In this new blog series on community coalitions, we start by highlighting the recent Indiana Coalition Summit. Stay tuned for future blog posts related to community coalitions!
In 2016, Transform Consulting Group led the first Indiana Coalition Summit for Economic Development via Early Learning Coalitions at the Horizon Convention Center in Muncie. The event, held in partnership with Muncie BY5, Early Learning Indiana, and the Indiana Early Learning Advisory Committee (ELAC), was the first statewide initiative to bring together leaders from the early learning, business, education, and civic sectors to explore the business case for investing in early childhood. The Summit also provided guidance on developing and sustaining early learning coalitions in rural, suburban, and urban communities. More than 500 attendees from various sectors participated, highlighting the state’s need for early learning coalitions.
Featured Speakers
The morning of the Indiana Coalition Summit focused on building awareness about the need for early learning support, especially among non-early-learning professionals in attendance. Erin Ramsey, with
Mind in the Making,
and the Bezos Family Foundation started the day with a presentation outlining how investing in early learning shapes the workforce, linking children’s executive functioning skills to the skills employers seek (i.e., reflecting, analyzing, and evaluating). This was followed by a brief presentation on the current landscape for economic development and early learning from the state’s perspective by Kevin Bain, CEO and Executive Director of the
Welborn Baptist Foundation in Evansville and Chairman of ELAC.
Bain highlighted key findings from the latest
ELAC Annual Report, including new online county profiles
available on the ELAC website. These profiles show Indiana’s current status on critical early learning measures and outline recommended areas for improvement.
The lunch presentations opened with Jeffery Connor-Naylor from ReadyNation, who introduced a recent Indiana brief highlighting the positive impact of early social-emotional skill development on future workforce success. He emphasized the importance of employees’ ability to build and maintain relationships. Dr. Tim Bartik of the W.E. Upjohn Institute delivered the keynote, presenting the economic benefits of investing in early learning. He cited data showing that each dollar invested in early childhood programs increases the present value of state per capita earnings by $ 5 to $ 9. Dr. Bartik also noted that the costs are modest, with universal full-day pre-K for 4-year-olds costing about 4% of current K-12 education spending.
Community Coalition Workshop Sessions
Amanda Lopez, President of Transform Consulting Group, led the “Creating a Collective Vision/Plan” session, drawing on her expertise in strategic planning and coalition development. She outlined
four steps of strategic planning: 1) Collaborate, 2) Assess, 3) Facilitate Consensus, and 4) Create the Plan.
The Indiana Summit for Economic Development through Early Learning Coalitions brought together stakeholders from various sectors to support thriving communities through early learning investment. The event fostered collaboration among diverse partners and provided attendees with networking and training opportunities to develop their community coalitions.
If your organization is interested in building or joining a community coalition focused on early learning, please visit the Indiana Coalition Summit Resource Page or
contact Transform Consulting Group to learn how you can participate and support community efforts.
