NHChILD A Farewell · To our partners, funders, and friends
A Heartfelt Farewell
Thank you forwalking with us
on this stretch of the road.
During our time, the New Haven Children’s Ideal Learning District worked alongside this community toward a city where every child ages 0–8 could reach high-quality early learning. The work continues in other hands now. What follows is a record of what we built together, and our gratitude.
What we believed
That every child — regardless of income, race, or ZIP code — deserved early learning that was developmentally meaningful, play-based, and culturally responsive. We still believe it.
A Note from the Board Chair
For the last three years, we’ve been grappling with the reality of the status of this great organization and how to engage with our community in a way that honors our partnerships while operating with transparency. Today, we’re able to announce on bittersweet terms that NH ChILD has reached its close.
Alongside that announcement, I’m expressing my deepest gratitude to the great work of this organization and some reflections.
When I think about NH ChILD, what stays with me isn’t the structure we built but the belief behind it — that every child in New Haven deserves access to high-quality early learning, and that the systems around them can be reimagined to make that real.
In the end, I’m proud of what we did. We got educators, families, coaches, and community leaders in the same room, all of us leaning toward the same children. We opened doors into training and leadership for educators — especially women of color — who’d been kept waiting outside those doors far too long. We built trust across this city, person-by-person.
I am wholly and deeply grateful. To the educators and families who trusted us with something precious. To the board and advisory members, partners, and funders who gave their time, their investment, and their care. To everyone who showed up believing change was possible. What mattered here was never the grant or the program. It was you.
This is the part I hold closest: the organization may be closed, but the people who carried the work have not gone anywhere. We’re distributed across New Haven — in classrooms, in community rooms, policy rooms, and board rooms — in the everyday places where families and children are loved and thought of. The names and faces that made this work and organization real are still here, still doing the work in a thousand quiet ways.
While NH ChILD has concluded its operations, its core ideas and aspirations continue to advance through public and private partnerships.
With love and gratitude,
Kia Levey-Burden, Chair
Sherri Killins Stewart, Vice Chair
Rachel Gilroy, Treasurer
Steven J. Hoffler, Secretary
Todd Murphy, General Member:
Our time in review.
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2019
Inaugural governing body and board members invited to serve.
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December 2020
The Professional Learning Communities began
In the middle of COVID-19, we convened New Haven's early childhood educators on Zoom to build a common vision of Ideal Learning.
Led by Wendy Waithe Simmons, Ph.D. and Donna DaCosta of Cold Spring School, the PLC Project set out to:- Build a community of collaboration and collective inquiry
- Introduce the nine Principles of Ideal Learning
- Help educators develop personal goals and Bridge-to-Practice plans
- Extend monthly through April 2021 with role-alike breakouts
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February 2021
ECRN Phase 1 was contracted with Eliptichain
We signed a development contract to build the Common Application and the Early Childhood Educator Connection — the first pieces of a citywide access tool.
The design grew out of direct listening sessions with families, providers, and educators, and was shaped by a subcommittee of the New Haven Early Childhood Council representing School Readiness, Care 4 Kids, Head Start, Early Head Start, CDC, DCF, and private-tuition providers. -
Summer & Fall 2021
The first SEED CDA cohort graduated
In partnership with Gateway Community College, we delivered a two-course CDA intensive grounded in Ideal Learning and anti-bias education.
The Supporting Equitable Educator Development project drew 44 applicants, enrolled 21, and graduated 11 educators across both courses — the first rung of the ECE career ladder, designed for women of color living at or near the poverty line.- Instructor of Record: Michelle DellaCamara (GCC adjunct)
- 57% of Cohort 1 identified as African American/Black
- $500 in book and transportation stipends per student per course
- Curriculum that remains usable in future GCC courses
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Winter 2022
The Access briefing was published
We released the Access briefing — a blueprint for a common application, a family assistance portal, and a connection network for families with young children.
The plan laid out a three-phase rollout, a four-year budget of $830,500, and an annual operating cost of $108,750 once fully operational — funded through a mix of foundation grants and public partnerships. -
2021 – 2024
We shared what we learned
We presented at the NAEYC National Conference, the Rocky Mountain Early Childhood Conference, and the 2022 Early Childhood Workforce Convening.
As a member of the Educare SEED Advisory Committee, NH ChILD shared the two-course CDA model with peers across the country — a contribution to a larger movement to diversify the ECE workforce through credential pathways rooted in racial equity.
Thank you.
For your trust, your funding, your time, and your belief that this work mattered.
To our founding Executive Director, Board Members and advisory board, we’re deeply appreciative of your service to this work.
To the educators who came to Zoom sessions after long shifts; To the eleven SEED graduates who finished what they started; To Bank Street, to Trust for Learning, to Elm City Communities, to Gateway Community College, to the New Haven Early Childhood Council, to the families who told us what they needed, and to every funder and partner who showed up — thank you.
The work requires more than a single organization. It lives now in the people we did it alongside.