STRATEGIC PLAN

DENVER PRESCHOOL PROGRAM (DPP)

IS PLEASED TO SHARE ITS 2023-2025 STRATEGIC PLAN.

This plan represents an extensive planning effort by the board, staff, providers, partners, and community members to center in equity and best to serve Denver’s youngest learners and their families. Our previous plan guided our work from 2017 through 2022, with strategic adjustments along the way to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifting landscape as Colorado implements universal preschool.

Table Of Contents

3 Welcome Letter

4 Acknowledgements

5 Executive Summary

7 Introduction Purpose

How DPP Uses its Strategic Plan

8 About DPP Overview

9 DPP History

10 Centering in Equity

15 Overview of the Planning Process Approach Engagement

16 Shared Strategic Planning Language Definitions

17 Guiding Principles Vision Mission Values

Equity Commitments

18 2023-2025 Strategic Plan

DPP Strategic Orientation

DPP Strategic Goals & Pathways to Success

20 Cross-Cutting Strategies

21 Strategic Considerations

Stakeholder Engagement

22 Current Landscape

Local Denver Landscape

24 Colorado ECE Landscape

26 Anticipated Future of ECE

27 Plan Implementation Summary

28 Appendix: Full DPP Timeline

DEAR COMMUNITY MEMBERS,

We are excited to share the Denver Preschool Program (DPP) 2023-2025 strategic plan with you. This plan represents months of hard work by our Board, Staff, and Contractors, with feedback and input from community partners, DPP-participating families, and early childhood education (ECE) providers.

Now in our 16th year of operations, we continue to make preschool possible for Denver’s young children. We are fully committed to creating a more equitable and just early childhood landscape for Denver’s children, helping to remove longstanding barriers for our families of color and families living in areas of concentrated disadvantage within Denver. Much like our community, our organization is entering a time of unprecedented growth, with increased opportunities and responsibilities to serve Denver’s children in ways that create greater equity.

In developing this plan, our charge was to meet the current moment – a time when the importance of investing in early childhood is better understood and gaining greater priority at a state and national level. We also know and see the effects that unequal investment, structural racism, and changing demographic patterns are impacting our ability to serve all of Denver’s youngest learners universally and equitably. To do so, we had to take a step back and ask ourselves some tough questions: Where are we going as an organization? What do we need to be successful? What are we doing to remove barriers that impact our most vulnerable children? What are our providers and families telling us they want and need, and are we responding?

The period of time this plan covers promises to be one of significant change for DPP and the early childhood education landscape within Denver, the state of Colorado, and the United States. As universal preschool rolls out across Colorado and in DPP’s new role as the lead coordinating organization (LCO) for Denver, we will serve more of Denver’s children and provide greater support to our families of the highest need.

DPP will operationalize our strategic goals through plans and strategies that help us keep our north star while being responsible and flexible via feedback loops with our families, providers, and community partners. These three years promise to be some of the most dynamic DPP has encountered. We are prepared for this moment. We are ready to meet the opportunities and challenges that arise with clarity, focus, resilience, and determination.

In this new plan, you will find our updated organizational vision, mission, values, strategic goals, and pathways to success for achieving those goals. Those visions are specific, measurable, and achievable. Together, these provide a roadmap forward. Most importantly, it is an invitation to our community to be a part of making Denver’s early childhood system one of the strongest, most equitable, and highest impact in the country. Exciting work is ahead of us, and we sincerely look forward to partnering with you to deliver on the investment the residents of Denver and now the State of Colorado have made in service of families.

Sincerely,