The Children's Foundation’s Post

The upcoming legislative session is an opportunity for our lawmakers to ensure Montana is the best place to live and raise a family. Elevating early childhood as a top priority is critical for building a stronger Montana. By ensuring children in rural, urban and tribal communities across the state have access to safe and healthy early learning experiences and stable, nurturing environments, policymakers can help set the foundation for Montana’s kids to succeed. Strong systems are the basis for long-term sustainable change – every child in Montana deserves the chance to flourish, but not all children have access to the same early childhood supports. Our 2025 policy agenda is a collaborative effort. During the summer of 2024, the Zero to Five Montana team traveled across the state to engage with communities and gather input on early childhood issues. Partners in nine communities, including Billings, Cut Bank, Great Falls, Helena, Livingston, Lodge Grass, Miles City, Polson, and Red Lodge, shared their experiences around issues affecting young children and families in their areas. This on-the-ground input – from families and early childhood professionals as well as community and state leaders – helped inform our 2025 policy agenda. Together, we can help shape the decisions necessary to transform our state’s early childhood system. We invite you to check out our policy agenda here: https://bit.ly/2025agenda #prioritizekids #strongfuture #earlylearning #earlyeducation #earlychildhood #childcare #earlycare #supportedfamilies #supportedbusinesses #economicdevelopment #zerotofive #forourchildren #forourfuture #montana 

Investing in high-quality child care can generate up to $7.30 per every dollar invested, and the availability of early childhood education programs attracts homebuyers and increases property values by $13 for every dollar invested in programs March 2024 US studies find. #Kamloops #ChildcareBC #EarlyLearning

📢 Listen to SeTara, Our Early Embrace Director of Pedagogy & Professional Development, Share the Transformative Work of Early Embrace! For families living in public housing, the lack of access to affordable childcare often stands in the way of stable employment, deepening the cycle of poverty. Early Embrace steps into this narrative with a mission of transformation and hope. We recognize the incredible, untapped potential within caregivers—both early childhood educators and parents—who care deeply for children from families facing extreme poverty. Early Embrace is more than just a business accelerator; it's a lifeline for women aspiring to build early childhood education businesses right in their homes. Our comprehensive support includes: ✨ Small Business Development: Coaching caregivers through the nuances of running a small business. ✨ Education: Training caregivers to deliver exceptional early childhood education. ✨ Childcare Licensure: Providing step-by-step guidance to meet all regulatory requirements. ✨ Start-up/Enhancement Grants: Helping cover initial costs or enhancing existing services. ✨ Trauma Healing: Supporting caregivers to overcome personal traumas and create healthier environments. ✨ Stipend: Relieving financial stress so caregivers can focus on their businesses and the children they serve. Through Early Embrace, we empower women in public housing to become entrepreneurs and leaders in their communities. By investing in these caregivers, we nurture environments where children thrive, parents pursue employment, and entire communities rise out of poverty. 🌱✨ Early Embrace is a story of turning challenges into opportunities and potential into prosperity. 👶🏽👩🏽🏫🌟 #EarlyEmbrace #BusinessAccelerator #Childcare #CommunityTransformation #WomenInBusiness #BreakingTheCycle #Empowerment

💡 Insightful article that underscores the importance of investing in early childhood. The research found that children from low-income families who grew up near a Sure Start centre performed significantly better in their GCSEs compared to their peers who lived further away. This is a powerful testament to the transformative impact of early support and investment in children's futures. It's clear that providing a supportive environment for children in their early years can yield life-changing results. Let's continue to advocate for and invest in early childhood initiatives. #EarlyChildhood #Education #InvestInOurFuture https://lnkd.in/edbuSCi2

The Australian Government's Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee published its report for the 2024-25 Budget. Wonderful to see an entire chapter devoted to the early years, where it notes: "Brain development, along with the love, care, services and support children receive in the first three to five years of life hugely influence their later development and life chances. The most profound influence on our earliest years is our family environment and the pressures that shape our family households. Raising children – particularly during early childhood and when children have extra needs – significantly affects household finances, parental career progression, and the emotional stability of families." Some welcome recommendations including addressing childcare deserts, ECEC workforce pay and conditions and importantly, developing a coherent and universal early years system - which means looking at all of the supports for children and young families, not just early childhood education and care. This was one of the key points Playgroup Australia made when we met with Productivity Commissioners for the PC Inquiry into ECEC earlier this year. https://lnkd.in/gFTY9687 #earlyyears #earlychildhood #ECEC

Access to affordable early care and education not only affects Montana families, but has widespread impacts across the state. A recent poll by Zero to Five Montana found that 89% of respondents agree that a lack of quality child care negatively affects Montana employers. When families don’t have the care they need for their children, they can’t get to work and that hurts their financial security. When employers can’t recruit and retain employees due to a lack of child care, that hurts small business-owners and communities. Investments in child care create increased economic stability for Montana families and small businesses alike. Montana lawmakers could establish an early care and education trust fund to strengthen the state’s early childhood infrastructure with sustainable funding to expand access to high-quality early learning programs, support child care entrepreneurs, invest in workforce development, and enhance family supports and community partnerships – creating a stronger foundation for children and families across the state. #polling #earlychildhoodeducationtrustfund #earlylearning #earlyeducation #earlychildhood #childcare #earlycare #supportedfamilies #supportedbusinesses #economicdevelopment #zerotofive #forourchildren #forourfuture #montana

