2025 Adirondack Early Childhood Advocacy Day
On February 10, 2025, BT3 and Adirondack Foundation hosted our very first Adirondack Early Childhood Advocacy Day. The day was attended by 15 people (and a baby!) with representation from the BT3 parent advisory council, steering committee, alliance, and NY’s Early Care and Learning Council. Meetings were focused on two issue areas – child care and early intervention.
- The early intervention team met with several ranking legislative members as well as teams from the governor’s office, Department of Budget, and teams like Senate Majority Program and Counsel Health Team. Much of the discussion focused on the difficulty of administering early intervention services using the current model and methodology in rural areas. All parties were interested in learning more about our early intervention cost modeling and there was discussion about “reimaging the early intervention system.” We look forward to sharing the finalized report later this year.
- The child care group met with ranking legislators, specifically with legislators focused on labor, and teams such as the Governor/Executive Office’s Children and Families Team. The team shared the challenges in our child care system created by our rural geography such as a reliance on home-based child care, recruiting and retaining providers, and families struggling to find placements for their infants and toddlers.
“As a community organization, it’s essential that we build strong relationships with our elected officials—not just to share the challenges of our communities, but to be a resource for solutions. When we engage with them regularly, we ensure they understand the needs of the people we serve and can work alongside us to create meaningful change. My recent trip to Albany with Adirondack Foundation cemented this belief more than ever as we were able to hopefully carry that message to our elected leaders. ” – Alan Jones, ACAP
