Rooted in Community, Growing in Innovation: SVP Continues to Support Ready to Grow Alumni

Ready to Grow ends with a graduation. The partnership doesn't.

Our providers pour their hearts into nurturing and educating our youngest generation every single day, and our commitment is to keep walking right beside them. That means providing learning opportunities after the cohort wraps, designed to keep providers empowered, informed, and connected.

This month, twenty early education leaders gathered for an alumni session on artificial intelligence, led by Jordan Plawner, founder of Pacific AI Advisory. The goal was to cut through the hype and get practical. What is AI actually good for, and how do providers use it to take back time from administrative work?

Jordan drew on decades of hands-on experience and a human-first approach. His framing: AI is not a replacement for human judgment or care. It's a tool that can absorb administrative load so providers can spend their hours focused on helping children learn.

Jordan Plawner leads the alumni session on AI.

The feedback was direct. Many attendees responded that the depth of material was "just right" and that they left with skills they could use immediately.

"I appreciated that it gave us a lot to think about," one participant shared. "Understanding the use of AI as a tool to free up more time for what matters felt good."

AI prompt construction came up repeatedly as the most useful takeaway. One provider named their key learning as "how to build the prompt to get the best output from AI" for family communication and community outreach.

Providers also valued the room itself. Time with peers across the SVP network, trading ideas and building relationships.

One graduate put it simply: "Always thankful that I am in the SVP program."

Sessions like this one show what shared learning can do for the people caring for our future. We'll keep offering them, with plans for two a year.

We're always looking for experts in law, HR, and finance to lead a session. If that's you, reach out to ursula@svpportland.org.