What Do You See?

The National Women’s Law Center is calling for real life stories of how high-quality early learning (including stories about early care and nurturing of infants and toddlers) can transform individuals, classrooms and even entire communities.

They are gathering hundreds of stories, and will deliver them in a “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”-themed book to key Members of Congress, as part of the Strong Start for Children Campaign to support President Obama’s bold new early learning initiative. They want to show Congress what high-quality early learning can accomplish for children and families.

If you’d like to participate, here is what the National Women’s Law Center is looking for:

• Stories from teachers participating in state-funded prekindergarten programs, Head Start and Early Head Start programs about a child (or an entire class) they taught that benefited from being in a high-quality early learning program.
• Stories from early care providers about the positive impact that high-quality care has on a child’s development.
• Stories from elementary school teachers who have seen how high-quality early learning has prepared students for success.
• Stories from parents who have seen their children develop critical skills by being in a high-quality early learning environment.
• Stories from nurse practitioners and other professionals who provide voluntary home visits to support families about the positive impact they had on a particular family.

In the words of Alma Powell at the recent Rally4Babies, the For Our Babies campaign would love people to “talk about it, talk about it, talk about it”! “It” being babies in particular and how high quality nurturing and care has made a positive difference in lives. Stories related to excellent prenatal care, parental leave benefits, early intervention services, home visiting programs, and quality infant/toddler care would be fantastic to include in the NWLC’s “Brown Bear, Brown Bear” story collection.

So don’t be shy, submit your story to the National Women’s Law Center Website  before their deadline of September 10th, 2013.