“Enhancing Civic Society: Towards alternative community-based models of early childhood education and care (ECEC)” is a community- level collaboration involving two not-for-profit ECEC organisations: the Dublin based Start-Bright, and Comhar Naíonraí na Gaeltachta (CNnG), with its head office in County Galway, along with academics involved in researching the Irish early childhood field. This Irish Research Council: New Foundations funded project counters what Moss (2018) calls a ‘Dictatorship of No Alternative’ and instead addresses the question of alternative ECEC models of practice and governance. This report explores by way of two case studies, operating models of ECEC that differ from what is considered “the norm” in the Irish early childhood context. Working in partnership, researchers and members of the two ECEC organisations brought together their knowledge and experiences, collaboratively identifying and articulating sustainable community-based models of ECEC. Reported on herein, these documented models of provision will support the development of the broader ECEC field, offering alternatives for consideration and prioritisation.