The Future We Build Together: Child Care Aware of Minnesota's 2026 Institute
The Future We Build Together
Every day, people across Minnesota are helping providers, families, and communities build a stronger early childhood system. They’re solving complex challenges, strengthening relationships, trying new approaches, and finding better ways to serve children and families.
The 2026 Child Care Aware of Minnesota Institute: The Future We Build Together brings that work, and the people doing it, together.
Over two days, we’ll learn from what’s working, build practical skills, wrestle with the challenges facing early childhood, strengthen relationships, and create space to imagine what comes next.
For the first time, the Institute is expanding beyond the Child Care Aware of Minnesota system to welcome invited partners from across Minnesota’s early childhood ecosystem.
We’re navigating real challenges. We’re also achieving successes every day, in ways both big and small. The Institute creates space for both: to learn from where we are, strengthen how we work, and shape the future we want to build together.
Registration Deadline: Thursday, October 29 at 11:55pm
Building the future together means we:
See the System
Understand the larger landscape through data, research, policy, trends, and perspectives from across the field.
Strengthen Leadership
Develop ourselves as leaders who can communicate, innovate, navigate complexity and change, and lead with courage.
Build Capacity
Grow our skills and expand our impact through practical tools, technology, strategies, and stronger practices.
Connect the Ecosystem
Deepen relationships and collaboration across providers, families, communities, organizations, and other partners.
Shape What’s Next
Explore new possibilities, make collective commitments, and help shape what comes next for Minnesota’s early childhood system.
Let's learn from one another and build what’s next, together!
Across keynotes, breakout sessions, interactive learning, and time to connect, participants will learn from colleagues and partners, share what’s working, build new skills, and leave with ideas they can put into practice.
Join us November 5th and 6th at Hennepin Technical College 9000 Brooklyn Blvd, Brooklyn Park, MN 55445.
Registering multiple people? Please complete a separate registration for each attendee so we have the information we need for everyone attending. Check out individually using each person’s name and email address. They’ll receive their own confirmation email and be prompted to provide information about their dietary and access needs.
Agenda
- 8:00 am - 9:00 am
Registration/Check-In
- 9:00 am - 10:30 am
Opening, Welcome, and Morning Keynote
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Breakout Session #1
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch
- 1:15 pm - 2:30 pm
Breakout Session #2
- 2:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Breakout Session #3
- 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm
Day 1 Closing Session
- 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Gather & Connect | Social
Meet our Keynote Speakers
Dr. Verna Cornelia Price | Co-Founder & CEO, Power of People Leadership Institute
Dr. Verna Cornelia Price is an internationally recognized speaker, author, consultant, and expert in human potential. Through her Power of People™ framework, she helps individuals and organizations recognize their own power and understand the impact they have on others. Her work spans education, nonprofits, businesses, and communities around the world, with a focus on leadership, resilience, and meaningful change.
Donte Curtis | Owner, Catch Your Dream Consulting
Donte Curtis is a nationally recognized speaker, facilitator, and consultant who helps teams and organizations turn big ideas into practical change. With 18 years of experience, his work focuses on leadership development, racial equity, inclusion, entrepreneurship, and social justice. Known for his infectious energy and engaging approach, Donte inspires audiences to take action, embrace possibility, and find hope for a better tomorrow.
