Advocates & Partners

Advocates & Partners

Importance of Collaboration

Collaboration is at the heart of high-quality early childhood care and education. When families, providers, and community partners work together, children benefit from a stronger, more comprehensive support system. By sharing knowledge, resources, and best practices, we can create enriched learning environments that nurture each child’s growth and development. Together, we advocate for the well-being and future success of every child, ensuring that they have the foundation needed to thrive both in school and in life.

Thrive Birth to Five engages public and private partners throughout the region to ensure systems and structures reflect and support our region’s diversity in needs, assets, and perspectives. These collaborations build shared accountability and benefit, with partnerships furthering Thrive Birth to Five’s goals to increase access, strengthen quality, and engage families.

Families

Families are a child’s first and most important teachers. Thrive Birth to Five engages families in informing the design of early childhood systems, policies, and services. Through Family Council, Thrive Birth to Five partners with a diverse group of families across 17 localities, centering family voice in early childhood systems designs and decisions. Family Council members also engage in their communities, reaching families to share information and resources and gather insight into family needs.

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Providers

Strong partnerships with early care providers are essential to delivering high-quality early education. We work closely with early childhood professionals to offer best practices, ensure quality through the observation of programs, and share workforce challenges to inform policy change. By fostering a culture of mutual support, we empower early care providers to deliver enriching and developmentally appropriate experiences for every child while also voicing their challenges as business leaders.

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Partners

We join forces with business leaders, community organizations, local government, and other stakeholders to create a supportive network that benefits young children and families. By aligning efforts, sharing resources, and advocating for policy changes at both local and state levels, we work together to address the needs of our communities by expanding access to quality child care to support families and the workforce of today and tomorrow.

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Advocates

By collaborating with statewide advocacy partners, we strengthen our collective efforts to influence policy, share resources, and champion best practices. Our joint advocacy amplifies our impact, driving progress and making a difference for children, families, and communities across the state. Key partners in this effort include Virginia Early Childhood Foundation, Virginia Promise Partnership, and Virginia Business Roundtable on Early Education.

Voices for Virginia's Children

Voices for Virginia’s Children is the commonwealth’s only independent, multi-issue child policy and advocacy organization. They are focused on children whose needs are often overlooked, concentrating our efforts on policies in early childhood, foster care and adoption, health and mental health, and family economic security.
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Virginia Promise Partnership

The Virginia Promise Partnership is a coalition of leading organizations working together to achieve the bold goal of ensuring all Virginia families have access to affordable, quality child care by 2030, regardless of income.
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Virginia Promise in Action

Virginia Promise in Action is a bipartisan 501(c)(4) organization focused on building the political will necessary to advance effective policy improvements and increase investment in Virginia’s child care system. Alongside their companion organization, the Virginia Promise Partnership, Virginia Promise in Action is leading a campaign to achieve the goal of ensuring all Virginia families have access to quality, affordable child care by 2030.
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Virginia Business Roundtable for Early Education (VBREE)

The Virginia Business Roundtable for Early Education (“VBREE” or “the Roundtable”) was founded in 2023 with the belief that Virginia’s prosperity and quality of life are inextricably dependent upon a strong early childhood education system. A nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative of the VECF board of directors, VBREE’s mission is to sustain and grow, through strategic financing, the supply of high quality, affordable and accessible child care, driving critical and multi-faceted benefits for the Commonwealth. VBREE is committed to educating the public, engaging diverse stakeholders, and driving innovation for the crucial role that accessible child care serves in Virginia’s workforce development and economy, including as a differentiator for Virginia in economic development, site selection, and workforce talent attraction and retention. VBREE strives to secure the increased investment and policy improvements needed for the Commonwealth’s best-in-class early education system to sustain its standing as the best state to live, work, and raise a family.
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Get In Touch

Connect with Thrive Birth to Five to learn more.

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