History of EPIC EPIC’s vision is to see the business community’s strong leadership and commitment to early care and education, so that all children entering kindergarten will have the skills they need to reach their full potential. To achieve this vision, EPIC is engaging business leaders in early childhood advocacy and addressing early childhood care and education challenges for the workforce through community initiatives and workplace solutions. EPIC’s mission is to serve as the business community’s voice for early childhood to build infrastructure and advance policies that support the workforce of today while developing the workforce of tomorrow. EPIC was founded in 2009 by a group of business and philanthropic executives who saw a need for an organization that could serve as the business community’s voice in support of early childhood policies and investments that support the current workforce, future workforce, and a thriving economy. Since that time, EPIC has led initiatives that make lasting change by allowing parents to continue their education and career advancement; improving access to quality, affordable early child care and education; and strengthening the next- generation workforce. In the first 10 years EPIC’s primary work included: Child Care Contribution Tax Credit – Legislation and Education/Awareness Family Friendly Tool-Kit and Assessment Colorado Business Reads – Collected over 600,000 books for children who needed them through book drives with employers and community partners Supporting the passage of Full Day Kindergarten After 13 years of operations, EPIC is poised for a strategic conversation focused on how to maintain its ongoing work, plan for growth, and respond to new opportunities on the horizon. The EPIC staff has prepared this pre-read document in anticipation of the working session on Thursday, November 17th to ensure all board members have consistent historical context and information on EPIC’s strategic focus areas, growth, and areas of opportunities. Thank you for your review of this information and for supporting EPIC! 1