Support for Smart Start – Louise Stoney
Over the past 20 years the vision and leadership provided by Smart Start has been invaluable to early care and education policy makers and practitioners across the United States. Long before any of us fully understood the power of community, you not only challenged us to think outside the box but showed us how it could be done. When most folks were busy crafting ECE initiatives with siloed funding, the Smart Start team was focused on whole-system reform, crafting finance portfolios that tapped multiple funding streams, accountability measures that raised the floor for all programs, evaluation systems that looked beyond a single classroom. When many thought that community outreach was about messaging, you showed the country what it meant to authentically engage communities in policy, finance and implementation. Nearly every state in the nation has benefitted from your wisdom and thoughtful support. As a national early care and education leader I have learned much from your work and continue to look to the Smart Start team for inspiration and guidance. May we all benefit from twenty more years of Smart Start wisdom!
Sincerely,
Louise Stoney,
Co-Founder, Alliance for Early Childhood Finance
