BUILD 2023

Thank you for your patience as we’ve worked to reschedule BUILD23.

BUILD23 Virtual | Monday, November 13-Tuesday, November 14 
The virtual conference gives you access to sessions and plenaries created exclusively for the virtual event. Even if you are not available to join us on the dates of the virtual conference, you will still have access to all the content!

BUILD23 Virtual Conference Session List and Descriptions

Virtual Plenary: A Conversation with Professor Dorothy Roberts
An internationally recognized legal scholar and sociologist, Professor Dorothy Roberts has written and lectured extensively on the interplay of race, gender, and class inequities in US institutions. She has been a leader in transforming thinking on reproductive justice, child welfare, and bioethics. Her latest book, Torn Apart, exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change. In a conversation with Dr. Cynthia Tate, who leads BUILD’s work on the collaboration between the child welfare and early childhood systems, Professor Roberts will explore the historical and policy pathways that have led to today’s disparities, share why she feels that, too often, poverty is misinterpreted as neglect, with harmful results for Black, Brown, and Indigenous families, and offer ways that all of us can take action to build a caring society that supports children and families.

Interviewer: Dr. Cynthia Tate, BUILD Initiative

Featured Speaker: Professor Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, Director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society.

BUILD23 In-Person | Westin Bonaventure/Los Angeles
Wednesday, November 29-Friday, December 1 

Because of the ongoing strike at the Hilton Anaheim, we are moving the in-person event to the Westin Bonaventure/Los Angeles, which has a contract in place with its workers. Use this link to make your hotel reservation at the Westin Bonaventure, which charges $182/night plus taxes. Make your reservation as soon as possible, as our room block always sells out. (*If you already made a hotel reservation at the Hilton Anaheim, call 714.750.4321 to cancel your reservation.)

Over three days, you will have the opportunity to participate in over 150 sessions exploring (1) access to high-quality programs and services, (2) leadership development and capacity-building, and (3) sustainability and improvement in programs and systems. You will learn with colleagues, hear from experts, and discuss questions and ideas about topics including continuous quality improvement, prenatal-to-age-three, data and evaluation, workforce development, finance and investments, and equitable systems-building. Your participation in the in-person conference includes virtual conference access.

BUILD23 Conference Schedule At-A-Glance

BUILD23 In-Person Conference Session List

Description:
We are thrilled to welcome you back to an in-person meeting for BUILD23. The opportunity to network and connect with like-minded colleagues from across the country is what makes this conference special. The conference theme—Strengthening Systems, Improving Quality, Advancing Equity—speaks to the challenging work we are doing to build and sustain high-quality, comprehensive, early childhood systems that are equitable and meet the needs of all young children and their families. At BUILD23, we hope you find solutions to challenging problems, fresh ideas that move work forward, and inspiration that reignites your passion.

Conference Goals – Attendees will have opportunities to:

1. Engage with colleagues to discuss new research and innovations in creating an early childhood system that is highly inclusive, promotes equity (including the equitable distribution of resources and access), and meets the needs of multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural young children and families, many of whom have been historically discriminated against and have had and/or continue to have opportunities limited due to racism. Explore what still needs to be done.
2. Delve into how best to partner with families and providers to ensure their voices inform the design and implementation of approaches to support their needs and interests.
3. Discover cross-system (e.g., early learning, health, and family supports) approaches to meeting whole-child and whole-family needs.
4. Collaborate to develop strategies to improve recruitment, retention, compensation, and professionalization of a workforce as diverse as the children with whom they work.
5. Share strategies to re-invent state Quality Improvement Systems (QIS) in early care and education to ensure that they are racially equitable, supportive of providers/teachers and program improvement, and family friendly.
6. Develop personal leadership and communication skills to strengthen the good work that individuals and teams do for young children and their families.

Audience
Attendees of BUILD’s annual conference include a range of public- and private-sector early childhood leaders as well as corporate and non-profit sponsors and funders. Leaders include cross-system representatives, state education, health, and human services leaders, child care and QIS administrators, Head Start state and local leaders, technical assistance providers, coaches and mentors, quality improvement specialists, advocates, policy makers, evaluators and researchers, higher education faculty, and early childhood systems leaders at the national, state, territory, tribal nation, and community levels.