{"id":7193,"date":"2026-01-27T15:45:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T00:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/blog\/investing-in-early-educators-advocacy-outcomes-and-the-path-forward"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T23:26:10","slug":"investing-in-early-educators-advocacy-outcomes-and-the-path-forward","status":"publish","type":"seed-blog","link":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/blog\/investing-in-early-educators-advocacy-outcomes-and-the-path-forward","title":{"rendered":"Investing in Early Educators: Advocacy Outcomes and the Path Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This year marked the second annual advocacy survey conducted by <strong>thread<\/strong> to gather feedback and help guide our legislative priorities. We saw a record number of responses, along with encouraging improvements in how informed our community feels about state advocacy efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Looking Back at 2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past year, investment in child care and engagement in thread\u2019s advocacy program both reached new highs. Our goal remains to empower early childhood professionals, families, and community members with the skills and knowledge needed to effectively advocate for children and for a strong child care system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Highlights that demonstrate the impact of engagement over the past year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>150+ Alaskans participated in advocacy trainings.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>More than 3,300 emails and calls were made to Alaska legislators.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Over 800 advocates raised their voices.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Most importantly, together we helped restore critical child care funding in the state budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These successes would not have been possible without the leadership of our legislative champions and the continued engagement of advocates across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the support of <strong>thread<\/strong>\u2019s board of directors and leadership, <strong>thread<\/strong> launched a new initiative, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/thread-blog\/new-opportunity-for-alaska-parents-join-threads-6-month-advocacy-project\/\">Parents for Care<\/a><\/em>. This project brings together more than 80 parents from across Alaska who are volunteering to strengthen child care through storytelling and advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Advocacy Survey Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you to everyone who completed this year\u2019s advocacy survey. Your input directly informs our work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations to Traci from Juneau, the winner of the $100 Amazon gift card drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Snapshot survey results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>660 total responses<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>288 early educators<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>134 parents<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>129 administrators<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>35 community members<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>31 business owners<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-e67e02ae wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Policy-Survey-Graph-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-47166\" width=\"1000\" height=\"714\" title=\"Policy-Survey-Graph-1\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>350 respondents indicated interest in advocating or volunteering<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>90%+ strongly support quality initiatives<\/strong>,<strong> including the ROOTs award<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>59% feel informed about advocacy efforts<\/strong>, <strong>a 10% increase from last year<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Confidence in child care improvement:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>33% very confident<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>53% somewhat confident<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-image uagb-block-dcc97b68 wp-block-uagb-image--layout-default wp-block-uagb-image--effect-static wp-block-uagb-image--align-none\"><figure class=\"wp-block-uagb-image__figure\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Policy-Survey-Graph-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"uag-image-47167\" width=\"1000\" height=\"714\" title=\"Policy-Survey-Graph-2\" loading=\"lazy\" role=\"img\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Top barriers to taking action:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lack of time (39%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lack of information (18%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New Year, New Legislative Priority<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on feedback from survey participants, stakeholders, and <strong>thread<\/strong>\u2019s board, we have identified a single legislative priority for the upcoming session. Stay tuned next week for the announcement and information on how you can help move this critical improvement forward for our child care system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7194,"template":"","blog_tags":[],"news_categories":[],"class_list":["post-7193","seed-blog","type-seed-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823.png",1080,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-768x768.png",768,768,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-1024x1024.png",1024,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823.png",1080,1080,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823.png",1080,1080,false],"gb-block-post-grid-landscape":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-600x400.png",600,400,true],"gb-block-post-grid-square":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-600x600.png",600,600,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/01\/FY26-Social-Posts-2026-01-27T154427.823-125x125.png",125,125,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"msiadmin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/author"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This year marked the second annual advocacy survey conducted by thread to gather feedback and help guide our legislative priorities. We saw a record number of responses, along with encouraging improvements in how informed our community feels about state advocacy efforts. Looking Back at 2025 In the past year, investment in child care and engagement...&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seed-blog\/7193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/seed-blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/seed-blog"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tags?post=7193"},{"taxonomy":"news_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threadalaska.org\/seed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_categories?post=7193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}