will find this resource helpful in understanding the context of the work Strategies does and the relationships it has with different people and organizations.

A third project I have been working on is connecting former and future SFC interns to one another and to the continued work of advocating for high-quality early education and care. I have started gathering and organizing information related to early childhood policy, advocacy, and leadership internships, fellowships, and programs. The Strategies team hopes to begin to understand and think about how to build and sustain a network of people who have participated in these opportunities so that they can connect with each other, stay in touch, and expand the early childhood advocacy network.

As I enter the final weeks of this internship, I am grateful to have had this opportunity to learn from and build relationships with the Strategies for Children team. As I take the next steps in my career journey, I look forward to building on this experience and improving my advocacy skills.