As we near the end of 2022, we wanted to give you an update on our strategic planning progress and preview what’s ahead for the Collaboration for Early Childhood in 2023. First, we are excited to announce that the Collaboration for Early Childhood has a new Mission, Vision and set of Core Values and we are excited to share them with you!
Mission:
The Collaboration for Early Childhood is a community-driven organization that cultivates the development of the whole child, birth to age five, by engaging families, local organizations, early childhood educators, caregivers, and health providers to create equitable, nurturing, and interconnected systems of support.
Vision:
The Collaboration for Early Childhood envisions communities where every young child has the care, relationships, and resources needed to thrive and to begin school safe, healthy, and empowered to succeed.
Core Values:
Collaboration
Whole Child
Meets each child where they are and supports all aspects of the child’s development – physical, social, emotional, cognitive – while respecting each child as a member of the community and as an individual, including the child’s ability, culture, ethnicity, gender, language, race, and religion.
Equity
Ensures that a diverse range of voices contributes to the Collaboration’s efforts, particularly the important work of dismantling systemic barriers that have historically limited access to high quality services and supports for children and families who are under-resourced or marginalized, while celebrating the range of backgrounds, experiences, and identities that comprise an inclusive community.
Community-Driven
Engages local families and early childhood professionals to gather their wisdom and perspectives, utilizing the findings to ensure the Collaboration’s work is continually and culturally responsive to the expressed needs, hopes, and interests of young children, families, early childhood professionals, and communities in which they live.
Organizational Professionalism
Operates with honesty, integrity, and accountability, in a way that is continually informed by research and community input; reliably, responsibly, and respectfully delivers high-quality work and effective outcomes; and transparently reports progress and adjusts strategies to ensure continuous improvement in impacting the children, families, early childhood professionals and communities with whom we work.
Catching You Up On Our Work So Far
Last spring we brought on a consultant to help guide us through the strategic planning process. We have adjusted our timeline a bit to account for John Borrero’s departure as Executive Director. The new timeline will include onboarding a new Executive Director to the strategic plan in early 2023 as the framework continues to be solidified. Here’s the key work that we’ve done since we began this process last spring:
- April – June 2022: Collected individual input of Board and Staff and synthesized findings.
- July 2022: The Board participated in a retreat where they reviewed input and explored who the Collaboration wants to be. They recognized that it was time to refresh and refine our mission, vision, and core values.
- August – September 2022: The Strategic Planning Committee and consultant developed an initial mission, vision, and core values as well as a strategic framework, which was shared with Board and Staff. Their input was incorporated.
- September 2022: The Board approved the mission and vision and added input to the core values and working framework.
- October 2022: These guiding documents were presented to the Collaboration Council and the Collaboration Council shared input.
- October-November 2022: The Strategic Planning Committee and consultant worked to incorporate Collaboration Council Feedback.
- November 2022: The Board and Collaboration Council approve the new mission, vision, and core values.
- November-December 2022: The Collaboration is currently conducting a series of focus groups to inform our working strategic framework and to give us a clearer picture of the evolving needs of young children, families, and early childhood professionals as we plan for the Collab’s work over the next five years.
- November 2022 – January 2023: The Collaboration has brought on a search firm to help us find our next Executive Director, and the search is currently in progress. You see the Position Guide and Executive Director Role here.
Thank You To Everyone Who Has Helped Us Get Here
The holiday season is a time to give thanks, and so we will take this opportunity to give gratitude to everyone who has played a critical part in helping to define our work going forward in service to young children and the networks of support that care for them. Thank you to our Board of Directors and the Strategic Planning Committee for their leadership and rich insights. Thank you to the Collaboration Council for adding new perspectives that have informed our new guiding documents. Thank you to the community partners, parents, caregivers, early childhood professionals and child health professionals who have shared their experiences through focus groups to help inform the needs and strengths of our community and where we can focus our work moving forward.
Stay tuned for future updates on our Executive Director search and our Strategic Framework!