Breakout Sessions
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Testing Small Changes That Matter - Madaline Edison, Madaline Edison Consulting, LLC
What’s one change you could try to make your work more effective? Join Madaline Edison for a practical workshop on turning promising ideas into action. Using a simple, repeatable planning tool, participants will identify an opportunity for improvement, consider whose perspectives should shape the approach, and design a small change they can test in their own setting. Together, we’ll explore how to learn from what happens and use that learning to decide what comes next. Participants will leave with a concrete plan and reusable materials to bring the process back to their teams—building our collective capacity to shape the future through everyday action. Institute Pillars: Shape What’s Next | Build Capacity
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Parent Aware Coaching: Present Reality and Future Possibilities - Michelle Lenhart and Michelle MacGregor, DCYF
This session is an interactive invitation for those interested in exploring the future of Parent Aware coaching. We encourage participants to come ready to engage and share their own coaching experiences. The session will elicit ideas to sharpen the focus on continuous quality improvement, grounded in an understanding of what works based on current realities. As part of this, staff from the Department of Children, Youth, and Families will be listening closely to coaches’ experiences and insights to help set the stage for exploring options to strengthen the Parent Aware coaching model. Institute Pillars: Shape What’s Next | Build Capacity
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Leadership, Connection, and Capacity Across the Early Childhood System - Jeremy Schreifels, Milestones
This interactive leadership session explores what it means to lead people, organizations, and partnerships within an increasingly complex early childhood ecosystem. Participants will examine how trust, communication, curiosity, adaptive leadership, resilience, and relationship-building influence their ability to collaborate across organizational and sector boundaries. The session challenges participants to move beyond the idea that leadership is about having the answers and instead consider how strong leaders create the conditions for people and systems to connect, learn, adapt, and move forward together. Institute Pillars: Strengthen Leadership | Connect the Ecosystem
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
From “I’m Interested” to “I’m Enrolled”: Recruitment Tips, Tricks & Lead Funnels - Alicia Bauman
Recruitment is more than connecting providers to Parent Aware—it’s an opportunity to engage potential providers across the full range of Child Care Aware of Minnesota programs and services. This interactive session will explore practical strategies for identifying recruitment opportunities, capturing leads, following up effectively, and connecting providers with the right programs and resources. Through real-world examples and hands-on activities, participants will leave with actionable tools and ideas to strengthen recruitment efforts in their day-to-day work. Institute Pillar: Build Capacity
- 10:45 am - 12:00 pm
Beyond Showing Up: From Participation to Shared Accountability, Rashi Jawade, Nicole Evans, + Carly Riley, Embracing Equity
What would be different for Minnesota’s children, families, and early childhood professionals if our statewide system worked better together? We spend a lot of time attending meetings, participating in professional learning, and collaborating across organizations. But how do we know whether any of it is changing what we do? In this interactive session, we'll explore what shared accountability actually looks like across Minnesota's early care and education system. Through reflection, real-world scenarios, and collective problem-solving, participants will examine how we move from participation to meaningful action, strengthen our responsibility to one another, and use feedback and evidence to understand what's changing. We'll leave with something practical: one action we can take in our own roles to strengthen shared accountability and a way to recognize whether it's making a difference. Institute Pillars: Strengthen Leadership, Build Capacity
Breakout Session by Institute Pillar
See the System
Understand the larger landscape through data, research, policy, trends, and perspectives from across the field.
Looking Upstream: Building Early Childhood Systems Where Children Thrive - Cisa Keller, Think Small
Introduction to First Children's Finance - Jessica Beyer, First Children's Finance
Anti-Oppressive Trauma Informed Care - Jamil Stamschror-Lott, Creative Kuponya
Where Do I Fit? - Marcia Schlattman, Milestones
Strengthen Leadership
Develop ourselves as leaders who can communicate, innovate, navigate complexity and change, and lead with courage.
Leadership, Connection, and Capacity Across the Early Childhood System - Jeremy Schreifels, Milestones
Beyond Showing Up: From Participation to Shared Accountability - Rashi Jawade, Nicole Evans, and Carly Riley, Embracing Equity
Problems of Practice - Access Ambassadors
Healing While Leading: Caring for Ourselves While Caring for Others - Dr. Sheila Sweeney
Human-Centered, Adaptive Leadership - Anthony Galloway, Dendros Group
Incorporating Core Competencies in Mission-Driven Work - Alex Jacques, TideTurn.co
Giving and Receiving Feedback When It Matters - Rashi Jawade, Nicole Evans, + Carly Riley, Embracing Equity
Beyond Resilience: Making Space for Healing and Wholeness - Dr. Sheila Sweeney
Glowback: Trauma Informed Feedback - Sara Stamschror-Lott, Creative Kuponya
Relationships That Move Us: Building Trust and Advancing Shared Goals - Heather Anderson
Build Capacity
Grow our skills and expand our impact through practical tools, technology, strategies, and stronger practices.
