Montgomery Moving Forward is focused on transforming systems to promote greater economic opportunity and a thriving community for all.

Montgomery Moving Forward (MMF) is Montgomery County’s collective impact initiative. Founded over a decade ago, MMF unites leaders from education, government, business, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector in collectively tackling some of the most difficult challenges facing the County today.

See our Leadership Group.

Issue areas

Since its founding MMF has been influential in shaping how the County addresses Workforce Development and Early Care and Education (ECE), two key elements in the economic well-being of the county and its residents. Through advocacy, convenings, and cross-sector problem solving and collaboration, MMF was a key player in the creation of WorkSource Montgomery, the County’s leading workforce development service provider.

MMF’s approach to ECE is grounded in the understanding that ECE is a key for closing skills gaps for the future, while also ensuring today’s workers can sustain their employment – both central to a thriving economy. MMF’s 2018 Call to Action for ECE outlined ways to advance high quality, widely available ECE that would offer children a strong foundation and support economic stability for ECE providers. This work led to the development of the Children’s Opportunity Alliance and successful advocacy for policies and legislation to support ECE providers during the pandemic.

Moving forward

The benefits of investment in the ECE workforce are well documented. In fall 2024 MMF issued a set of recommendations to strengthen the ECE workforce and in 2025 released a Call to Action focused on the top three priorities.

Workforce Registry: Establish a registry to address the lack of comprehensive ECE workforce data, which impairs the ability to build a strong, affordable ECE Workforce System.

Career Ladder: Align the legal and regulatory requirements for birth-to-5 ECE educators and standardize an ECE professional career ladder based on a widely adopted unifying framework.

Statewide Cross-Sector Task Force on the ECE Workforce: Create a cross-sector task force that recognizes a strong ECE workforce as an economic imperative.

Collective Impact Institute

In 2025, the Montgomery County Council provided start-up funding to Montgomery College to establish a Collective Impact Center to build on MMF’s work to strengthen the County and ensure that all its residents thrive.