MECEC History

History of the Maryland Early Care and Education Coalition (MECEC)

MECEC’s formation is rooted in the years of collective impact work of Montgomery Moving Forward (MMF). Starting at county-focus and spurring the creation of MECEC leadership member organization Children’s Opportunity Alliance, MMF’s history of creating cross-sector coalitions to address common challenges directly informs MECEC’s ongoing efforts.

MMF turned to C-IMPACT co-founder, Dr. Chris Swanson, given his experience with early childhood registries and Maryland’s ECE system to support their Call to Action recommendations. As MMF was seeking a successor organization to carry on their statewide ECE work at the conclusion of their journey in summer of 2026, C-IMPACT led a successful coalition proposal to be the bearer of the MMF mantle. Having already established a statewide collaboration and coordination model founded on collective impact principles, with many of the MECEC organizations already as C-IMPACT members, it became the natural fit as the backbone organization.  Together, the MECEC leadership team embraces a collaborative systems change model as espoused by the National Research Council in its seminal piece: Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth through Age 8: A Unifying Foundation (Committee on the Science of Children, 2015). As such, C-IMPACT functions to help identify and support alignment by all Coalition partners around a common vision and implementation plan for Maryland’s ECE system; and to strengthen and coordinate opportunities for Coalition partners or other entities to implement solutions that create a comprehensive, effective, and efficient ECE system in Maryland.