Recently, my colleague Marisa Fear and I had the opportunity to speak with a program director who reached out to me as part of an assignment for an advocacy class. As we met on Zoom, we shared a bit about our work at Strategies for Children and information about The 9:30 Call. She said that she had heard about The Call, and that sometimes there were elected officials and policy makers on there. She wondered if the call was for her – if she belonged. You. Belong. Over the last 30 years, as a preschool teacher, center director, advocate, adjunct faculty member, executive director and early childhood cheerleader, I have witnessed incredible personal and professional transformations in early educators, directors and family childcare educators as they come to recognize and claim the power they have as advocates, leaders and experts in this work. As early childhood professionals, we are often underestimated and undervalued. But this is a story I believe we can—and must—change. Strategies for Children has a long history working on high-quality early education and care. Over the past three years, we’ve stepped into more of a convening role - first, with our 9:30 Call and more recently with The Early Childhood Agenda. The 9:30 Call has changed everything about how we do our work and heavily informed our design for The Early Childhood Agenda. In the first few days of the pandemic, we launched The 9:30 Call for the early education and care community. In an ever-changing landscape, it was essential that the people who are closest to children, families and the work had a direct line of communication to each other and to decision-makers across the state. Three years later, continuing and strengthening these connections remains essential to all of our growth and success. We need a space for the early childhood community to work across sectors for better policy development. We need to stay up to date on each other's work and provide opportunities for connection and collaboration. We need to elevate the voices of those closest to the work because they are best positioned to make recommendations that will lead to meaningful and sustained change. We need you to be part of The 9:30 Call and The Early Childhood Agenda. Join us. Check out The 9:30 Call webpage, which includes a guest speaker calendar dating back to our first call in March 2020, follow up materials from each call and sign up to join the email list for the ZOOM link and receive a weekly email highlighting guest speakers. We are looking for new voices to feature on The 9:30 Call. Share your ideas for speakers and topics here. In this time of September transitions, be kind to yourself. Thank you for ALL you do in support of children, families and each other.  | 
