We are supporting Advocacy that improves the lives of Vermont's young children, families, and providers

The Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance is a statewide coalition of early childhood professionals and providers, parents, and employers working together to improve public policies that impact young children from birth to age eight on issues of health, safety, food security, economic security, and early care and education.

2024 Legislative Agenda

The Alliance’s Legislative Agenda is crafted annually in partnership with early childhood organizations that are advancing policy solutions through the legislative process related to health, safety, food security, economic security, and early care and education. 

The issues were selected by the Alliance’s 21-member Steering Committee. One or more lead organizations will direct legislative and advocacy strategy on each issue. 

More information about the agenda and the lead organizations can be found here. 

2023 Legislative Agenda Results

The 2023 legislative session saw a return to fully in-person work, and resulted in a range of outcomes for the state’s early childhood community. Some issues on the Alliance’s Agenda had tremendous (and even historic) successes, while others had disappointing results. See below for more details.

Looking ahead, Alliance members will be hard at work over the summer and fall building support for ongoing campaigns, tracking implementation of programs that have passed, and preparing a full slate of issues for advocacy in ’24.

VECAA_weeklyspotlight

This year the Alliance has hosted virtual Weekly Issue Spotlights, which have provided an opportunity for participants to hear in-depth updates on issues on the Alliance’s Legislative Agenda. The final session of the series will be held Monday, April 1, from 3:30 to 4:15 pm, and will provide an update on the status of all 10 issues on the Legislative Agenda.

Led by Matt Levin from the Alliance, this session is a great opportunity to learn more about the issues as we prepare for Early Childhood Day at the Legislature on April 10. We hope you can join us for the discussion.

Many early childhood community members have renewed their personal and professional commitment to antiracism and diversity, equity, and inclusion – and want to engage in sustained learning. To support this, the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance and its partners are convening a monthly, salon-style Equity Discussion Group via Zoom. Our next session is coming up on Friday, March 29, at 1:00 pm.

This month’s discussion will be about how to develop and launch a community based, BIPOC advisory group to assist an organization in their work, and will be led by Sarah Kenney from Let’s Grow Kids. She will shape the discussion around the formation of the LGK Families of Color Advisory Committee. 

You can contact Taylor, Outreach Manager, at taylor@vecaa.org if your organization would like to co-host one of these events, or if you have suggested topics or discussion materials to offer.

More information about past salons including downloadable resources can be found here.

2024 Early Childhood Day at the Legislature

Join us in person for the 30th Annual Early Childhood Day at the Legislature (ECDL) on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Montpelier! The issues on our 2024 Legislative Agenda will play central roles at this year’s ECDL.

Join the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, early childhood professionals, parents, employers, and policymakers in person to:

  • Meet with legislators about early childhood issues
  • Attend workshops on current topics
  • Take action at the State House
  • Network and exchange information

 

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“It’s incredibly valuable to have this vast network of statewide advocates that can rally people to share their stories or reach out to their Legislator. We were successful in getting the Family and Medical Leave bill and it was in large part because of the work of the Alliance.” 

– MAIN STREET ALLIANCE