Preschool for All? Count Portland in!

"Today is about acting, galvanizing, and emboldening ourselves to do something right here locally." —Mark Holloway, CEO of Social Venture Partners Portland

On October 13, more than 250 people raised their hands and said "count me in" when asked if they would support equitable access to high-quality preschool in Multnomah County.

This one-day conference, titled "Preschool for All", was a collaborative effort between Social Venture Partners (SVP), Early Learning Multnomah (ELM), and Portland State University (PSU).

Why did we do it?

Healthy, capable children represent the best future for Oregon. A child's positive development touches the whole family and community. An investment in the early years is an investment for life. We are committed to honoring a variety of culturally specific approaches to learning while at the same time acknowledging the established and evolving global body of research and practical knowledge that informs the field of early childhood education.

To support young children's rights to fully participate in their communities, there is a need to address the serious gaps in access to early childhood education (preschool). Multnomah County programs and citizens acknowledge that gaps are often generated by systemic inequities that leave a deficit image of the child. This is why we as a community must come together to break down barriers and provide equitable access to high-quality preschool experiences for all children.

What happened?

Early Learning System Director Miriam Calderon called on Multnomah County to lead the State in this groundbreaking systems-change work. "Our public investments now don't go far enough," she said. "We have a system where your race and income determine whether you get access to preschool or not. What you're launching today is an opportunity to lead the way in our state."

We heard from experts in three other cities where universal preschool models are already in effect. Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury facilitated the panel of early learning leaders Monica Liang-Aguirre (Seattle), Ingrid Mezquita (San Francisco), and Jennifer Landrum (Denver).Our panelists stayed for the afternoon session where members of the community broke into workgroups to define and develop action plans for successful outcomes and outputs, quality programming, and funding sources.To read more about the event, check out our main takeaways.

What's next?

Our community brings great insight and passion to this work, and we want to keep the momentum going! We are in the process of reviewing the action plans with ELM. The next step will likely be a community convening in the upcoming months.