Maine State Parent Ambassadors

10/13/2026

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10/06/2026

Join Us as a Volunteer at the MaineAEYC Annual Conference! 🌟

We're gearing up for the MaineAEYC Annual Conference on Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, 2026, and we need your help to make it a success!

Volunteers are at the heart of what we do. Whether you're helping with setup, supporting workshop sessions, or wrapping things up, there's a role and shift for everyone:

🛠️ Magic Makers (Setup)
🏫 Room Rangers (Workshop Helpers)
🧹 Conference Closers (Cleanup)
We are currently on the hunt for about 10 volunteers to round out our team, with an immediate need for help on Friday morning with setup!

👉 Sign up to volunteer here: https://secure.everyaction.com/JQiiTmCylk-cn6lPsV0LSQ2

10/05/2026

We are so incredibly honored to have received the 2026 Community Advocacy Award at The Maine Children’s Alliance Champions For Children Giraffe Award Celebration this weekend. It was an AMAZING event, and it is so inspiring to be in a room full of people who stick their necks out for children and families!

10/05/2026

Check out Kasey’s story! Incredible!

Kasey found a child care center where her autistic son could belong. Then she learned the program didn’t have the staff or resources to keep supporting him.

With few other options, she reduced her work hours to care for him herself.

In No Choice but to Lead, Kasey shares what experience cost her family and how it pushed her to speak up for greater inclusion and support for other families.

📍Read her story: https://bit.ly/4deH63V

📖 Part of our Parent Stories on Early Care and Education series, shared in partnership with Maine State Parent Ambassadors.

10/05/2026

Applications Are Open for the 2027 LEaP Cohort! 🌟

Ready to grow your leadership skills and help shape the future of early childhood education in Maine? MaineAEYC’s Leadership in Early Childhood Education, Advocacy, and Policy (LEaP) program is back for 2027!

LEaP is a yearlong leadership development program for early childhood professionals working with children birth–8. Through monthly sessions, participants build skills in leadership, advocacy, policy, systems change, and communication—and have opportunities to put those skills into action.

📅 January–November 2027
💻 Monthly Zoom sessions + in-person gatherings
👥 Only 10 participants will be selected

Whether you work in family child care, a center, public pre-K, Head Start, out-of-school time, or another early childhood setting, we want to hear from you!

👉 Find out more information and apply!
https://www.maineaeyc.org/leap

10/01/2026

October is Head Start Awareness Month! 💜

For 61 years, Head Start has helped children learn, families grow stronger, and communities thrive.

But Head Start is more than an early childhood education program. It is teachers who know every child by name. Parents building new opportunities for their families. Staff connecting families with the resources they need. Alumni carrying what they learned into classrooms, careers, and communities across the country.

This month, we’re uplifting what makes Head Start work: an extraordinary program, the people who make it possible, and the millions of lives that continue to carry its impact forward.

This is Head Start. Learn more: https://nhsa.org/resource/head-start-awareness-month/

09/17/2026

09/17/2026

MSPA showed up strong in DC this week 💪🏻😍 Courtnay Copeland and Raychel Ward delivered powerful real life stories at the press conference in the Capitol of how their families could potentially be impacted by the NPRM. Head Start families from all around the country came to have their voices heard and meet with their lawmakers to tell them we are not going down without a fight! We were so lucky to bring some Mini Ambassadors along to meet their elected officials and share their Head Start stories ❤️