Early Childhood Contacts and Resources

I have sent personal emails to both the Global Alliance, South America and UNICEF, Mexico to establish early childhood contacts.  I have asked for a mentor or named contact to provide information and resource support over the next 8 weeks.  Thus far noone has responded to the requests.  My hope is to hear something over the next few days, before determining another route.

I chose the PEW Center as the organization to study.  I have been receiving materials from the PEW center over this last year, related to early childhood programs and building our economy.  I wanted to spend some to looking at other resources they offered.  What I found was, research based and supported projects that address the needs of families and children.  The PEW center's mission, "People expect government to work. At the Pew Center on the States, we develop policy solutions that make government more effective and deliver results for states and the public good."

While developing policy doesn't exactly get the average early childhood educator excited it is exactly what needs to happen to bring the validity and focus to our work.  Policy that is in favor of universal access to early childhood services, for all families, will move us forward.  The Pew center creates project based focus on research that not only supports families, but our communities.  They have centered on areas that show great return, such as homevisiting and dental initiatives.  They have worked to educate the business community on their role in turning the economy through a future, educated work force.  They have taken the work of individual State policy and programs and highlighted them, showing their benefit, in hopes to have others adopt similar ideas and plans.