Our Story

When Judy Jablon founded Leading for Children in 2016, her 35 years in the field of early learning led her to a central realization: We will only have equity and excellence for children when early learning systems prioritize equity for the adults working within them.

Many early learning professionals enter the sector with a genuine desire to make a difference in children’s lives, yet too often strict hierarchies, limited knowledge sharing between groups, and feelings of being told what to do dominate their days and deplete motivation.

Leading for Children works to reverse this trend and to bring equity into systems struggling to create cultures of shared learning and collaborative decision making. At Leading for Children, we bring all of the adults across the early learning ecosystem—teachers, parents, coaches, agency directors, receptionists, cooks, bus drivers, and everyone else who contributes to children’s success as young learners. We provide innovative mutual learning opportunities for these adults so that they can establish pathways to program quality and develop their capacity as leaders for children.

We’re redefining leadership and changing narratives about early learning. We believe that everyone who touches the lives of young children is a leader and must own their role as a leader for children.

Our vision is to ensure that children birth to five are successful, now and in the future.

Our mission is to ensure equity and excellence for all children by supporting transformational relationships among all the adults in a child’s ecosystem. Together, we build Learning Networks to cultivate leadership skills and model the attitudes and behaviors that we want children to develop. We co-create equitable program climates, deepen learning experiences, and foster safe emotional and physical spaces for adults and children.

We advance our vision and mission by applying three core tenets:

Wisdom
LFC understands that each adult in the early childhood ecosystem has a body of knowledge and experience that can inform program quality improvements. We build on adults’ wisdom, supporting them to develop trust, shared purpose, commitment, and a shared foundation for learning.

Team
LFC forges strong teams, built on respect and a commitment to equity, through which members develop relationships, communication, and true partnership to ensure that continuous quality improvement becomes a sustainable, lasting endeavor.

Modeling
LFC supports adults to model behaviors that support children’s brain development and learning. By guiding them through effective learning experiences that prioritize healthy relationships and interactions and safe and nurturing environments, LFC prepares adults to model leadership and equity for the children in their lives.