The Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals (AECP) is a statewide organization founded in 1979 to improve wages and working conditions for the early childhood work force. AECP is a non-profit tax exempt organization. Both national and local research has demonstrated strong, positive links between high quality early care and education and high quality working conditions, wages, and training. AECP supports the work of the 15,000 family child care providers and the 25,000 staff working in early childhood centers or programs that provide care for more than 280,000 children in Minnesota. The Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals is for.... People whose work involves providing for the care and education of young children whether they work:

• In child care centers
• As family child care providers
• As nursery school teachers
• In crisis intervention or therapeutic care
• As nannies
• In early childhood family education programs
• Language Immersion providers
• As Head Start Staff