Merage Foundation News

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By Vance Aloupis on 11/17/2010 @ 09:57 AM

The Children’s Movement of Florida was started to change the priorities of our state, always with the hope that our message would ultimately resonate across the nation. This would be a clear sign that Americans were beginning to understand the importance of early childhood education, and were now willing to do something about it.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of talking with two very inspiring women, Negin Ascher, principal at Crescent Ridge Strategies, and Lindsay Dolce, project manager at Early Learning Ventures. Both women traveled across the country to meet with The Children’s Movement of Florida team to learn more about the movement and how our strategies could potentially be applied in their home states -- California and Colorado. But this wasn’t the first time that people from another state had expressed interest in spreading the movement.

While on the “Milk Party” tour, we were joined "on the bus" by a small group that was looking to start The Children’s Movement of Hawaii. In late September, we were contacted by a group from Virginia asking if they could use the term “Milk Party.” And just last week I received a call from Debbie Ham, director of Support and Early Learning for Families (S.E.L.F.), to discuss the possibilities of starting a movement for children in the state of Washington.

So...in September it was Hawaii and Virginia, last week it was Washington, and yesterday it was Colorado and California…is the movement spreading? Let's hope this is just the beginning.

If you're interested in learning more about The Children's Movement of Florida please email me at vance.aloupis@childrensmovementflorida.org.

Vance Aloupis
Statewide Coordinator
The Children's Movement of Florida