Better Beginnings Podcast

BETTER
BEGINNINGS

Podcast

Struggling to find or create quality childcare & preschool programs in Colorado? You’re not alone. And there’s hope.

Better Beginnings is a podcast exploring Colorado’s changing early childhood system. Season 1 followed one family’s harrowing search for childcare in a state that has some of the most expensive childcare and preschool rates in the nation.

Season 2 will premiere in October 2023. It will explore how to navigate Colorado’s new universal pre-K system, the existential threat being faced by more than 1,000 Colorado childcare providers as a federal funding source expires on Sept. 30, 2023, and what we can all do to reimagine an early childhood system that better supports our state’s kids, working families and economy.

Season 1 is available now. This serial-style, 4-episode podcast provides tips for finding childcare and preschool options in our existing early childhood system, explores how this system got so confounding, and explains how new legislation and technology is challenging the status quo.

If Colorado can continue to innovate, it could mean dramatic improvements for kids, families and providers — and our early childhood system could become a model for the country.

STAY IN THE LOOP

Interested in getting updates on Colorado's changing early childhood system? Want more stories like this one, featuring community voices, big problems and innovative solutions to some of the biggest problems facing Colorado kids and families? Do you have a story we should tell or a voice in need of raising? Let us know using the form below.

First Name

Last Name

E-mail

Phone

Organization

Affiliation

Area of Interest

Early Childhood SystemHousingYouth Mental HealthWorkforce Development

Do you have a story we should tell or a voice we should raise? If so, briefly summarize it here

By submitting this information, you are opting-in to receive communications from Gary Community Ventures.

Contact Information

Special Thanks

Better Beginnings is produced by Gary Community Venture’s certified B Corp, known as Gary Ventures, in support of Better Beginnings Colorado. Special thanks is due to that full coalition, along with the following individuals and organizations who made this podcast possible:

Brooke and Worth Byrd
Jess Adkins
Crystal Clinger
Diane Price, Melissa Willers and Early Connections Learning Centers
Tammy Stilson, Emily Snyder and KinderCare Learning Centers
Colorado State Sen. Brittany Pettersen and Emma Howard
Dawn Odean, Maggie Wells, Lisa Relou and Jefferson County Public Schools
Holley Murphy, Susan Hagar and Clayton Early Learning
Armand Piecuch, Kaitlin McMurry, Diana Harper and CenterTable
Beza Taddess and the Colorado Children’s Campaign
Steff Clothier, Chyrise Harris, Algernon Felice Jr., Damion LeeNatali, Mike Johnston and the entire Gary Community Ventures team

Share Your Ideas

I would like to see business people try to solve social problems with the same imagination and energy they use to finance a factory or make a deal. Don’t call it philanthropy; call it corporate social investment. Make it integral to business.