Our Story
The CAYL Institute (Community Advocates for Young Learners) was inspired by early education pioneer Valora Washington’s experience serving on panels and commissions related to the future of the field.
Starting a new conversation
As Valora Washington often found herself the sole person of color in the room, she understood why so many educators and child care providers felt that the policy process didn’t reflect what mattered most to them.
It was time for a new conversation—one that centered the voices of the practitioners.
CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
For more than two decades, CAYL has created opportunities for organization leaders and educators in every context and community to advocate for ourselves and the children in our care.
We believe that research and policy should be determined by our experience—and not the other way around.
In 2004, Washington convened a diverse group of Massachusetts leaders from across the spectrum of early education—from family child care to child care centers to schools. The Schott Fellowship for Early Care and Education offered an opportunity for people to listen and learn from one another in order to:
- Investigate and address silos and barriers in the field
- Identify key challenges and “hot topics”
- Design timely, relevant, and immediately actionable solutions
CAYL has expanded and evolved, but our mission remains the same—to support one another as we create change on behalf of the children we serve.
Reforming the System
A uniting force in an often fragmented system, CAYL connects early childhood educators through shared values and practices. We use a similar approach when we engage with governmental agencies, nonprofit partners, and others to create big-picture change.
For example, our evaluation of the Massachusetts child care voucher system’s impact on parents, childcare providers, and resource and referral agencies resulted in four strategies for action recognized and implemented by the state.
Today, CAYL’s Good Jobs Metro Boston Coalition Child Care Sectoral Partnership is creating a system that can recruit, train, and employ hundreds of educators.
Explore other ways that CAYL is catalyzing change.
