Our Accomplishments
Our accomplishments, since the beginning, are many. Most recently, we have
- Supported the Early Education for All Campaign (EEA), a coalition of leaders from business, early childhood, labor, religion, health care, education and philanthropy, working in partnership with parents, grassroots leaders, and state policymakers to make publicly-funded high-quality preschool education and full-day public school kindergarten available to every Massachusetts child. EEA has strongly impacted the creation by the legislature of a new, first-in-the-country state department focused on the early education and care needs of very young children - the Department of Early Education and Care.
- Created the QUEST program, a program for early childhood educators to help them access and support them while they work to achieve college degrees.
- Created a pilot program - Welcome Baby Basket and Home Visiting program - to celebrate the birth of a newborn and bring the family information about community resources, services and parenting skills.
- Collaborated with the Pioneer Valley Planning Council to create a committee on preK as part of the Plan for Progress.
- Convened, together with the Superintendent of the Springfield Public Schools, a coalition which is working to develop a comprehensive plan for high-quality, universal pre-kindergarten for Springfield's 3-, 4-and 5-year-olds, to be delivered through a mixed delivery system of public and private providers.
- Worked aggressively to increase public awareness of the issues facing families with very young children in Springfield.
