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Businesses merge all the time. Nonprofit mergers rarely occur, but of joining forces. Because both parties are driven by passion, not profit, these arrangements can be less like business agreements and more like marriages.

The merger of Start Early and the Early Learning Lab is, to quote Shakespeare, 鈥渁 marriage of true minds鈥�. They come from different parts of the country, and there鈥檚 a significant age difference, but they have real chemistry together, and as of April 13, they made their commitment official. Start Early鈥檚 chief learning officer Rebecca Berlin compares it to fitting puzzle pieces together. 鈥淲e鈥檙e better together than apart.鈥�

Start Early鈥檚 Thriving Continuum

For nearly 40 years, Chicago-based Start Early (formerly known as the Ounce of Prevention) has offered doula, home visiting, Early Head Start and Head Start programs鈥攖he total early childhood continuum. 鈥淥ne type of support leads into the next,鈥� says Berlin.

Over the years, Start Early has added research, policy and advocacy to its repertoire, enriching the support it provides to professionals, families and communities. Its online network fosters new ways of working collaboratively, advances knowledge sharing and builds aggregate evidence to tell a powerful story of progress and impact.

Start Early is also the 鈥渂ackbone鈥� of the national that comprises 25 birth through age 5 schools that help vulnerable children enter kindergarten ready to learn.

Last year, Start Early applied to administer one of four national centers of the . The application included a sophisticated new way of heeding family and community voices, and Berlin and her colleagues sought out the expertise of a West Coast startup that had been breaking new ground in this approach.

The Early Learning Lab: Building Together

When the David and Lucile Packard Foundation launched the Early Learning Lab in 2015, the goal was to apply human-centered design principles to the urgent mission of building young brains. Founding executive director Catherine Atkin recruited Sheetal Singh, a veteran of several technology startups, to lead the Lab鈥檚 technology- and innovation-focused work. In 2018, Singh became the Lab鈥檚 executive director, while Catherine remained on as a senior advisor.

Singh had experience with Great Schools, a service known for its ratings, which also offers content for families, but she came to the job without definite opinions on early childhood education. A 12-month listening tour exposed her to the challenges and complexities of the field, but also to the wealth of talent. 鈥淭he early childhood sector floors me,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here are so many smart, dedicated people, but there is also dissatisfaction with the way things are.鈥�

One of the most crucial insights of the Early Learning Lab has been the importance of including parents in program design. Singh explains, 鈥淚t goes beyond hosting a focus group and writing down the answers to your questions. You鈥檙e actually building programs and services together.鈥� This shift in orientation gave rise to:

• The Reflectable tool, which allows teachers, caregivers and families to record what is working well, areas for improvement and what to try next. Formerly known as QuickCheck, it was co-designed with teachers in San Jose, California.
• The Parent Innovation Institute, which set out to build human-centered design capacity in early childhood organizations in Oakland, California.聽According to Singh, the Parent Innovation Institute improves programs and services to better meet parents鈥� and families鈥� needs, develops parent and staff leadership and innovation capacity and strengthens connections between parent-serving organizations. A video about the process demonstrates the importance of uplifting parent and caregiver voice to truly meet the needs of families in the community.

The Next Steps

Berlin and Singh say the potential for the merger is still coming into focus. 鈥淲here do you start?鈥� Berlin asks. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do everything immediately.鈥� Initially, joint projects will include ensuring products and content developed within the meet the needs of parents and educators within the Head Start system. It will also merge Early Learning Lab鈥檚 human-centered design approach with Start Early鈥檚 consulting work to strengthen the human capacity and infrastructure that states and communities need to build strong and equitable systems.

For Berlin, the answer for what comes next lies in finding out the answers to the question, 鈥淲hat do our end users want?鈥� Singh adds, 鈥淐OVID has shown us how adaptable and resilient our communities are. The world is not static.鈥�

Start Early and the Early Learning Lab鈥攖heir differences complement each other, resulting in a marriage that鈥檚 stronger than the sum of its parts.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.