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	National Convenings
	Ask the Experts Conference Calls
	Learning Community Activities on Quality
	Learning Community Activities on Communications
	Learning Community Activities on Financing
	Learning Community Activities on Global ECE

Diversity and School Readiness Meeting - December 2007
On December 11-12, 2007 the Build Initiative hosted a meeting of partners with a focus on Diversity and School Readiness. The meeting was funded by the Heinz Endowments and the Annie E. Casey Foundation with significant support and participation from the National Black Child Development Institute and the National Council of La Raza. Click here to access the background materials provided to meeting participants.
Click here for background reading materials.

Building Systems for Babies – November 2006
Building Systems for Babies was a national meeting on infant and toddler system issues held November 15-17, 2006 in Chicago. The meeting was co-sponsored by Build, CLASP and Zero to Three. Plenary sessions focused on keeping infant and toddler focus in state early childhood systems development and framing the message for babies. Interactive workshop topics included governance, child health, financing, advocacy, mental health and professional development. Participants also discussed family leave, Early Head Start and infant-toddler specialists in roundtable conversations. Experts answered participant questions about family, friend and natighbor care, reaching children of immigrants, home visiting and state strategies to support families.
Click here for meeting materials and related resources.

Build National Convening - September 2005
The 2005 national convening of Build Initiative states was held on September 13 – 15, 2005 in Baltimore. Each Build state brought a team of five to seven participants. The agenda included large group presentations, concurrent cross-state workshops, individualized state technical assistance, and state team time. Plenary sessions focused on developing an infant-toddler system; culture, language and poverty issues in system building; and lessons from Georgia’s new Department of Early Care and Learning. Workshop topics included state solutions to financing challenges, compensation initiatives, promotion of social emotional readiness, expansion of prekindergarten programs, and development of political will in an election year.
Click here for agenda, meeting materials and related resources.

Sharon Lynn Kagan
National Center for Children and Families
Teachers College, Columbia University
May 19, 2005

This discussion with Sharon Lynn Kagan features her current thinking about a framework of early learning standards to promote quality and the assessment of those standards. Call participants were able to ask Lynn about particular policy challenges in their states, her UNICEF work in developing countries and a new task force on early childhood accountability.
Download the call summary
Download the companion PowerPoint presentation

This discussion with early learning author and activist Joan Lombardi covers a wide range of issues affecting early care and education systems building in the coming year. Joan offers her view on pre-k programs, the direction of national policies and communicating effective messages. She also describes her new book about Early Head Start, "Beacon of Hope."
Download the call summary

This conference call summary describes the Pathways Mapping Initiative, which provides a body of information that individuals and organizations can use to take action on school readiness. Lee Schorr, the founder and director of the Initiative, describes how Build states can use the interactive web tool at www.PathwaysToOutcomes.org to support and develop their work in early learning systems reform.
Download the call summary

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Sparking Connections is a national consortium and learning community that resulted from work in states and communities by the Families and Work Institute. The initiative began in 2000 with a report developed in partnership with the National Retail Federation. The report focused on the need to put more attention on the quality of informal care, by providing caregivers typically not part of the subsidy system access to information and resources. This conference call profiled the work of 8 sites modeling family, friend and neighbor caregiver strategies, in the context of improving the system for all children and families.
Download the call summary

Thirty-four states have implemented a tiered strategy system as of January 2004, according to the National Child Care Information Center. As the number of states that have implemented these systems has grown, so have the different ways that states have designed their tiered strategies. This conference call profiled the Reaching for the Stars program in Oklahoma and Keystone Stars in Pennsylvania.
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Keystone Stars Child Care Quality Initiative
Pennsylvania: Keystone Stars
Keystone Stars Performance Standards
Oklahoma: Reaching for the Stars

This conference call provided an overview of the complex issues involved in developing tiered strategy systems. Issues such as accreditation, infrastructure, environmental rating scales and middle levels discussed. The future direction of tiered quality strategies was also reviewed.
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Exploring the complexities of Tiered Quality Strategies - PowerPoint
Tiered Quality Strategies and the Impact on Quality Child Care
Common Categories of Criteria Used in State Tiered Strategy Systems
Tiered Quality Strategies: Definitions and State Systems
Goals and Objectives of State Tiered Strategy Systems
Questions to Ask

