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Gerrit Westervelt has been named executive director of the Build Initiative. He served as president of Qualistar, a Denver-based nonprofit organization working to create an early care and education system in Colorado. Prior to joining Qualistar, he spent nine years as director of state relations for the Education Commission of the States. "Gerrit Westervelt is an outstanding professional to lead this national effort to help states remake the way they serve young children," said Barbara Reisman, chair of the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative and executive director of the Schumann Fund for New Jersey.

The system building efforts of six states, including Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Vermont, are profiled in a case study document and cross-state summary matrix. These resources have been developed for the Building Connections meeting in June 2006, and relate specifically to state-community connections and governance issues.

The Build Initiative was recently profiled in the April 26 edition of EdWeek magazine. The article discusses efforts in states to consolidate and reorganize early childhood programs to create more comprehensive systems. Efforts in Washington and Pennsylvania were also highlighted. To read the complete EdWeek article, click here.

This publication, developed by the Child and Family Policy Center in collaboration with the Build Initiative, shares state models and considerations in developing planning and governance approaches to create and manage an early learning system. Build developed a companion policy brief, which is intended primarily for policymakers.