I cannot tell you how furious I am having read this and seen the findings, which I had expected, confirmed by the IFS. In my professional life on a daily basis I work with children whose history is a litany of missed opportunities. My team and I will always do whatever is within our power to make a difference in every child's life and there may be some positive outcomes. But the hard truth is, and one that people don't like to admit to readily, is that the opportunity to make the biggest difference has been missed. Felicity Gilespie from Kindred sums it up: "A child's development at 22 months serves as a strong predictor of education outcomes at age 26. Most of the human brain is developed before we can even talk and in the first year of life, the brain literally doubles in size. The evidence of the massive impact our earliest relationships, environments and experiences has on our future development is incontrovertible." Whether it's a missed SEND diagnosis in early years, parents struggling to manage, lack of access to health advice or early identification and prevention of neglect or abuse, every missed opportunity can have a dramatic impact on the outcomes for the individual and, scaled up, to impact the education, health, social care and criminal justice system as a whole. When parents are not supported in the early years, their children become vulnerable. Rigorous scientific study has shown us time and time again the importance of the early years, and now this study into the impact of community based outreach programmes to support vulnerable parents and children continues to confirm what we already know - that investment early can have a life long impact. We know this years ago. We knew it when Sure Start centres were closed across the UK. We knew it when the diluted 'Family Hubs' were established. We now have clear, statistical analysis to show that not only did Sure Start positively impact the individual users, but that the total financial benefit of Sure Start was 109% of its cost. It saved the country money. So what do we do now? With an election on its way, what do we do now? Because, whoever is in charge, I can't handle any more short-sighted, short-term policies that neglect children, families and leave the wider system struggling under the weight of problems that could have been prevented. Investment in the Early Years should not be a point we have to argue. We know it is important. We know it is cost effective. Why do we have to campaign for common sense?? #surestart #kindredsquared #eyfs #school #education #families #specialneeds For more on Felicity Gillespie and Kindred Squared: https://lnkd.in/e8qghwxt

With the pandemic and the cost of living crisis having posed challenges to early years services over the past few years, the interventions given by these services to the youngest children remain just as vital. This article takes on a hopeful approach to boosting the accessibility for children and families to access support, something which is greatly beneficial to the whole of society when it is in place. #earlyyears #interventions #accessibility #childhood Institute of Development Studies https://lnkd.in/eBcm4FzS

A new report from The Royal Foundation Business Taskforce for Early Childhood’s shows that investing in the early years holds untold benefits both for business and wider society. Read the report here: https://buff.ly/4dUFvz8 #EarlyChildhood #EarlyYears

As part of my journey as a Parent Carer Representative, I’m becoming more involved in new projects, which is always enlightening, Last week, I was introduced to the New Pathway to Adulthood team at Rochdale LA. They are a new, experienced team building a service to improve their offerings. Their request was quite interesting, “We’d like parents' input into a leaflet we’re designing; we’re thinking of a tree.” This symbol of growth came from a valuable idea contributed by a young person working at the organization. A tree is indeed a worthwhile symbol of growth. However, as a parent, the session on what content to include on a leaflet felt completely at odds with my situation. On my journey I have had little to no signposting for the last 14 years as we have tried to navigate this unknown path. How would they make sure parents like me saw the leaflet and could act upon it. I’m interested to know if anyone has experienced amazing signposting or content from their local authority based on their child’s SEN requirements. How was this presented? How helpful, user-friendly, timely and valuable was it, and in what form did you receive it? In basic terms, I asked them to reconsider the brief: I fired questions back at the team, How would a leaflet be distributed, tracked, would it be available in digital form, how are they marketing it to ensure the right demographic sees it? Or could this "pathway to adulthood" information be sent to a parent automatically once a SEN young person turned 14 so parents could have some insight earlier, plan ahead and have time to explore the relevant options. Having to map a journey with no knowledge and without any real guidance is like climbing a mountain with no experience and no equipment. I wonder how other people have found the pathway to adulthood. If anyone has experience navigating this in a different language or with different cultural needs, please share your story. From my point of view - there seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking in aligning services, educational settings, clubs, and groups—not just in Rochdale but also in the surrounding areas. Surely the leaflet should be part of a series, a stepping stone from another campaign targeting a younger group? What does the full picture look like, and why don’t we as parents get walked through the process? Everyone’s story and needs are different, but our concerns, challenges, worries, and vision for our young people are the same: to have a purposeful, independent life, surrounded by people who care. I’d love to know why, at key points in our journey, there haven't been timely triggers of mailers, emailers, social media marketing, targeting of relevant services, and useful contacts. I look forward to seeing what the LA creates.