Testing Small Changes That Matter - Madaline Edison, Madaline Edison Consulting, LLC
Parent Aware Coaching: Present Reality and Future Possibilities - Michelle Lenhart and Michelle MacGregor, DCYF
From “I’m Interested” to “I’m Enrolled”: Recruitment Tips, Tricks & Lead Funnels - Alicia Bauman
Beyond Showing Up: From Participation to Shared Accountability - Rashi Jawade, Nicole Evans, and Carly Riley, Embracing Equity
Introduction to First Children's Finance - Jessica Beyer, First Children's Finance
Problems of Practice - Access Ambassadors
Giving and Receiving Feedback When It Matters - Rashi Jawade, Nicole Evans, + Carly Riley, Embracing Equity
Healing While Leading: Caring for Ourselves While Caring for Others - Dr. Sheila Sweeney
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement - Zang Vang-Lee, Hmong Early Childhood Coalition
Human-Centered, Adaptive Leadership - Anthony Galloway, Dendros Group
Incorporating Core Competencies in Mission-Driven Work - Alex Jacques, TideTurn.co
From Practice to Power: Centering Practitioner Expertise in Advocacy - Devyn White, EdAllies
Beyond Resilience: Making Space for Healing and Wholeness - Dr. Sheila Sweeney
Anti-Oppressive Trauma Informed Care - Jamil Stamschror-Lott, Creative Kuponya
Glowback: Trauma Informed Feedback - Sara Stamschror-Lott, Creative Kuponya
Embedded Advocacy in Early Childhood Education - Ashley Bonsen and Maggie Zepp, CEED
Cultivating Relational Culture in the Early Childhood Education System - Matt Carlson and Rafael Perez-Segura
Connect the Ecosystem
Deepen relationships and collaboration across providers, families, communities, organizations, and other partners.
Leadership, Connection, and Capacity Across the Early Childhood System - Jeremy Schreifels, Milestones
Introduction to First Children's Finance - Jessica Beyer, First Children's Finance
Culturally Responsive Community Engagement - Zang Vang-Lee, Hmong Early Childhood Coalition
From Practice to Power: Centering Practitioner Expertise in Advocacy - Devyn White, EdAllies
Where Do I Fit? - Marcia Schlattman, Milestones
Embedded Advocacy in Early Childhood Education - Ashley Bonsen and Maggie Zepp, CEED
Cultivating Relational Culture in the Early Childhood Education System - Matt Carlson and Rafael Perez-Segura
Relationships That Move Us: Building Trust and Advancing Shared Goals - Heather Anderson
Shape What’s Next
Explore new possibilities, make collective commitments, and help shape what comes next for Minnesota’s early childhood system.
Testing Small Changes That Matter - Madaline Edison, Madaline Edison Consulting, LLC
Parent Aware Coaching: Present Reality and Future Possibilities - Michelle Lenhart and Michelle MacGregor, DCYF
Looking Upstream: Building Early Childhood Systems Where Children Thrive - Cisa Keller, Think Small
From Practice to Power: Centering Practitioner Expertise in Advocacy - Devyn White, EdAllies
Embedded Advocacy in Early Childhood Education - Ashley Bonsen and Maggie Zepp, CEED
Lodging
Special rates are no longer available as the deadline has passed, but these remain our recommended hotels!
Holiday Inn & Suites Maple Grove: 11801 Fountains Way, Maple Grove, MN 55369
Book at the Child Care Aware of Minnesota rate
Hampton Inn Maple Grove: 7745 Elm Creek Blvd, Maple Grove, MN 55369
Book at the Child Care Aware of Minnesota rate
Questions?
If you have questions after reading this page in full, feel free to get in touch with Cayla or Cat!
Cayla Peterson, Executive Assistant, CCAMN
caylap@childcareawaremn.org
Cat Polivoda-Grae, Event Consultant, TideTurn.co
cat@dendros.com
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