Author Archives: GEEARS

“There are so many opportunities to lighten the load on young families, but I’m asking you to prioritize investing in TANF and consider enacting a state tax credit to help families make ends meet. I dream of a community where parents can be fully present with their families, not split in two as many of […]

By Jessica Woltjen, Senior Policy Manager for Early Education, GEEARS The eighth annual Strolling Thunder is happening on February 6th at the Georgia capitol! At this powerful day of advocacy for family-friendly policies, GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students convenes families from all over Georgia, helps them hone their messages, then provides them […]

As we prepare for Georgia’s 2025 Legislative Session, GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students is working on the policy agenda we’ll use in our advocacy. A trend is clear: Life these days is extremely expensive, and families of all income levels are struggling to afford even basic necessities. For the parents of young […]

By GEEARS On November 22nd, GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students hosted our annual luncheon. It was a dazzling day in which 200 fellow supporters of early childhood gathered at Zoo Atlanta (with an excellent view of the elephants!) to celebrate our organization’s work on behalf of Georgia families and educators. We honored […]

On Thursday, November 21st, GEEARS will host our annual luncheon and our headliner is super exciting: Former Falcons quarterback and children’s advocate, Matt Ryan. Here are three reasons you should snag your ticket today!   Beyond all these enticements, purchasing a ticket or table supports GEEARS’ work to ensure that every child in Georgia has the […]

Everyone goes to the voting booth with their own list of priorities. In our polling, we at GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students have found that an overwhelming number of Georgia voters care deeply about early childhood issues and choose their candidates with those issues in mind.  Voters may wonder if and how […]

By GEEARS Have you ever heard someone say, “Why take your toddler on vacation when they won’t remember it?”    Given the cost of a lot of adventures, it’s a fair question. But we have a great answer, which also applies to more accessible outings like a sports game, a birthday party, or our favorite, […]

Last year, GEEARS launched the Annual Early Childhood Checkup, a quick, digestible reference to help policymakers, community leaders, and others measure statewide progress on key early childhood indicators. The Checkup considers three broad categories that touch upon a young child’s life: Early Learning, Health, and Family Supports. And since no little ones exist outside of […]

The Georgia Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Child Care has been staffed! The bipartisan septet of legislators chaired by Senator Brian Strickland includes several parents of young children and will spend the rest of 2024 delving into our state’s challenging child care landscape.  But wait a minute, GEEARS, we can hear you thinking. […]

Summer child care can be daunting What’s the most challenging part of being a working parent or caregiver? Many will tell you—child care! Finding high-quality, accessible care, snagging a spot in that program, and paying for it—parents have told GEEARS that such tasks can pervade their parenting and their careers. Sometimes child care even changes […]

The Mayor’s Summer Reading Club—the beloved GEEARS initiative that fosters early literacy with partner-led programming and free, original books—is entering its 12th season!  The central goal of the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club is to create an environment in the City of Atlanta which supports brain development, early literacy, and learning by encouraging family engagement throughout […]

In the wee hours of Friday, March 29th, GEEARS’ Executive Director Mindy Binderman emailed the GEEARS board and staff. The subject line: “We DID it!!!!!”  What did Mindy mean with this jubilant message? That the dogged advocacy of the GEEARS staff, along with that of our partners, resulted in some major 11th-hour wins for Georgia’s […]

By GEEARS It was almost one pm on February 22nd and GEEARS’ seventh annual Strolling Thunder at the Georgia Freight Depot was trickling to its end. The trash bins were full of chocolate milk cartons, spent Bingo cards, and crumpled maps of the Georgia Capitol. The babies and young children who’d come to help their […]

Recently, Stormey Cone, the Family Engagement and Community Outreach Specialist at Georgia Mobile Audiology, got a call from a mother who could not, no matter what she did, get her baby daughter’s hearing aid in.  So, Cone did what she always does. She drove to the home of a family who were simultaneously navigating the […]

By GEEARS In November, GEEARS commissioned a poll of 400 Georgia parents with children ages birth to five. The results were striking. In the last year, according to our pollster, Hart Research Associates, eight in 10 of our respondents reported “having had difficulty affording at least one key necessity for their family, including food (which […]

On Friday, December 1st, the Child Care Advocacy Task Force of the Georgia Infant-Toddler Coalition gathered 35 impassioned early childhood advocates from all over the state. (When you watch seven Savannahians spill out of a single van after a wee-hours departure, you know they’re committed!) In a most-of-the-day meeting, these Coalition members connected, strategized for […]

This year, GEEARS’ Annual Luncheon happens, appropriately enough, on Giving Tuesday, November 28th, at the Whitley Hotel. While the event is a fundraiser for us, we like to think the giving goes both ways! Three Reasons to Buy Your Annual Luncheon Tickets Today This mid-day soiree is famously fun. There’ll be, of course, a delicious […]

By GEEARS Last month, GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students and partner Quality Care for Children co-hosted over 50 early childhood professionals—almost all of them teachers—for a Human-Centered Design Workshop.  GEEARS invited early childhood educators from across Georgia to the workshop, asking participants to give up an entire, precious Saturday. For some, it […]

At a six p.m. soiree on September 5th,  Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens spoke to about 50 local leaders sipping post-work cocktails and feeling festive.  “As you know,” Mayor Dickens said to the group, “I issued an historic challenge to Atlantans last year. I urged our private foundations, business leaders, and philanthropists—in other words, you—to make […]

August is back to school month for us Georgians. It’s also National Immunization Awareness Month. Most pediatricians would tell you that this is an optimal pairing; that parents should plan for their kids’ vaccinations as intentionally as they stock up on shiny new sneakers and fresh crayon boxes.  “In order for children to be ready […]