“Serv and Return” is an occasional series that spotlights a recent exchange on the Alliance listserv—a widely used channel for the network to provide rapid-response resources and support to one another.
Many of the Alliance state allies are reaching out to candidates to educate them on the importance of policies and programs that support early childhood development, family economic security, and improve health outcomes for young children. Allies are also doing their part to encourage voter participation and ensure that parents and early childhood practitioners have the information they need to register to vote.
After multiple requests from state advocates, the Alliance team put out a request for resources related to the 2024 election cycle and state and national advocates responded to a round-up request to share voter guides, info sheets, candidate questions, etc. with the Alliance network.
Responsive Support Providers developed resources for state allies to elevate early childhood issues locally and statewide during the 2024 election cycle:
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) created the America for Early Ed electoral advocacy campaign and developed resources such as:
Town Hall signs and marketing resources
Candidate Forum sample questions
Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) published this voter guide to use during conversations with candidates.
Advocates can also find social media resources, tips for action, a tool to check voter registration status, and more on the CCAoA hub page here: Election Resources – Child Care Aware® of America
ZERO TO THREE developed a toolkit with the Think Babies campaign to educate communities and vote for candidates who you know will make the needs of families with young children a priority once elected.
The National Collaborative for Infants & Toddlers (NCIT) released a toolkit and will be continuing to release new resources throughout the campaign season. NCIT has also released pre-election specific guidance.
Save the Children Action Network has a number of resources on their High 5 for Kids campaign page, including candidate engagement resources, preparing to vote, and get out the vote resources.
The First Five Years Fund (FFYF) shared their 2024 Briefing book with helpful tools and messages engaging candidates and their campaigns. The Briefing Book lays out the fundamentals of child care policy at the federal level as well as key polling and messaging.
FFYF also shared their 2024 Polling and Message Testing resources with a two pager that makes the case for candidates to have a plan on child care and some of the broadly popular solutions they can engage on.
Responsive support allies also shared resources to engage the business community on early childhood issues.
Main Street Action shared a campaign toolkit to support small business owners.
Committee for Economic Development (CED) shared a publication, infographic, and toolkit developed earlier this year centered on Secure, Credible, and Accessible 2024 Elections.
State Advocates shared resources developed for their state and local elections.
Colorado advocates shared fact sheets and an election resource guide, Kentucky advocates shared their 2024 General Election Voter Resource Guide to support voters, Massachusetts advocates shared a link to their 2024 Election Page, and Minnesota advocates shared an advocacy guide that is shared with partners and families to encourage meetings with local officials.
This round up demonstrated the Alliance effect in action. State and national organizations shared out resources to support their peers and provide responsive support for the 2024 election cycle.
