Trying Together

By 2027, Trying Together will sustain a culture of belonging within our staff and Board of Directors and with families, educators, and community partners that values curiosity and collaboration, and nurtures a community of accountability and continuous learning. With this ecosystem in place, Trying Together will be:

· A trusted source for families to collaborate with regarding their child’s early experiences.
· An experienced facilitator of inclusive learning opportunities for educators that aims to ensure every child has access to high-quality early care and education.
· A collaborative convener that coordinates and helps to connect systems to support early care and education.
· A committed advocate mobilizing for policy change alongside communities to elevate the needs of young children, families, and educators for an equitable early care and education system.
· An accountable nonprofit that prioritizes ethics when raising funds in support of its mission and provides transparent stewardship to its donors.

By 2027, Trying Together will sustain a culture of belonging within our staff and Board of Directors and with families, educators, and community partners that values curiosity and collaboration, and nurtures a community of accountability and continuous learning.
· Staff and Board of Directors represent those we serve and who are most affected by the policies (including leadership levels)
- Assess source methods to ensure inclusive talent pipelines
- Adopt and/or ensure inclusive hiring practices
· Establish and promote common inclusive onboarding of Staff and Board Directors
· Continuous learning and accountability
· Establish career pathways within the organization to nurture leadership development and succession planning

A trusted source for families to collaborate with regarding their child's early experiences.
· Continue curating and developing resources for families with young children and expand resource reach.
· Expand services and engagement of families at The Homewood Early Learning Hub & Family Center.
· Develop and implement Buzzword plan to expand reach, specifically to Allegheny County Family Center families.

An experienced facilitator of inclusive learning opportunities for educators that aims to ensure every child has access to high-quality early care and education.
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A collaborative convener that coordinates and helps to connect systems to support early care and education.
In collaboration with other system partners:
· Increase access to and awareness of prenatal-to-three health, well-being, and education resources and services.
· Improve family and early learning provider understanding of and access to high-quality early intervention services.
· Develop a centralized process for maximizing access to publicly funded early learning in Allegheny County.
· Continue to cultivate collaborations that promote innovative approaches to incorporating play into education, health, and community development.

A committed advocate mobilizing for policy change alongside communities to elevate the needs of young children, families, and educators for an equitable early care and education system.
· Invest significantly in and strengthen the early care and education system.
· Elevate early childhood education as a profession.
· Focus on equitable and developmentally appropriate care and learning.
· Build connections and leverage partnerships to support health, wellness, and the community.

An accountable nonprofit that prioritizes ethics when raising funds in support of its mission and provides transparent stewardship to its donors.
· Develop a culture of philanthropy within the organization through strategic actions.
· Diversify funding through a range of solicitation activities.
· Build an ongoing cultivation process for new and existing donors.

EXPERIENCED FACILITATOR OF INCLUSIVE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Programs designed to support early childhood educators represent our most mature and longest-standing area of work. We use a professional development logic model as a framework for understanding and achieving a positive impact on the early childhood educators and professionals these programs reach.

With this, we are working with higher education partners to formalize arrangements for the provision of credit hours for these offerings. Hours accumulated through participation in our sessions could articulate into a professional certificate, credential, and/or degree in early childhood.

TRUSTED RESOURCE FOR FAMILIES

Through our programs at the Homewood-Brushton Family Support Center and the Homewood Early Learning Hub, Trying Together connects caregivers to critical information, services, and programs to help foster responsive, caring family-child interactions.

As a founding member of the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative, Trying Together also works to cultivate understanding about the importance of play at any age among families and community members.

Trying Together developed a 12-part evidence-based family resource series, with topics highlighting: access to high-quality child care, developmentally appropriate practice, and early childhood health. Resources are released online and in print and is translated in multiple languages.

COLLABORATIVE CONVENER TO CONNECT SYSTEMS

Trying Together utilizes research and data to inform our decision-making, capturing learnings from our work in neighborhoods throughout the region. These findings are then shared on a local, regional, and national level to help create and connect systems. Further, we work with our partners at the Allegheny County Department of Human Services and others to integrate and strengthen existing data systems.

COMMITTED ADVOCATE MOBILIZING FOR POLICY CHANGE

Trying Together advocates with our partners to educate policymakers and to promote policies that benefit children, families, and early care and education professionals. With the development of a five year Public Policy Agenda, we have established our position on doing what’s best for children.

As a founding partner of Early Learning PA (ELPA) and other statewide campaigns, Trying Together regularly connects the provider community to policy-makers through our committee work in the areas of home visiting, child care, pre-k, and early intervention. Our campaigns are built from public participation in advocacy efforts, sending regular action alerts to inform stakeholders and the public about local and statewide needs and opportunities.

EXPERIENCED FACILITATOR OF INCLUSIVE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
• Between 2020-2022, 144 professional development events were attended by 3,629 participants
• From 2020-2022, families received 39,840 messages from their children through the Message from Me Caregivers app where families could access messages from their children during their day helping to bridge the relationship between school and home.
• Nine community-based Child Development Associate (CDA) cohorts were conducted, serving 203 early learning professionals, with 12 pursuing a higher education degree

TRUSTED RESOURCE FOR FAMILIES

• The Hi5! Transition to Kindergarten campaign is a collaboration of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, Trying Together, and United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania to engage all 43 public school districts in Allegheny County, around best practices for Kindergarten transition. As a result of the campaign, 41 Allegheny County school districts reported an all-time high for on-time registration at 97% for the 2022-2023 school year.

• Curated a list of and promoted anti-racism resources for families and child care providers. To date, the page has been viewed 40,572 times and is consistently one of the top-performing pages on the website each month.

• Trying Together developed “Developmentally Appropriate Parenting,” an evidence-based family resource content series that features 12 early childhood topics. These resources are being developed to empower caregivers to establish these high-quality conditions at the earliest stages of their child’s life.

• Developed the Allegheny County Family Resource Map for ELRC Region 5 in 2020.

COMMITTED ADVOCATE MOBILIZING FOR POLICY CHANGE

• As a member of Early Learning PA, Trying Together sits on the committees for three statewide policy campaigns including: Pre-K For PA (pre-kindergarten); Start Strong PA (child care); and Childhood Begins At Home (home visiting). Trying Together works with several statewide partners to engage parents, educators, legislators and other community members to advocate for high-quality early learning experiences.