Community Action

The Born Learning campaign is designed to be a tool for long-term community change.  While the PSAs, educational material and Web site offer parents and caregivers direct messages on how to support early learning for young children, our long-term goal is to galvanize communities around early learning.  That means influencing public policies to support high-quality early learning for all children, whether they’re at home, in the homes of family or friends or in child care. 

Business Outreach

Early childhood is a strategic focus for United Way of America, and we want to help United Ways and other early learning coalitions build and leverage business relationships to support early learning policy.  Take a look at these tools to help identify, educate, persuade, and activate business leaders for early learning.

• Making the Business Case Toolkit
• Power Point 
• Brochure 
• User Guide 
• Champion Action Tips 
• Birth to Five Policy Alliance Resource Library
• Flash Video 
• Getting Your Board on Board
• Birth to Five Policy Alliance Resource Library
• Courting New Champions: Working with Business to Promote Policies for Kids (.pdf)   
• Getting Key Stakeholders Involved (.pdf)
• Ideas for Community Supporters (.pdf)

Policy

Making policy change is part of making lasting community change.  Use these tools to guide your policy work and to engage your board members as champions in the policy advocacy arena.  Your board is a powerful group of people with many ties to policy makers.  Leveraging their influence can make a difference in making long-term community change   Get strategic suggestions and examples in Mobilize Your Community.

• Policy 101
• Getting Your Board on Board
• Courting New Champions: Working with Business to Promote Policies for Kids
• Getting Key Stakeholders Involved (.pdf)

Community Change

Looking for a way to shape a community, volunteer or sponsor event into a high-visibility early learning message that helps parents and caregivers support early learning?

The Born Learning Trail, a turnkey toolkit to help you do just that, is now available.  The Trail is a fun, interactive series of outdoor games on colorful, engaging signs that can be used in any outdoor setting to help adults and young children explore and learn together.  The research-based, expert-vetted games featured on the signs help adults support learning in the moment – and build language and thinking skills fundamental to school success. The signs are localizable so you can promote your organization along with your sponsors.

The kit includes 10 localizable signs, reusable stencils, a promotional poster, a sample volunteer T-shirt and sample branded water bottle (you can order the quantities you need), installation guidelines and ideas for maximizing volunteer engagement and publicity.  The kit is available to anyone (not just United Ways) at the United Way Store (www.UnitedWayStore.com or 1-800-772-0008, order # 40040).  If you have questions (beyond ordering logistics involving the United Way Store), contact Mariana Florit, UWA SB6 Communications Manager, at Mariana.Florit@uwa.unitedway.org or (703) 836-7112, x279.

You may also download a copy of the Born Learning Trail Overview!

Here are tools (mostly created by Families and Work Institute) designed to guide you through the process of galvanizing your community around early learning.  

Be sure to check out the strategic suggestions in Build Your Campaign.

• Born Learning Levels of Engagement (.pdf)
• Seven Lessons of Public Engagement  (.pdf)
• Building Relationships  (.pdf)
• Engaging Communities: What Retailers, Other Businesses, Policy Makers & Funders Can Do (.pdf)
• How Do We Know What We Need? (.pdf)
• Setting Goals & Strategies  (.pdf)
• Steps in Developing Financing Strategies  (.pdf)
• Creating Systemic Change Around Early Learning  (.pdf)
• Improving Program Quality Around Early Learning  (.pdf)
• Maintaining Momentum  (.pdf)