
Alliance to Host Webinar on Cross-Cultural Communication, Protocol, and Consensus-Building
Explore cross-cultural communication, tribal protocol, and consensus-building strategies for respectful collaboration with Native Nations and communities.
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The Alliance for Early Success is a 50-state resource for early-childhood advocates as they pursue the big, sustained impact that will ensure every child in every state, birth through age eight, has an equal chance to grow, learn, and succeed.

Explore cross-cultural communication, tribal protocol, and consensus-building strategies for respectful collaboration with Native Nations and communities.

This webinar focused on Native American communities and examined how power operates within early childhood systems—and within ourselves. Understanding the policy landscape and the historical harm experienced by Native American children, families, and communities was essential, but meaningful partnership also required examining bias, positionality, and the ways institutions continue to shape access, authority, and decision-making.

The majority of Native people now live in urban areas, yet systems often continue to center reservation-based narratives. We will explore the legacy of federal relocation policies, the rise of Urban Indian Organizations, gaps in funding and service eligibility, and the strengths of intertribal networks that sustain culture and kinship across cities.

The separation of Native children from their families was not accidental—it was policy. In this session, we examine specific policies designed to break apart Native families—and their direct connections to contemporary early childhood, child welfare, and family services advocacy.

Learn more about how Native communities have always understood childhood—as inherently relational, community-centered, and rooted in place. We explore kinship systems where children are raised by many, the connection between land and early learning, and contemporary examples of cultural transmission and community-driven care models.

An audience of early childhood policy advocates learned about the solutions New Mexico policymakers chose to implement over more than a decade, and the advocacy strategies that influenced them. Guests included Elizabeth Groginsky, Secretary, New Mexico Department of Early Childhood Education and Care; Matthew Henderson, Executive Director, OLÉ Education Fund; and Jacob Vigil, Chief Legislative Officer, New Mexico Voices for Children.

The Alliance was joined by More in Common for an exploration of their new, unreleased segmentation of Trump voters in the U.S. What the polling data showed them might surprise you—and open the door to new conversations.

This foundational session explores the historical and legal foundations of Tribal sovereignty, helping participants understand Native Nations as distinct governments. Through storytelling and reflection, we examine how federal Indian policy, the boarding school legacy, and systemic inequities continue to shape Native families and early childhood systems today.

This webinar from Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Inc. (BMMA) and the Alliance for Early Success explores how the Black perinatal workforce operates under the principles of Birth Justice and Reproductive Justice framework, how they interact with the current political landscape, and how advocates can utilize BMMA’s policy priorities to advance care for postpartum families.

Learn how cultural safety in Indigenous health care goes beyond cultural competence to address systemic biases, honor Indigenous knowledge, and build relationships rooted in trust and reciprocity.