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2024 Educare Learning Network Meeting

Events
In-Person
May 1-3, 2024
Sioux City, Iowa

Honoring, Healing, Harmonizing: A Uniquely Woven Future

The 2024 Educare Learning Network Meeting will be hosted in partnership with Educare Winnebago

The Educare Learning Network meeting provides a forum in which Network members share, problem-solve and receive technical assistance and support regarding issues of program and policy development, implementation and continuous improvement of the Educare Model. The Network meeting also provides an opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges of the work. As a platform for policy and systems change, the Network Meeting also offers an opportunity to define, discuss and address critical issues facing the early childhood field and identify partnerships that best leverage state and local investments for young children in disinvested communities.  

Registration Deadline: Friday, April 5, 2024

Register Now

What is the Network Meeting?

Our annual Network Meeting is a collaborative event that brings together representatives from each Educare school, parents/caregivers, researchers, public- and private-sector partners and other key contributors in the early childhood field. Each meeting includes: 

  • A plenary session which features program, research and policy experts from the early childhood and related fields as our keynote speaker 
  • Concurrent sessions (including data dialogues) led by Network members and partners that focus on relevant issues or core features of the Educare model  
  • Sessions for work groups and committees to convene  

Historically, in-person Network Meetings are hosted yearly with the meeting location rotating between Educare schools. 

Audience

  • Boards of directors, executive directors & school directors 
  • Family support staff & supervisors 
  • Funders & philanthropists 
  • Fundraising, organizational capacity & sustainability staff
  • Local evaluation partners (LEPs) and national evaluation partners (NEPs) 
  • Mentor teachers, coaches, curriculum & instruction managers, education coordinators
  • Parents/caregivers 
  • Program administrators 
  • Teaching staff & all other Educare staff 
  • Invited guests 

For more information, please reach out to support@educarenetwork.org.

Event Details

Areas of Focus

Areas of focus for this year’s Network Meeting include, but are not limited to:

  1. Lifting Family Voices Through Advocacy, Activism & Leadership (i.e., engaging families as partners and leaders, family and parent/caregiver activism, engaging fathers as part of engaging the whole family, anti-bias/anti-racist approaches to family engagement, support for staff who aren’t sure how to engage with families, etc.)
  2. Building School Culture, Climate & Community (i.e., as a strategy for staff retention and rebuilding the early childhood education workforce, recruitment, morale, onboarding, performance management, change management, innovations in hiring requirements and practices, etc.)
  3. Native American and Tribal Influence on Early Childhood Education (i.e., Winnebago Educare staff or tribal members share info on Winnebago culture and early childhood education)
  4. Trauma-Informed Care & Healing-Centered Engagement for Educare Families, Staff & Communities (i.e., historical trauma, mental health, social-emotional well-being, impact of staff well-being on children and families, impact of children and family well-being on staff, using reflective practices to support staff, etc.)
  5. Sustainability (i.e., program operational functions including fundraising and philanthropy, strategic planning and visioning, finance/budgeting, workforce recruitment and retention, human resources, etc.)

Accessibility

Network Meeting: Creating an Inclusive Community

  • Handicap-accessible meeting location and transportation
  • Designated nursing and medical necessities space at the Convention Center
  • Gender-neutral bathroom at the Convention Center
  • Contributing to a fragrance-free event
    • Scents and chemical products may exacerbate the symptoms of a person’s medical condition; please refrain from wearing colognes, perfumes or other scented or chemical products to the event (including attire exposed to smoke)
  • Inclusive meal selections to accommodate dietary needs
  • Support for requests for reasonable accommodations including ASL, language interpretation, captioning, audio enhancements, etc.

Please email us at support@educarenetwork.org with requests or questions.

Call for Proposals

General Information

** The call for proposals is now closed. Status notifications will be sent to submitting groups mid-March. ** 

The Educare Network aims to provide the highest-quality learning experiences and content at the annual Network Meeting. Our call for proposals process offers an opportunity for Network members to share their most impactful and innovative work, creating a collective and engaging experience for all attendees.

As we capture and share innovations at Educare schools, we recognize the need to ground ourselves in one definition of what “innovation” means so we can better see how it might look in action. With input from Network members, we created the following definition. Please note that we acknowledge innovation as a constant work in progress; therefore, the below will remain a working definition that can be revised as our needs and priorities change across the Network. 

  • At the Educare Network, we define innovation as intentional, solution-focused creative problem-solving that fills an untapped need or addresses a challenge or question (whether new or ongoing). 

For additional context and examples of innovation, please see the full document on EducareShare

Proprietary Interests

If facilitators have a vested interest in any product, instrument, device, or materials that may be used during the learning event, they must disclose this interest. Further, if the facilitator receives any share of the royalties or profits from product promotion or endorsement, the interest must be disclosed to the learner prior to the learning event. If there are breaches of this policy, please contact Julie Sours, Director of Compliance, at jsours@startearly.org.