During the 2016 election, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a non-partisan grassroots program dedicated to bringing early childhood education into today’s most powerful conversations, ran a shadow presidential campaign (Early Ed for President) with goal of challenging the presidential candidates to talk about early childhood education on a meaningful way. With parties across the aisle — including Hilary Clinton, Ivanka Trump and others — bringing early childhood into their speaking engagements along the campaign trial, NAEYC’s efforts were successful. But, the work had only just begun.
Through the momentum around the 2016 election, a massive audience was built from the ground up, with thousands of new advocates for early childhood education eager to create change. From this, America for Early Ed was born with the goal of delivering ongoing programming to educate and mobilize stakeholders involved in the legislative and electoral process around the importance of providing accessible early childhood education. Fose+McKay has served as their creative partner in this mission, providing them with research and strategy insights, branded campaign elements and ongoing content development to extend their message through digital and print platforms.
By mobilizing America For Early Ed’s mission through a chorus of powerful content — their audience has continued to grow and create lasting change. They secured the largest block grant in history in the fall of 2018, and continue to receive funding that allows for individual states to support these programs and directly provide families with free early childhood education.