Strengthening prenatal-to-age 3 priorities — from home visiting programs to child care services and beyond — is critical to helping lay a solid foundation for children’s growth and success. The 600 Illinois participants in ReadyNation, Fight Crime and Mission: Readiness efforts are proud to play a substantial role in this work, focusing greater attention on the value of such policy aims as those represented in the Raising Illinois agenda. Families’ many unmet and well-documented needs, combined with growing awareness of the strains on our state’s early childhood system, underscore the significance of this work.

Prior to his two decades of work in early childhood policy and advocacy, Sean was a daily newspaper reporter in several areas of Illinois. It was while covering the education beat that he became convinced of the importance of early care and education efforts, given a growing wealth of research on the matter. We are grateful to Sean’s resounding and unmatched commitment to Illinois’ families.