We are Tennessee’s Loud Voices for Little Kids
We speak up for Tennessee’s youngest children. We bring people together. People like you, to amplify our voices and work arm and arm until every child gets a strong start in life. Together, we’re creating and demanding change — through local action and by challenging state policymakers. We won’t stop until all children are getting the opportunities and support they need to thrive and power our state’s future.
Effective Solutions
We research and promote evidence-based early childhood policies and strategies. The field of early childhood care and education is chock full of research and evidence on practices that help children thrive. We stay on top of the latest research – and also do our own — and lift up promising new strategies and innovations. We also prioritize cost-effectiveness, identifying better business (and governance) models and encouraging state and local partners to optimize use of existing resources and get creative with public-private partnerships.
Legislative Change
We challenge state policymakers to prioritize young children. Tennesseans across partisan lines overwhelmingly support investments in early childhood care and education; but we don’t take that for granted. We regularly conduct public opinion surveys – of parents, early childhood providers, employers, and voters. And we engage regularly and deeply with stakeholders from all walks of life through our Bright Start Tennessee Network. Armed with the confidence that our work is aligned with the values of Tennesseans, we mobilize advocates, help educate lawmakers, and lobby vigorously for change that will ensure all our young children have the opportunities to thrive.
Community Action
We support communities to strengthen local early care and education systems. Policy is only as good as its implementation at the local level. Furthermore, early childhood care and education is place-based – powered by a community’s parents, teachers, caregivers, nonprofits, healthcare providers, local elected officials, and neighbors. Our Bright Start Tennessee Network is how we support local community action. Bright Start communities are local teams of people – organized into steering committees, action teams, working groups and the like – all working to strengthen their local early childhood care and education systems. They are doing the hard work of data-driven collective impact, coalescing around the shared mission to ensure their community’s young children get a strong start in life.
