General

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Resources

• The National Early Childhood Funder Collaborative (ECFC) has a great website with basics for those looking to learn about the early childhood space, specifically for funders. The links there are a great starting place.

  • Additionally, we would recommend reading Big Dollars for Little Kids: Early Childhood Education (The Chronicle of Philanthropy) and When It Comes to Young Children, It’s Time for Philanthropy to Stop Thinking Small (Center for Effective Philanthropy).​

• The Center on Developing Child at Harvard University has a wonderful series of resources, including What is Early Childhood Development? A Guide to the Science. See also their Working Paper 15: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body, including a three-page summary and a context-setting statement from Jack Shonkoff.

• Promise Venture Studio has a series of early childhood development (ECD) field primers on particular early childhood related topics.

• Center for American Progress released an update to their popular child care deserts maps, integrating a new drive-time methodology. This update is designed to help advocates  and policymakers understand and assess with greater clarity the communities where there may be the greatest immediate need for child care investment when considering stabilizing and re-opening the wider economy. An accompanying issue brief summarizes trends and findings.

• The BUILD Initiative helps state leaders develop early childhood systems. They host the Early Childhood Systems Working Group, which developed a Framework for a Comprehensive Early Childhood System.

• The Child Opportunity Index from Diversity Data Kids looks at resources that support young children, at the census tract level.

• Capita published a case study of the New Mexico Early Childhood Funder Collaborative, Collaboration for Strengthening Early Childhood Education in New Mexico.
   

Podcasts

• The Brain Architects is a podcast from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University that focuses on the specific, practical questions that often arise for parents and caregivers during the critically important period of early childhood

• A Private Crisis is the title of the second season of Six Hundred Atlantic, podcast from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. It is focused on the child care sector.

• No One is Coming to Save Us is a podcast from Lemonada Media and Neighborhood Villages about early childhood education.

Videos

• No Small Matter is a documentary that explores early childhood education.

• Starting at Zero is a documentary about Alabama's Pre-K program. We participated in the Massachusetts companion video.

• Raising the Future: America's child care dilemma is a five-part series that examines the nation’s fractured child care system and its impact on women, children, people of color and the economy, released by PBS NewsHour in July 2021.

• ​Through the Night is a documentary about a 24-hour family child care center released in 2021.

• Why Does Child Care Cost So Much Yet Providers Make So Little? is a short video by Child Care Aware of America. 

Advocacy and Policy Organizations

• Alliance for Early Success is a national organization that advocates for policies to help children from birth to eight grow and thrive

• The Center for Law and Social Policy is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization advancing policy solutions for low-income people. Children, Youth, & Families is a key issue.

• Child Care Aware of America advocates for child care systems that support all children and families.

• The Children's Funding Project helps to understand and support funding and financing to expand children's services.

• First Five Years Fund is a national organization that works to sustain and expand the support for early learning at the federal level for children from birth to five.

• The Frameworks Institute has a communications toolkit, "Talking About Early Childhood Development".

• #KidsAreEssential is a new effort to bring together organizations from across different sectors to support children.

• The Prenatal to Three Policy Impact Center works to shift research to policy action for young children.

• Zero to Three supports parents, providers, and policymakers in from birth to three.