Research-powered answers to community-driven questions

EC*REACH partners across Chicago to produce relevant and rigorous early childhood research with our community.

We connect people in Chicago’s early childhood ecosystem to identify pressing questions and organize them into a citywide early childhood research agenda.

We spark and support collaborations among diverse partners to share insights, engage in actionable research, and build a stronger early childhood ecosystem in Chicago.

Reaching toward a stronger early childhood system in Chicago. Together.

We know that like a box of mixed-up puzzle pieces, great ideas, practices, data, and research capacity are often disconnected across early childhood spaces.

As parents and caregivers, researchers, early educators, service providers, and policymakers, we also know how important it is to share our insights and questions. We have seen what is possible when we partner to use community expertise and the tools of research to put the puzzle together.

EC*REACH gathers partners at the table so we can see the full puzzle—and build a clear picture of our collective opportunity. Together, we can transform the early childhood experiences of children and families in Chicago.

A shared set of questions and goals

We believe that research should be equitable, usable, actionable, and inclusive, so we designed the agenda-setting process with these values as our foundation. We have assembled a group of researchers, families, city and community leaders, and providers from across the city to identify our city’s most pressing early childhood questions and provide guidance on how to go about answering them.

How we work

EC*REACH is dedicated to bringing together the tools of research and community expertise
to address systems-level challenges. There are three core pillars of our work:

Conduct and support relevant and rigorous research


Harness data for research

 

Convene and connect our community




Get involved with EC*REACH

Let’s transform the early childhood landscape in Chicago together.

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Our Projects.

Check out our latest work. Then get in touch to share your ideas or collaborate on our next project.

EC*REACH partners

EC*REACH partners are researchers, families, city and community leaders, and providers who:

Connect across sectors, agencies, and institutions in Chicago’s early childhood ecosystem. ​​

Engage in robust research-practice partnership, reducing barriers to discovering and sharing information, insights, and evidence. ​​‍

Share research findings as timely and accessible resources.

Apply new insights to create better and more equitable experiences and outcomes for Chicago’s children and families.​

We are currently engaged in active collaborations with many organizations, including:

Birth to Five Illinois Region 1-A Cook County (City of Chicago)

Carole Robertson Center for Learning

Chicago Department of Public Health

Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System (CECIDS)

Chicago Public Schools

City of Chicago Office of the Mayor

Illinois Action for Children

Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative (IWERC)

Latino Policy Forum

Start Early

EC*REACH funders

We are proud to partner with funders who share our vision of fueling research-powered answers to community-driven questions toward a stronger early childhood system in Chicago. Our current funders include:

Anonymous

Anonymous

The Brinson Foundation

Calico Foundation

Crown Family Philanthropies

Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation

Spencer Foundation

Steans Family Foundation

Vivo Foundation

History

In fall 2020, the city of Chicago and Start Early launched Every Child Ready Chicago (ECRC) —a public-private partnership to create a shared vision of success for the city’s system for its young children and their families. ECRC brought together leaders from early childhood programs and services, the research and advocacy communities, parents and families of young children, and city agencies.

A key strategy of Every Child Ready Chicago is to anchor programs and policy solutions in research. Policymakers, program leaders, and families in Chicago need access to evidence that is relevant, actionable, and timely to guide the decisions of policymakers and program leaders. But there was no system in place to support this kind of research in support of ECRC and other early childhood initiatives. So we got to work.

EC*REACH officially launched in July 2023. We are the only research alliance focused on improving early childhood in Chicago.

Fall 2020

Start Early began to explore the idea of a Chicago early childhood research consortium or alliance in support of the ECRC initiative, and published findings in an exploratory report released in March 2021. The report recommended creating a new research alliance.

Spring – Summer 2022

EC*REACH engaged in a concepting and planning phase led by a 14-member citywide planning committee. The planning committee engaged in a rigorous institutional application process and unanimously selected the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University to host EC*REACH in collaboration with the Chicago Early Childhood Integrated Data System (CECIDS) team at Northern Illinois University (NIU).

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

The planning committee was replaced by a 13-person launch committee, which provided strategic advising and support during the critical transition to Northwestern.

Summer 2023

EC*REACH launched at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University and formalized our collaborative relationship with CECIDS.