ECE is a powerful tool for families, allowing parents to work while setting their children up for success. But it's also a powerful driver for our economy and a cornerstone of a thriving community. During the 2026 Week of the Young Child (April 11-17), we shined a light on the important role ECE plays in building a brighter future for our city.

For the first time in years, child care took center stage in the state budget, with over $330 million in new funding to support Wisconsin’s ECE sector. This investment didn’t happen by chance – it’s a testament to the power of community voice.

On October 11, we kicked off the first session of our Caring for Caregivers series, designed to support early childhood educators facing unprecedented stress and burnout. The session focused on helping educators refill their cups, restore balance and rediscover the power of self-compassion.

On September 20, 2025, we took a bold new step in supporting early educators with our first-ever Cultivating Strength conference. Presented alongside Daniel Educational Services, this fully bilingual event combined learning and wellness activities to create an experience that truly nurtured educators’ bodies, minds and spirits.

Milwaukee lit up with joy, advocacy and community connection as part of the 2025 Week of the Young Child. Across the city, families, early educators and child care champions came together to celebrate the vital role of ECE.

As Child Care Counts approaches its expiration, we’ve surveyed 650+ providers to explore the impact these federal funds have had and the potential crisis in store when this support runs out.

In 2025, Milwaukee Succeeds launched a unique series of letter-writing sessions, uniting early educators, child care providers and community members in a powerful push for sustained state funding for early childhood education.

Milwaukee Succeeds and the ECE Coalition sought to understand the barriers preventing families from participating in the state’s child care subsidy program, Wisconsin Shares. Their comprehensive survey has provided crucial insights.

In honor of Week of the Young Child 2024, ECE advocates, educators and families joined together to shine a spotlight on the importance of high-quality ECE. The event featured a proclamation, a kiddie-sized parade and a message from Sec. Amundson.

In October 2023, Notre Dame’s early learning center became the first program to receive accreditation through the Accreditation Facilitation Project. The project was developed by 4C for Children and Milwaukee Succeeds, with funding from GMF.

By developing a mental health curriculum specifically for Milwaukee’s Spanish-speaking community, three ECE Coalition members prioritized the unique needs and experiences of this often-overlooked population.

The Latino Entrepreneurial Network and the MKE ECE Coalition received a Dream Up! grant to support Spanish-speaking family child care programs in the Proveedoras Unidas network.

The Early Childhood Workforce Stipend Program was officially launched on November 30. This investment represents an exciting win for the Coalition, which successfully advocated for the ARPA funding last year.

The ECE Coalition and its partners raised funds to facilitate hundreds of mental health regulation trainings - first for early educators and later for families of young children.

The ECE Workforce Project, developed by the Milwaukee Succeeds-led ECE Coalition and its partners, was awarded a $5M Workforce Innovation Grant in July.

In order to understand what impact Child Care Counts funds have had, the ECE Coalition administered a survey to all Milwaukee providers, creating a detailed report of their findings.

We raised $1.2 million in local and national philanthropic dollars to provide COVID-19 stabilization grants to child care providers in predominantly Black and Brown communities.

We advocated to the state legislature to invest in child care in the state budget.

We developed concrete recommendations for how the City of Milwaukee can utilize American Rescue Plan funds to support the ECE workforce.

We advocated to the Common Council in July in support of our American Rescue Plan recommendations.

We’re providing free training and resources on stress response and regulation to Milwaukee’s early educators.

In October 2021, the Common Council approved our $7 million proposal to invest ARPA funds into Milwaukee’s ECE sector.