Policy & Practice December 2017

locally speaking By Kate Garvey and the Members of the Alexandria Early Care and Education Work Group

A Common Agenda: A Strong Start in Life and in School

A lexandria, VA is a place where partnerships are the norm. If there is a problem, project, or event—Alexandrians approach it as a collaborative venture. Whether responding to the opioid crisis or carrying out the neighborhood Halloween party, Alexandrians work together. So it is not surprising that when it came to focusing on the best possible outcomes for young children and their families, a wide array of indi- viduals and organizations stepped up to face the challenge. In 2014, the Children and Youth Master Plan adopted by the City of Alexandria called for development of an “early care and education system that prepares children to succeed in life and in school.” The Early Care and Education Workgroup (ECEW)—a cross-sector workgroup comprising leaders from the school system, city agencies, funders, and the nonprofit community, and convened by the local community foundation—came together to accept this challenge and mission. A critical step in moving forward was to understand the challenges many families in Alexandria face. While the median household income for the city is high relative to the rest of the state, the number of children living in poverty is sizable and has been growing. The number of Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) students eligible for free or reduced meals is nearly 60 percent. Families in Alexandria are also linguistically and culturally diverse: 31 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home and students enrolled in ACPS represent 134 countries and 113 native languages. These data

suggested that the need in the city is significant and varied, yet, there are also valuable resources to build upon. Organized in late 2015, ECEW undertakes a “collective impact” approach to developing the system around a common agenda, framework, and set of strategies. Successful col- lective impact initiatives embrace a culture of continuous learning; develop an awareness of the context, conditions, and circumstances that surround the work; strive to under- stand what is working and what is not; and seek opportunities for improve- ment. This group did that and more. With a focus on trust and shared accountability, the group tackled long- standing barriers and confronted hard truths about how things had been done in the past and how things might be different in the future. The fol- lowing graphic reflects the key areas

of focus in creating the Early Care and Education System. Highlights of system alignment accomplishments include: „ „ GLASS DOORS: A unified recruit- ment tool was created for use by publicly funded preschool programs. In addition, a single, streamlined process that will help families deter- mine program eligibility and assure that families are matched with the right program is being developed. „ „ SEAMLESS SUPPORT: This effort to connect health and early education providers will help deliver coordi- nated and comprehensive care to children from prenatal to three years old. A survey of providers serving this population identified challenges in this area. Project champions across the health and early care and education sectors are currently working to build on the results of the

Illustration by Chris Campbell

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Policy&Practice December 2017