Coalition Focus
Areas Served
Boston, MA
Located in
Website
https://thebasicsboston.orgContact Us
Keyla Kelley
[email protected]
Additional Information
The Basics Boston Alliance
The Basics Boston Alliance (BBA) is a dynamic coalition dedicated to promoting early childhood development and reducing the achievement gap through community collaboration and engagement. Our overarching mission is to bolster brain development for social, emotional, and cognitive skill-building among children from birth to age 5. We believe that by laying a sturdy foundation for school readiness, we can positively impact entire communities. BBA exemplifies the importance of involving community stakeholders in public health initiatives. This alliance supports commitment to community engagement as outlined in national public health accreditation standards. Our vision is a Boston where children of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are on track to achieve their full potential, having benefited from early experiences with their caregivers and community that foster development, learning, and joy.
Coalition Engagement Principles
The Basics is a community-level public health strategy, working within and across organizations to embed The Basics Principles–five evidence based practices for promoting early childhood development–into routine family engagement efforts. BBA operates on the principle that community trusted messengers are an effective way to amplify resources, outcomes, and power for public health and reducing health disparities. By fostering collaboration among various stakeholders, BBA enhances the capacity to address early childhood development challenges and promotes equity.
Guidelines for Coalition Structure
The Basics Boston Alliance adheres to the following minimum requirements to ensure a robust and effective coalition:
1. Statement of Purpose and Shared Activities: BBA is united by a clear mission to embed science-based early caregiving practices into everyday interactions with young children through a community-level public health approach.
2. Shared Vision: The Basics Vision is a Boston where infants, toddlers, and preschoolers of all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds are on track to achieve their full potential–having benefited from early experiences that foster healthy brain development, learning, and resilience.
3. Participation from Key Stakeholders: BBA includes individuals and organizations with a vested interest in improving early childhood development outcomes, ensuring diverse and representative membership.
4. Effective Utilization of Data: Data-driven decision-making informs BBA’s goal selection, implementation, and evaluation processes.
5. Defined Leadership: The coalition is led by The Basics' Founder and President, Ron. Ron provides active thought leadership for the Basics Learning Network. He is an MIT-trained economist who has taught at Harvard Kennedy School since 1983, including 15 years as faculty director of the Achievement Gap Initiative. His research, writing, and consulting focus on issues of education and economic development., ensuring clear guidance and accountability.
6. Reflective Membership: BBA’s membership mirrors the community it serves, embracing diversity in racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds.
In a Basics Community:
– The Basics Principles become daily routines for all types of families.
– Brain development begins at a child’s birth, with health, childcare, family support, and housing providers making new parents aware of The Basics Principles and connecting them to supportive resources.
– Socio-ecological saturation ensures parents encounter The Basics at work, libraries, faith-based organizations, friends’ homes, medical offices, and more.
– Easily accessible multilingual resources are available in community settings and online, including toolkits with videos, tip sheets, and other forms of information sharing.
– Parents receive ongoing support through Basics Insights messaging, delivering science-based facts and brain-building activity ideas to their phones starting at the child’s birth.
– Social reinforcement amplifies impact, with trusted messengers and local service organizations directing people to learning experiences and resources.
The Basics Principles
The Basics Principles are grounded in scientific rigor and encompass key domains of early childhood development. They are designed to be simple yet impactful, making them easily memorable and applicable for regular use:
Maximize Love, Manage Stress: Warm and responsive parenting sets the stage for healthy social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Talk, Sing, and Point: Engaging in activities such as talking, singing, and pointing supports oral language development, laying the groundwork for future reading abilities.
Count, Group, and Compare: Everyday activities centered around numbers and categories promote early math and reasoning skills.
Explore through Movement and Play: Encouraging movement and play not only builds strong bodies but also fosters active imaginations.
Read and Discuss Stories: Interactive book reading from infancy onwards is associated with enhanced cognitive and language development.
How Your Organization Can Get Involved
We believe that your organization can play a pivotal role in expanding The Basics movement within our community. By joining us, you can help ensure that parents and caregivers receive the information, support, and reinforcement they need to foster vibrant, thriving relationships with their children.
Here are a few ways your organization can get involved:
– Promote The Basics Principles: Share information about The Basics with your families. In a Basics Community, there are easily accessible resources in community settings and online toolkits for parents as well as for providers. The toolkits include information about The Basics Principles and associated caregiving practices in videos, on downloadable tip sheets, and in a range of other forms. Additional modes of information sharing include social media, public broadcasting, and print publications.
– Register Families for The Basics Insights Text Messages: Parents, grandparents, and other caregivers enroll to receive up to five years of science-based facts and brain-building activity ideas delivered twice-weekly to their smartphones starting at the child’s birth. The messages are nudges—important reminders—to apply The Principles routinely.
– Engage Your Network: Encourage your staff, volunteers, and partners to become Basics advocates, spreading the word and directing families to resources. Social reinforcement leverages the other gears and amplifies their impact. Trusted messengers in local service organizations, family members, friends, and even strangers direct people to learning experiences in Basics workshops and events, point them to online resources, and strike up conversations about The Basics Principles or the text messages or other topics related to early childhood thriving.
– Sign up for a free The Basics Training: Training for staff on The Basics Principles, our Multimedia Community Toolkit and Basics Insights text messaging program, and strengths-based family engagement practices.
– Host Workshops: Organize workshops and events to educate parents and caregivers about The Basics Principles.
Conclusion
The Basics Boston Alliance is committed to improving early childhood development through strategic community collaboration.