2021 Social Justice Summit

Hope Starts Here
2021 Social Justice Summit

Virtual Summit | November 16th & 18th | 5:30pm – 7:00pm

Hope Starts Here’s fifth annual summit is set for November 16 and 18, 2021. This two-day virtual event includes keynote speakers, forums, breakout sessions and panels focusing on various aspects of social justice in early childhood education and care. Sessions begin at 5:30 p.m. each day.

Who should attend: Detroit families; early childhood educators, care givers and advocates; Hope Starts Here Community Champions; as well as local and state legislators.

What you’ll hear: Hope Starts Here has gathered advocates for early childhood education, diversity, and multicultural education to discuss intergenerational social justice. View a partial list of speakers.

To design a useful and interesting summit experience, we invited Detroit families to co-design roundtable sessions. We collaborated together in order to further understand what’s important to families, as well as what is important to organizations and legislators. The result is an interactive program that you won’t want to miss!

You are important to this conversation. Join us!

There is no cost to attend but registration is required.

Summit Agenda

November 16 (Day 1)

  • 5:30 – Kickoff
  • 5:40 – Welcome from Denise Smith, Implementation Director, Hope Starts Here
  • 6:05 – Breakout sessions
    • Families as Powerful Partners
    • Justice as Daily Practice
    • How Policies Influence Justice in Action
  • 6:55 – Closing

November 18 (Day 2)

  • 5:30 – Opening notes
  • 5:35 – Featured speaker panel – Carlos Atkins (parent) will moderate a panel to discuss intergenerational justice as it relates to early childhood education and family well-being
  • 6:15 – Closing remarks
  • 6:30 – Opportunity Groups
    • Families as Protectors: A conversation about protection & resilience in the Black community
    • Parents Powered for Policy Change! Building Our Collective Muscles
    • Divest/Invest Visioning Session: Community-Driven Alternatives to Public Safety
    • Nurturing Children's Home Languages
    • Building with Community
    • Liquid Gold: The importance of supporting caregivers' breastfeeding and human milk preferences

Confirmed Speakers Include

Carol Brunson Day, PhD

Tamika Davis

Najwa Dahdah

Angela Reyes

Bernita Bradley

Jeff Capizzano

Sponsorship Opportunities

Hope Starts here is committed to making Detroit a city that puts its young children and families first. We connect the community with valuable benefits and educational events, such as this Summit. We invite you to become a corporate or individual sponsor. This is a great opportunity to promote your business to a vast audience and at the same time help support the children of Detroit.

Sponsors can receive recognition during the event, social media recognition, email recognition and recognition online and in press releases. Together, we can build better programs that achieves our mutual goal of putting children first.