Join us for 2023 MA Act Early Campaign to Celebrate the Young Child!
Host an event in your community
Celebration dates: April 12th- April 19th, 2023
Sponsors: MA Act Early, MA Head Start Association, Boston Children’s Hospital & United Way of MA Bay
The 2023 MA Act Early Campaign to Celebrate the Young Child is about community, awareness, learning, and connection – seeking to generate conversations across MA about child development while building concrete connections for young children and their families to the resources within their communities. This effort compliments the Week of the Young Child to highlight the importance of child development.
Join us to:
• Celebrate parents and caregivers as the very first teachers of children
• Share information about the growth and development of young children, including milestones • Raise awareness about resources that exist to support child development (developmental monitoring tools, developmental screenings, Coordinated Family & Community Engagement (CFCE), The Basics Insights text messages, Early Intervention, Early Childhood Special Education)
If you would like to participate by hosting an event in your community:
• Host an event on the day or time of your choosing between April 12-19th, 2023 in-person, virtually, or using a hybrid model to address any one of the three mentioned goals above. You may want to build events into pre-existing activities (e.g., play group or parent meeting). Set the name of your event and adapt social media posts to best fit your needs!
• Sites may seek out financial sponsors for their individual events.
• Track the number of children at your event who:
o Complete and discuss a developmental monitoring checklist or screen (e.g., CDC’s free “Learn the Signs. Act Early” developmental monitoring checklists) and
o Are referred following a developmental checklist (e.g., to either Family TIES and/or their pediatrician for follow up). The data collected must be provided to MA Act Early by May 30, 2023.
As a formal part of the 2023 MA Act Early Campaign, you will:
• Have your event listed on the MA Act Early website & shared on MA Act Early social media • Receive:
o A social media toolkit to promote your events
o “Learn the Signs. Act Early” books and/or Milestone Moments booklets to distribute to children receiving developmental monitoring and/or screening
o An Excel spreadsheet to track children receiving developmental monitoring and/or screening • Be contacted for future opportunities with MA Act Early, Massachusetts Head Start Association, Boston Children’s Hospital and United Way of MA Bay
• Strengthen your community’s vision on child development
• Collaborate and share ideas, materials, and resources with colleagues prior to your event
Interested in hosting an event? Register to host a site here: https://forms.office.com/r/1mPUX6A0QB. Please note that MA Act Early cannot support planning of individual events held at the sites or provide funding for these events. After you register, a MA Act Early representative will contact you. Any questions should be directed to the MA Act Early Ambassador at Kate.Barlow@aic.edu.