Marin County is taking a major step forward in how community-led early childhood work turns into real, lasting support for children and families.
Marin Promise Partnership and First 5 Marin are deepening their partnership so early learning ideas shaped by families and communities don’t stop at planning. Instead, these strategies will move into action through shared leadership, aligned funding, and long-term support for children ages 0–5 in San Rafael, Marin City, Novato, and West Marin.
At the center of this work are Marin’s Early Learning Collaborative Action Networks (ELCANs). These neighborhood-based spaces bring families, providers, public agencies, and community organizations together to identify local needs and shape early learning priorities grounded in lived experience.
As this place-based work has grown, so has the need for clarity about how community-led strategies move into implementation. This partnership helps close that gap by carrying what’s built locally through ELCANs into coordinated public action that can support and sustain what works.
From grassroots strategy to lasting change
ELCANs are where early childhood strategies take shape by and with the community. Families and partners work side by side, neighborhood by neighborhood, to name challenges and co-create solutions. This grassroots strategy-building now serves as the foundation for broader place-based planning.
In the Canal, for example, ELCAN partners have aligned around priorities such as child care access, infant–toddler supports, workforce pathways, and culturally responsive family engagement. Those community-led strategies now move into the Canal Promise Neighborhood Steering Committee, where leaders with decision-making authority over funding, policy, and facilities help turn them into action.
As Promise Neighborhoods expand in the Canal, Marin City, Novato, and West Marin, this same approach is taking shape across local communities. ELCANs remain the grassroots engine of early learning strategy, while Promise Neighborhoods provide the structure to connect those strategies to funding and implementation.
Together, they create a clear pathway from community insight to lasting change.
What this partnership looks like in action
Under this deepened partnership, each organization brings its strengths:
- First 5 Marin serves as the countywide convener and facilitator for ELCANs, carrying community strategies into Promise Neighborhood Steering Committees, and aligning that work with countywide goals and public accountability.
- Marin Promise Partnership serves as backbone support, connecting ELCAN strategies to K–12, postsecondary, and economic mobility efforts across Marin, while providing data and coordination to support long-term, place-based collaboration.
- First 5 Marin and MPP will continue working together on key early childhood efforts, including an ASQ Dashboard that brings early childhood screening information into one shared place, and the CalAIM rollout, a multi-year update to Medi-Cal that expands the types of services that can be covered for children and families.
Together, this partnership strengthens how early childhood efforts are supported in local communities through shared data, better coordination across early learning, health, and family supports, and stronger alignment with Marin’s cradle-to-career goals. It reflects First 5 Marin’s Guiding Principles and shared commitment to community by centering family voices, honoring Marin’s diverse neighborhoods, and prioritizing children and families in historically underserved communities. By embedding these priorities into everyday collaboration, partners are supporting community-led work so children and families can benefit over time.
A leadership transition that supports continuity
As part of this strengthened partnership, Daphne Cummings has transitioned from Marin Promise Partnership into a new role at First 5 Marin.
She brings with her deep relationships, lived experience, and a community-centered approach that helped establish ELCANs as trusted spaces for collaboration across local communities.
Her transition strengthens the connection between neighborhood-based early childhood strategies and public leadership. As early childhood work across local communities moves from planning to implementation, this continuity helps ensure community-informed priorities continue to guide action.
Looking ahead together
ELCANs will remain the heart of community-led early childhood strategy-building, while Promise Neighborhoods will continue to connect those strategies to broader community priorities and investment. This deepened partnership ensures the two move forward together.
Together with neighbors and partners, we are supporting Marin’s local communities to carry forward what works, elevate family-informed strategies, strengthen coordination across neighborhoods, and turn local insight into real, lasting support for children and families.