The Children’s Opportunity Alliance (The Alliance) is founded on the belief that every young child deserves to thrive. We commit our resources, influence, and capacity to eliminating racial disparities and ensuring access to high quality, equitable, and affordable early care and education. We are dedicated to advancing equity and inclusion, so all children grow up healthy and strong with access to a range of comprehensive early childhood services that best meet their needs — prioritizing those furthest from opportunity. We partner with our community and other key stakeholders to ensure that families are fully informed, valued, and supported as their child’s first teacher and strongest advocate.

We work to eliminate longstanding structural and systemic inequities that limit learning and developmental opportunities for our youngest children. Through these actions, we hope to heal from historical wrongs and transform Montgomery County’s early care and education system to advance social justice, improving outcomes for all children and families.

We believe early childhood services should not only meet Maryland standards for quality, but are also informed by the community’s diverse cultures, perspectives, and hopes for children and families in Montgomery County. We act on the premise that educators should be valued, respected, and guaranteed economic dignity and that the provision of early care and education is a public responsibility. We assert the early childhood workforce should be diverse, prepared, and well-compensated, to offer stable, high-quality experiences across all the settings linked to child and family well-being.

The aim is to create a safe space that helps in the healing process for ourselves, our educators, our communities and their families. The Alliance is committed to a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment where all board members, staff, volunteers, and stakeholders feel respected and valued regardless of race, age, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation or gender identity), ethnicity, national origin, socioeconomic status, language, and disability and any other biases. Our commitment to racial equity and pursuit of social justice guides all aspects of our work (including, but not limited to):

• We value and work to integrate diverse perspectives, with a special focus on elevating leaders who reflect the communities we serve.

• We lead with data, equity and transparency. We use the data to tell a story and develop informed strategies and actions that address inequities at interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels.

• We build genuine, authentic, and caring relationships with the early care and education (ECE) community, which we define as parents, providers, nonprofits, community and faith-based organizations, advocates, state and county government, businesses, and philanthropy.

• We cultivate partnerships through effective, transparent communication and open feedback loops that ensure broad access to information and a navigable system for all.

• We track and analyze fiscal investments to the early care and education system including federal, state, local, and philanthropic funding so that we can collectively make equitable, sustainable, and strategic decisions that maximize and leverage resources.

Sources:

• SRC RESJ Statement

• RESJ Workgroup Member Feedback, 11/8/23

• Center for the Study of Child Care Employment

• Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education National Association for the Education of Young Children, Position Statement

• First Steps Kent

• Local and Regional Government Alliance on Race & Equity