About
Connecting Science + Community
Expanding the Early Childhood Ecosystem to Achieve Greater Impacts
A new framework to catalyze fresh thinking about how to strengthen the foundations of healthy development by partnering with leaders and innovators at the intersection of early childhood science, direct services for children and families, and place-based initiatives.
A new framework to catalyze fresh thinking about how to strengthen the foundations of healthy development by partnering with leaders and innovators at the intersection of early childhood science, direct services for children and families, and place-based initiatives.
Our Vision
Breakthrough impacts on the present well-being and future life prospects of children facing significant adversity in a world of increasing inequality and uncertainty.
Our Mission
To help strengthen the early foundations of educational achievement, social and economic mobility, and lifelong physical and mental health, we partner with highly motivated people and organizations to catalyze fresh thinking and concrete actions at the intersection of direct services for young children and their families, place-based initiatives, and advances in the science of early childhood development.
Objectives
Our three objectives are designed to advance this mission by expanding the boundaries of the early childhood ecosystem. We recognize that early care and education programs, primary health care, home visiting, and other direct services have produced benefits for millions of children and families, but together they have been unable to achieve larger effects by themselves. Science suggests that increased attention to place-based investments is the key to significantly greater impacts on more children. We focus particular attention on the prenatal period and first 2-3 years after birth, when developing brains and other biological systems are most sensitive to both positive and negative influences. We also recognize that brain development progresses over time, with later windows of heightened sensitivity during adolescence and early adulthood that highlight the importance of viewing the well-being of young children through a two-generation lens.
Objective 1: Make advances in credible science more widely actionable for policy and practice.
Make the scientific frontiers of early childhood development (ECD 2.0) actionable for change-makers working at a community or neighborhood level to help advance their objectives. The core concepts of this expanded framework are supported by three Working Papers from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child: (1) Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body; (2) Place Matters; and (3) A World of Differences. Building on this base, we will create complementary products for practical application in place-based work.
Objective 2: Partner with place-based initiatives.
Partner with a small cohort of community- and neighborhood-led initiatives that are motivated to integrate the science of ECD 2.0 and new measurement tools into their work. Explore which ECD 2.0 concepts are most relevant and how enhanced capacity to measure stress activation and resilience in young children might be helpful for setting priorities and assessing response to interventions.
Objective 3: Work across policy domains to shift mindsets.
Help shift mindsets of leaders across the early childhood field to see the added value and potential synergy from connecting with place-based interventions to enhance the well-being of young children and the adults who care for them. Work with policymakers across sectors to catalyze fresh thinking about how larger returns on investment can be driven by aligning direct services for children and parents, place-based initiatives that dismantle structural barriers to healthy development, trusted science, and the experiences of families raising children in a diversity of contexts.