For the Love of Children: Highlighting Our Journey at the Long Beach ECE Symposium 

At this year’s Long Beach Early Childhood Education (ECE) Symposium, themed "For the Love of Children,” the Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach attended with the aim of presenting our vision for what early education can be in the City of Long Beach and to connect with the over 400 educators and administrators who were in attendance, sharing with them that vision.

-

This year, the ECE symposium aimed to increase awareness of the community-wide capacity to support the safe and healthy development of children, as well as speaking on enhancing access to high-quality early care and education. The ECE Symposium is an annual professional development event in collaboration with the Long Beach Unified School District, the City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, and the Mayor’s Fund for Long Beach; which this year was proudly sponsored by the Port of Long Beach.

The event was structured to provide early education professionals with sessions meant to help enable the learning and application of best practices within their educational environments. Workshops covered a range of crucial topics, including school readiness, early intervention, and the importance of social-emotional learning, among others. Unique to this year, participants had the ability to choose their workshops on the day of the event. Alongside this , the inclusion of sessions presented in Spanish, underscored the event's commitment to inclusivity and accessibility.

-

Our Contributions to the Symposium's Dialogue: A member of our team, Whitney Leathers, was invited to speak at the symposium. At the heart of our presentation was the pioneering initiative that is the Long Beach Early Learning Hub, an initiative designed to streamline access to comprehensive early care and learning resources for families within the Long Beach community. Throughout our presentation, we delved into the Hub's multifaceted role in connecting families with high-quality childcare providers, engaging learning materials, and crucial community services.

Resource Table: Additionally, we hosted a resource and information table at the Symposium. Sponsored by the Port of Long Beach, we offered a wealth of information about the Early Learning Hub and other initiatives the Mayor’s Fund supports. Our table served as a central point for symposium attendees to learn more about the resources available at the Hub and how they can support providers, business, as well as children and families.

-

We are incredibly grateful to have been sponsored by the Port of Long Beach to participate in this year’s ECE Symposium! With the sponsorship from the Port of Long Beach, we were able to not only attend, but to speak and showcase the pioneering initiative that is the Long Beach Early Learning Hub! Our involvement shows the dedication our city has in fostering a thriving local economy through accessible educational pathways and amplifying the efforts of local education stakeholders and we are thrilled for the support we had from the Port of Long Beach and the ECE Symposium!