Right for Kids Community of Practice

The Alliance for Early Success

September 21, 2022

Challenge

Advance policies that support children and their families in the most conservative states. In light of increasing political polarization, policy advocates from states around the country asked the Alliance for Early Success to help them develop new policy and messaging strategies to more effectively advance a common agenda.

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Solution

Openfields partnered with the Alliance to develop a focused community of practice, working with policy advocates from approximately 30 states to develop new strategies for advancing an early childhood development agenda in challenging political contexts.

We created a bipartisan advisory council of nationally-recognized policy experts, and then convened up to 75 allies for bi-monthly strategy sessions. In those sessions, allies experienced supportive camaraderie with organizations in other states facing similar challenges, shared relevant ideas and strategies with each other, and were resourced by various experts. Thought leaders included GOP pollster Frank Luntz who conducted a masterclass in messaging strategies; policy experts from the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the American Enterprise Institute to explain new strands of conservative thinking about family policy; and faith leaders to discuss effective approaches for working with various faith-based communities.

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The Alliance for Early Success

The mission of AES is to create a powerful, diverse community that informs, accelerates, and amplifies early childhood policy allies’ effectiveness in achieving state actions necessary for each and every young child to thrive.