Trying Together supports high-quality care and education for young children by providing advocacy, community resources, and professional growth opportunities for the needs and rights of children, their families, and the individuals who interact with them. Trying Together works regionally (in Southwestern Pennsylvania) and takes its expertise and models to statewide and national audiences.
1963
Early care and education professionals volunteer to create the Pittsburgh Area Preschool Association (P.A.P.A.).
1983
P.A.P.A. affiliates with the National Association for The Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and becomes The Pittsburgh Association for The Education of Young Children (PAEYC).
2000
PAEYC moves from a volunteer to staffed model.
2013
The Homewood Early Learning Hub opens and the Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative is co-founded with the Carnegie Museum of Art and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.
2016
PAEYC becomes lead organization for Homewood-Brushton Family Support Center.
2017
Five-year strategic plan and rebrand approved by PAEYC Board of Directors. PAEYC partners with The Pennsylvania Association of Young Children (PennAEYC) to support the Pittsburgh Chapter of PennAEYC.
2018
PAEYC rebrands as Trying Together. Helps to qualify The Allegheny County Children’s Fund Initiative as a ballot referendum, the first to be added as a result of collecting petition signatures.
2019
Trying Together becomes an advisor for the Allegheny County Children’s Fund Working Group. ELRC Region 5 launches in partnership with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), The Alliance for Infants and Toddlers, and Trying Together.
2020
2021
2022
Trying Together conducts an audit of its fundraising and develops an annual giving plan.
We need to remember that children are trying, too—trying to understand their feelings and their world, trying to please the people they love, trying to grow. When grownups and children are trying together, just about anything can be possible.
This quote from Mister Rogers acknowledges the hard work that goes into being a caregiver for young children, and how hard those same children are working to develop and learn.
When Trying Together collaborates with early care and education professionals, families, and other individuals to advocate together, partner together, and learn together, we create a future in which caregivers feel valued; children have access to high-quality, early learning environments; and families have the resources they need to support their children’s early learning experiences.