Over the past four centuries, racist policies in our country have been central to the creation of pervasive systems, practices, and perceptions that rob and constrain children of color from birth—generation after generation.
So we at the Alliance for Early Success believe the only way we’ll achieve our vision is through policy changes that dismantle the structural racism that causes disparity from the beginning. As we work toward our mission of creating an early childhood policy advocacy community that secures the policies and investments essential for every young child to thrive, we know we must center racial equity.
Allies for Antiracism is our commitment to centering racial equity in our strategic planning and in the community building that is central to our work.
Our Allies for Antiracism initiative has three pillars:
We will continually name the racism that permeates all aspects of the opportunities to succeed for many of our nation’s children and families.
We will continually learn and self-assess as professionals and as an organization.
We will continually collaborate with state allies and the national organizations that support their work to hear where they are and what they need, and will follow through with technical efforts to help them pursue policies that dismantle racism and undo racial disparities.
The Alliance began this journey in 2015 when we convened a racial equity advisory group to guide the revision of our policy framework, and we are continuing the learning, conversation, and practice that will help us — and the early childhood allies in our national community — get increasingly effective in centering racial equity.
Additional components of the work currently include:
Early childhood advocates from across the country — representing a diversity of states — have come together to recommend nine consensus principles for investing in early care and education. These principles were developed to guide leaders at every level as they determine whether and how to invest new funding in the child care system.
As the Alliance for Early Success joins others in marking the day when justice was deferred no longer, the organization is reaffirming its commitment to continuing to name the racism that is entrenched in our country’s systems – both in our policies and in the comfortable habits that perpetuate inequity.
WEBINAR The Alliance for Early Success and Topos Partnership explored concrete, research-based strategies for effectively engaging less race-attentive audiences to support policies for racial equity.
WEBINAR Experts from Child Trends offer a critical look at data and racial equity in early childhood policy, as well as a dive into how to incorporate racial equity principles into early childhood policy advocacy work.
A Statement on the Acts of Terrorism in Washington, DC In this statement released to its national network, the Alliance for Early Success denounced the terrorist acts of January 6, 2021, and the racism evident in the entire crisis.
“Racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people,” says best-selling author Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. On the heels of the election, we’ll hear about racist and antiracist policy, and will get answers to questions posed by state early childhood advocates about state policy.
A national workgroup of early childhood advocacy organizations convened by the Alliance for Early Success has released the Build Stronger Child Care Policy Roadmap, a comprehensive guide to help child care advocates across the country focus and align their priorities as state governments and federal agencies work to rebuild the nation’s child care system.
This Alliance for Early Success National Issues>State Action featured dynamic presentations by Allison Blake, CEO of Child and Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut and former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families and Jeremy Kohomban, President and CEO of The Children’s Village and President of Harlem Dowling. Both are leading figures in child welfare practice and policy.
In a keynote presentation and then in a smaller discussion group with state early childhood advocates, nationally recognized birth-equity voice Dr. Joia Crear-Perry spoke powerfully on structural racism as a key driver of high rates of Black infant and maternal mortality.
