Shift power, voice and perspective to the lived experiences of communities of color.
Ensure equity and investment for the whole child.
Leaders like you, from a variety of fields, participate in our programs to understand the issues affecting young children and their families specifically those from communities that have been historically marginalized. Our programs focus on developing strategies to implement systemic changes that lead to equitable access to high-quality early childhood resources.
Build your knowledge on early childhood and racial equity to best serve the needs of young children and families in your community.
Learn the barriers historically marginalized communities experience accessing early childhood programs, social services, and funding and how to improve the distribution of those resources.
Understand the structure of programs and services and how policy change can help parents and caregivers easily navigate a complex system and access resources for their children.
Our Early Childhood Leadership Academy (ECLA) provides dynamic and collective learning experiences to enhance racial equity and child development knowledge to influence early childhood policy that leads to positive outcomes for young children and their families.
As a senior-level early childhood professional, this program takes an anti-racism approach to public policy knowledge and pairs it with your experience in the field to fortify your skills and elevate your advocacy on early childhood policy. This program considers nominated candidates who are reflective of the communities they serve in Illinois.
As a highly influential decision-maker on policies that affect children and families on a local, regional, or state level, this program uses an anti-racism approach to introduce you to the long-term benefits of quality early childhood experiences and the policy opportunities to improve programs and services for all children and families.
Advancing Racial Equity and Systemic Solutions
This two-part workshop series explains how deficit language is dehumanizing and deflects from the structural racism and flaws baked in our systems and offers ways to effectively use data to illuminate systemic barriers and reveal root causes.
Workshop dates for 2024 coming soon
You are able to engage in a safe space for people to learn, express their thoughts and share ideas.
Workshops can be tailored according to professional development needs and can incorporate activities, breakout groups and follow-up materials or resources. Project consultation is also available. Subject areas covered include but are not limited to:
Centering the people with the lived experiences captured by data is a critical component of data literacy.
Erikson’s approach to data literacy helps you amplify community ownership in shaping the narrative around data to fully understand its meaning and better inform advocacy efforts.
Connect with our policy experts to determine the best learning programs for you and your staff.