PODCASTS
Better Beginnings Podcast
Struggling to find or create quality childcare & preschool programs in Colorado? You’re not alone. And there’s hope.
A CO.created project
Season 1 available now
Better Beginnings Overview
Better Beginnings is is a podcast on how families and preschool providers are navigating Colorado’s evolving early childhood system. More importantly, the show is searching for an answer to this question: How do we create a childcare and preschool system that better serves all Coloradans?
In the 2023 election season, we believe Proposition ii and Denver Question 2P can help us do just that by improving UPK and extending the Denver Preschool Program. Listen to our special Colorado Voter Guide episode to find out how.
The first season of the podcast, which is available now, is grounded in the story of the Byrd family. Their brave search for childcare in a state with some of the most expensive, hardest-to-find childcare and preschool slots in the country underscores the deep need to reimagine Colorado’s early childhood system.
Along the way, speaking with experts in the field, Season 1 provides tips for finding quality childcare and preschool options in our existing early childhood system. It also explores how this system got so confounding in the first place and a growing movement to challenge the status quo. That movement has since been featured on the hit national podcast, “No One is Coming to Save Us”.
If Colorado can continue to collaborate and innovate, it could mean dramatic improvements for kids, families and providers — and our early childhood system could become a model for the country.
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:
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- Brooke and Worth Byrd
- Jess Adkins
- Crystal Clinger
- Brittany Music
- Pam Melot and Creative Learning Preschool
- Cassie Leyva and Nicole Riehl, Colorado EPIC
- Beth Melton, Melton Solutions
- Tammy Stilson, Emily Snyder and KinderCare Learning Centers
- Diane Price, Melissa Willers and Early Connections 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
- The whole team at the Colorado Children’s Campaign
- Steff Clothier, Chyrise Harris, Algernon Felice Jr., Jill Hawley, Reilly Pharo Carter, Zach Martinez, Michelle Takara Fairbairn, Damion LeeNatali, Mike Johnston and the entire Gary Advocacy team