ReadyNation convened in New York City last week for the Global Business Summit on Early Childhood, attracting hundreds of business leaders from across the US and representatives from over 50 countries, all with the common goal of coming together to better understand how businesses could help advance care for children from birth to age five. Vermont sent a delegation of five business professionals, led by Emily Blistein, Director of Business Strategy for Let’s Grow Kids. The Vermont delegation spent time learning about how businesses could play a role in making early childhood education and care more accessible for their employees and how to work to influence their legislators on this issue.
Members of the Vermont delegation include:
• Emily Blistein, Let’s Grow Kids
• Gina Kelley, VELCO
• Mary Evslin, former energy and technology business leader
• Newell Lessell, Chroma Technology
• Nicole Junas Ravlin, People Making Good PR
"The Summit was an amazing opportunity to bring our goal of high-quality early care to the national stage, and position Vermont's business leaders as champions for the cause," explains Emily Blistein. "Investing in our youngest children allows parents to enter the workforce today while leveling the skills gap for all Vermont children as they grow. This is a crucial foundation for a ensuring a vibrant future for Vermont.”
Throughout the sessions, parallels were drawn to the importance of early childhood education in building a future workforce, reducing strains on the criminal justice system, and retention of workforce. For states and countries that that are actively working towards implementation of a policy around early childhood education, speaker after speaker reiterated the need for public and private sectors coming together, and the importance of legislative action on the state-level.
For more information or to get involved, visit letsgrowkids.org.
About Let’s Grow Kids
Let’s Grow Kids is a statewide public awareness and advocacy campaign with a mission of ensuring all Vermont families have affordable access to high-quality child care by 2025. Let’s Grow Kids is an initiative of the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children and sister organization of Vermont Birth to Five. Learn more at www.letsgrowkids.org.
Photo: Pictured left to right: Nicole Junas Ravlin of People Making Good PR, Gina Kelly of VELCO, Mary Evslin former energy and technology business leader, Emily Blistein of Let’s Grow Kids, and Newell Lessell of Chroma Technology.