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Children's champion Irving Harris, who died recently at the age of 94, was dedicated to supporting the work of community-based doulas. Doulas are committed to helping women have satisfying birthing and parenting experiences, and assist families in providing the safe and healthy environments that are critical to a baby's development. This Build Learning Community conference call in honor of Irving Harris, provides an overview of doulas historically and tells of their rediscovered role, highlighting the community-based doula model.
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Community-Based Doulas Fact Sheet
The Outcomes of Using a Doula
First Connections Leave Lasting Impressions

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Learning Community Activities on Communications

KidsClips
November 15, 2005

This Learning Community call introduced CCMC’s new communications resource ChildrenFamilyWork news or KidsClips. This free, one-stop, full-text news service allows state leaders, funders and others to receive state-specific, free clippings on early education/child care, children's services, child abuse, child welfare, family violence, foster care and more. For more information and to learn how to subscribe, just click on the flyer below.
Download the CCMC flyer

Build/Communications Consortium Media Center Communications Meeting—September 2005
The Build Initiative and the Communications Consortium Media Center (CCMC) held a communications meeting in September 2005 in conjunction with Build’s national convening. Each Build state sent two participants. Attendees heard lessons learned from CCMC’s Early Care and Education Collaborative. States also worked on message creation and dissemination through sessions on low budget communications,
e-advocacy, and online communications hubs.
Click here for agenda, meeting materials and related resources.

Born Learning Public Awareness and Engagement Campaign
January 31, 2005

United Way of America is partnering with the Ad Council, Civitas and Families and Work Institute to sponsor Born Learning, an innovative three year public awareness and engagement campaign to help parents, caregivers and communities provide children high-quality learning experiences necessary for school readiness. This conference call focused on the opportunities available to states and communities interested in linking their public will efforts with the national campaign.
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Download the Born Learning presentation
3-25-05 Born Learning enhanced campaign guidelines (PDF)
3-25-05 Born Learning enhanced campaign description and criteria (PDF)

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Ballot Measures
February 3, 2006

Many states are using or considering ballot measures to advance early childhood policy and improve the quality, affordability, and availability of early childhood programs and services. This conference call focused on ballot measures and their impacts on shaping public policy. It also included a discussion of the common elements of successful ballot measures.
Download the audio recording of the call (12.6 megabytes)
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Power to the People: The Effectiveness of Ballot Measures in Advancing
EarlyFlorida’s Voluntary Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program Ballot Initiative
From Concept to Ballot and Florida’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program
Ballot Initiatives in Washington State that Include Early Childhood Education
Interrelated Initiatives and Interests:Building Upon Success and Failure
First Things First Initiative – Arizona

Public Private Financing Partnerships
July 21, 2005

In an effort to increase funding for early care and education, many states are forging new public-private financing partnerships. This Build Initiative Learning Community Conference Call in honor of Nancy Latimer of the McKnight Foundation, discussed what it takes to establish, fund and sustain an effective public-private early learning financing partnership.
Download the call summary

Support materials:
Smart Start Fact Sheet
Pennysylvania Partnership for Quality Pre-Kindergarten Fact Sheet

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Early Childhood Development: A Global Movement
December 12, 2006

Early childhood is receiving attention around the world. This conference call, organized by the Build Initiative and Smart Start’s National Technical Assistance Center, provides an overview of the recently released UNESCO Global Monitoring Report, which features early childhood care and education. The call highlights important resources for keeping informed about early childhood across the globe and focuses on the need for increased involvement in this movement.

Support materials:
Early Childhood Development: A Call to Action
Press Release: Global Monitoring Report
Global Monitoring Report website
Strong Foundations: Early Care and Education (summary)
Fact Sheet: World Forum Foundation
World Forum Foundation website
Powerpoint: Strong Foundations – Early Childhood Care and Education
The Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development
U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Guide to Comment 7: Implementing Child Rights in Early Childhood
Global Action for Children website
Global Fund for Children website
U.S. Fund for UNICEF website
Save the Children website
Plan International website
Video Message from Chile President Michelle Bachelet

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