Campbell Institute

Public policy and advocacy for early childhood care and education: ci creates public policy and advocates for public investment in early childhood programs and services. Ci does this through a coordinated strategy for developing a bold early childhood policy agenda that engages families and providers and cultivates champions across education and health. Ci convenes oregon's early childhood coalition (ecc), a partnership of more than 65 state and national organizations who advocate at the state legislature to improve outcomes for oregon's youngest children and families. Ci works with and alongside community partners to elevate the voices of parents, providers, and educators. In this work, ci emphasizes racial equity and economic justice in the development and implementation of an early childhood advocacy agenda for oregon. Ci translates large-scale research and population census data in ways that influence policy and programs. The research-based policy recommendations are informed by local and national promising practices, lived experiences of families and providers, community leaders and organizations, and national trends. The ci team collaborates across sectors and across geographies to develop and advance recommendations for state investments and laws that increase access to and impact of high-quality early childhood programs and services. Ci values the research to policy continuum for systems change and uses a robust communications strategy to advance ci's vision. That strategy employs a range of tools and tactics that allow us to share vital information about the early childhood landscape, define priority issues, shape policy, illuminate advocacy, and strengthen the narrative around the value and importance of early childhood investments. Ci is actively working to expand its reach in rural areas, low-income communities, and communities of color in both urban and rural settings.

Early childhood equity collaborative: in january 2023, svp portland transferred fiscal sponsorship of the early childhood equity collaborative (ecec) to children's institute. The ecec is a coalition of community-based organizations providing culturally specific services and programs to children and families. Ci operates as the fiscal sponsor for the ecec in its efforts to increase investment in culturally specific organizations to provide early childhood programs and shift the public narrative to make equity a public priority in oregon's early education system.

Research and design: a tremendous amount of academic research and population data exists in the early childhood field, and ci plays a key role in synthesizing and disseminating information, translating complex information into concrete tools for policy- and decision makers, and illuminating promising practices to help craft program and policy solutions in the oregon context.ci engages with research in three ways: translate large-scale research and population census data in ways that influence policy and programs, evaluate ci's programs and initiatives, and apply research practices to shape advocacy and program design and implementation efforts. Some examples of how ci's research has shaped statewide efforts include: -on-going development and refinement of oregon's social-emotional health metric -development of the oregon kindergarten assessment-creation and advisement of state's early childhood special education inclusion preschool inclusion model -the programs and initiatives ci develops and implements ultimately serve as demonstration sites and learning laboratories. They are unique opportunities to develop partnerships, test strategies, embed early childhood practices into k-12 schools, engage with communities and families, and learn over time to better understand what works, what doesn't, and what opportunities lie ahead.-academic research and community needs assessments influence program development and the way in which ci pilots its work in communities around the state. Ci then learns from ongoing research evaluation efforts to improve our program initiatives and bring forward scalable practices and policy concepts at the state and national levels.